The Most Important Component


The room. I've long felt this but despite treating my rooms with panels, tube traps, etc. have never had what I considred a good room. I've recently pulled the trigger and hired Richard Bird, the man behind Rives Audio to make my basement an acoustical nirvana. He's flown out, spec'd and measured the part of the basement which will become a dedicated listening room, and despite the quizical looks from the contractor, the project should start in a week or so. It'll be 24'x14'x7'10". The tricky part will be the ceiling which will be designed and treated to sound much taller than it's 7'10' height. The plans look way cool and I'm assured and expecting great things. So far the process has been mostly painless, although it's difficult to convince a contractor of the acoustical merits of the design, and Richard has been knowledgeable, professional and friendly. So far as easy as it gets. Dealing with the contractor may be another story, but I'm game :-) For those of you that think a low ceiling basement is suboptimal, as I once did, you may want to think again. If the low ceiling is the only limiting factor, it can be compensated for with the correct design. I'll update as things proceed, for those interested. I've a backup of antipsychotic meds just in case.
mes
Addendum: For those looking at the room dimensions quizically, the effective length will be shorter after treatment and a bookcase is built in the back wall. I'll defer to Richards expertise as to the final exact dimensions.
Mes; I agree that room size/character and room/speaker interface are really important to a high quality stereo system. I'm responding to your post because my room at 14 X 22 X 7.5 ceiling ht. is very similar to yours, and it makes a very nice listening room with my medium sized, full range Vandersteen 5 speakers.

Of course I'd like to have a higher ceiling, but I've not heard any particular limitation with just 7.5 ft. You've got a nice project going and are off to a great start with those room dimensions, IMO. Let us know how it works out when you're done. Cheers. Craig
Actually Garfish's dimensions are closer to the correct ones for the room described. It's actually 23 x 14 with 7' 10" ceilings. However, due to a book case and a very novel ceiling design it functions more like 22 x 14 x 8'6".
Mes- I will have to disagree- most respectfully of course- the most important component is the armagnac :o) It seems as though all of you guys are keeping Rives busy, I have seen Bill E's plans which are simply amazing, Don N. tells me he is working with him and now you! I am getting weak in the knees and am thinking of ordering a PARC as to not fall too far behind- they usually shoot the horses that fall behind, and I am surely not ready for that! Keep us updated sounds like a great project........even if your gonna be using those cheap midi's :o)
I have approximately the same room size, though riddled with windows.

Outside of your treatment and design plans, I would be very interested to hear what your suggested and finalized speaker placement and listening position ends up being..
Tireguy: Here's a very good story for you after the "shoot the horses that fall behind" and Bill's Armagnac. If I'm not mistaken it appeared in Fortune.

In a heard that has natural preditors, the heard naturally loses the slowest to the preditors. As a result the entire heard becomes faster. Brain cells are similar. It is the slow ones that die off after drinking (armagnac). The result is the brain can think faster, as it is no longer slowed down by the slower brain cells.

The moral is: (I think someone has said this before) Never underestimate the power of Bill's Armagnac.
Congrats Mes, I for one will be very interested in your progress and results reports. You are undoubtedly one of the enlightened and fortunate few.

BTW, I like the fact that a guy in Rives' business spells 'herd' as 'heard'. However, the 'preditors' for 'predators' substitution could be seen as calling his Armagnac theory into question...
;^)
Ooops. Sorry for the mispellings. I do type fast and do not proof these postings as I probably should. But it's true: I thought there was only one heard :)
Hey Guys, I have a very similar room with the exception of the rear wall. It is a bonus room above the garage, so the rear wall angles towards the listener at about 4 feet. This is in a long wall placement. Is this a major problem?
The angled wall is not a problem, but it does need to be treated appropriately. If it's left alone you will get some long reverberation times off of it. It either needs to be diffused or trapped which depends on the rest of the room as to which works best.
Wow! That was a fast response. Mark, I have lived with, and enjoyed the piegas for over a year and a half now. I was wondering what you replaced the Anteres with?
Kharma Grand Ceramique Midi's with Enigma internal wiring and X-over upgrade.