What is your listening room like?

My room is approx. 26x20x10, with the ceiling sloping from a height of 10ft along one long wall to 8ft along the opposite long wall. It is also our living room. Most of the gear is located in a closet just outside the room. Speakers and turntable are the only gear in the room. The room also serves for HT as well, but the only gear common to the two setups are the front speakers and the power amp. I use a pre/pro for the HT (Sunfire TGII) and a separate pre for 2 channel. The amp (Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature) has both XLR and RCA inputs so I can keep 2 channel and HT signals apart. My Audio Research SP9 MKII pre feeds the front RCA inputs on the amp, and the Sunfire TGII processor feeds the amp's five channel inputs via XLR. I have a 52" RPTV between and behind the speakers, but keep it covered with an oriental rug unless a film is running. The processor also feeds a sub used only for LFE during movies. Rear speakers are Magnepan MMG, fronts are Magnepan MGIIIA.
CD, SACD, DVD and processor are controlled by a Phillips Pronto/Niles RP6+ infrared repeater system. Room is carpeted wall to wall, with oriental area rugs, windows on one long wall, woodburning stove set into the fireplace on the other long wall, and various live Ficus trees and Palm trees placed for diffusion/absorbtion abilities behind and to the sides of the MGIIIA speakers. 20 amp dedicated power lines on 10 gauge Romex are run from the service panel to Hubbell Hospital grade outlets in the equipment closet. Turntable runs on it's own outlet in the main room via a Virtual Dynamics Power 3 power cord. And, most important piece of gear in the dry, cold winter: a Bionaire humidifier running behind the listening area to keep down the static electricity and provide moisture to the room.

A few things you should watch out for. First, your dimensions are multiples of each other in a very bad way. Your room modes are going to stack up on top of each other and give you very very boomy bass. You need to change a few of the dimensions to get proper mode spacing. There are a number of threads here on acoustical treatment, but in the end I think you will find one thing in common. The basics of acoustical treatment are quite simple--absorb the first points of reflection and get ample diffusion behind the listener. Beyond that it can get complex. Here's the delimna: many people see the complexities and decide not to wander into the jungle of acoustic treatment, instead they buy a power cable or something. Each room is different, each listener is different, and everyone of the designs we've ever done has been different. There are two routes with acoustical treatment and design, one is the DIY. In this case, start with Alton Everest's books (Master Handbook of Acoustics and Studio on a Budget), read before you build! Then start working with the basic acoustical treatments and build slowly--it can be a fun process. Like upgrading equipment you are upgrading a room (but be sure you built the fundamentals like mode spacing in right from the beginning). Like system synergy of various components, so works acoustical treatment--actually even more so. Everything acoustical in the room has to work together for optimum sound. The other resource is on our website http://www.rivesaudio.com, go to the listening room. It is a brief tutorial on some basic listening room issues, including room modes and how they interact with each other.

The other route is to simply hire a professional acoustical engineer. This will get you the results you want without the trial and error routine. When building a new listening room, this can be a very good idea because the acoustical treatment becomes part of the room and built into the room using in most cases standard (or close to standard) building materials. This can be a cost savings over many of the pre-packaged acoustical treatment products, but it does mean you have to invest in the design and the construction for such a project. The end result though is a perfectly fitted custom solution and takes the worry out of design issues.

Either way, I'm glad you are taking the room into serious consideration--so often it is neglected and in so many cases equipment upgrades are negated by dismal room conditions. In short--quite often the equipment far exceeds the potential performance of the room.

I'm a loser. My listening room is my living room. I live in a 600 square foot apartment in Washington, DC. The measurements are about 15x10x8. Of course, the "living room" also bleeds into the "dining room," which of course is that part of the same room that has a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. As you can see, toe-in is crucial for me, so that I can at least sort of focus the cound in the general direction of my sweet spot. I just wanted to put it on the record that some of us don't have "listening rooms," and that I'm admittedly jealous of those of you who do.

Rives can you explain further about the "multiples of my room dimensions"? I figured 15x20 was O.K. I should also say that my celing will actually have a slope from 8 feet to 10? I will check out your web site and the book you mentioned. Any further info is appriciated.

I guess I'm also a loser. I live in a 1200 square ft. apartment in DC and I listen in my living room. Don't know exact dimensions but I'm guessing 10x18. The wall behind the listening position is curved with two windows.

CMO, it was the 10, 15 and 20 that concerned me. 20 being 2x10, but also 15x2 and 10x3 are pretty low order multiples. The slope will help, but trimming the 20 feet down a bit to get better mode spacing would go even further. When you get the books, read the section on room modes, it will go into great detail (possibly more than you want) on modal distribution and the different philosophies on modal distribution (and the golden ratio/s--yes there is more than one forumla for the golden ratio). I haven't completely subscribed to any of the golden ratio's as of yet--but it is a good place to start.

Rives,
Thanks again.....cmo

I like your comments about having to get away from wife to listen to music! i love my wife and children dearly but couldn't handle the compromises that setting up a system in the house demanded. I had a wood working/strorage shed, 18 by 12, that I have finished out (took months working at weekends). I insulated the outer wall, put sheetrock up, then built a second structure inside, which made me loose a foot in each dimension, but with effectively a double wall I dont have to listen to next door neighbours dog during quiet passages of a piano concerto.
I have just finished (apart from cables) an all Quad set up: 988 speakers with II forty monoblocs and QC-24 preamp. CD is Naim CD5 with a VPI tt and various tuners.
I would encourage you to be really careful with outlet placement. I went through 5 or 6 different set ups in terms of speaker and equipment placement until I stumbled by accident almost upon the set up that really works (speakers are on long wall, with a listening positioning that is close to speakers but works with the Quads). I have also tried many other speakers (thankns to Audiogon) until settling on the Quads as right for my space.
I also have a slowly developing vintage collection that constitutes good room decorating to my eyes.
And the best part is that I get to move it all around and listen at any volume without any comments from anyone else!

Happy listening
Peter