[DrGekko]

Hi.

Not sure if a dedicated thread already exists in the archives but for those of us who have reached the edge of the av ocean and dipped our toes in occasionally rather than sailing adrift or diving in... can we have some basic advice on providing solutions for the most common problems which most of us might face and perhaps be unaware of?

For instance - my room is 10ft wife and 14ft long. We sit around 8ft away from the front soundstage, the stereos are toe'd in and the centre speaker sits on a makeshift pine table. The surrounds are fixed to the rear wall at 3ft and around 1ft above ear level. There are two sets of leather sofas- a 3 seater in front of the 2 seater (situated 1ft from the back wall, under the rears- I prefer to sit here for a better visual experience). The stereos sit in each corner and the centre sits below a large, rectangular, double-glazed window. During movie viewing in the day, horizontal slit blinds are drawn and a satin curtain is drawn across- during the night, we only use the blinds.

The left wall is normal painted plaster and has a small fabric painting. The other wall is also painted plaster but has 6 shelves of 400 or so discs placed there. Finally the floor is carpeted (moderate thickness) with a small rug.

My only criticism on sound currently is that the bass levels seem a little too much.

Anything I should consider to vastly improve the acoustic quality???

DrGekko's Movie Lounge.

[amioa]

if you move forward or back in your seat, what change do you notice in the bass level?

[DrGekko]

Originally Posted by amioa

if you move forward or back in your seat, what change do you notice in the bass level?

None. The only difference I notice with position is the stereo and surround effect dispersion. I used the Audyssey auto mic set-up by placing it at my seating position.

[amioa]

turn the audessey off and try seating position, then 0.5 - 1.0m ahead and behind..if there is no difference then you need to look at tweaking your sub and speakers. You need to keep the setup as even as possible, but i would look at moving the speakers forward from the corner aswell

You sit too close to the rear wall, move forward, 1m from the rear wall is not the best place to sit. If the rear wall is blank, put the rack with the dvd and stuff there, and stagger the disk cases, this will give a crude diffuse surface, that will help to clean the sound up..to improve imaging, you need to remove unwanted reflections, the most basic starting point is absorption at the first reflection point but make use of the furniture you have.

can you post a drawing of the room layout?

[DrGekko]

For a while, I placed 2 rows of seats, the 2 seater behind the 3 seater, which was fun when more than 3 people were in the room but that's a rare occurrence... so I 've gone back to shifting the 3 seater along the left side of the wall and placed the 2 seater in my optimum viewing position which is just over a meter in front of the rear wall, about 1/3 of the way along the room. I haven't tested the sound just yet but will do soon. I shall endeavour to take some pics (have to charge the camera and tidy the room) which I shall post in the gallery in due course.

Also wondering whether I should be using a dedicated stand (heavy metal one from an av-retailer) for the centre speaker instead of the small pine table? What difference would that make to centre speech clarity in movies???

[amioa]

may not make any difference, it depends on the room, if its live or you have flutterecho then it may not make much difference at all. Mid range and High frequency tend to be much more directional than LF, so having the center speaker pointing more at you directly will improve the sound to a point..

[namuk]

can you post your after setup Audyssey settings ?

[DrGekko]

Originally Posted by namuk

can you post your after setup Audyssey settings ?

Have added my gallery thread link to the header for your perusal. I'm selling the amp currently so I'll retest everything once the new one arrives. In the meantime, how do I find out what the Audessey settings are?

[namuk]

Originally Posted by DrGekko

Have added my gallery thread link to the header for your perusal. I'm selling the amp currently so I'll retest everything once the new one arrives. In the meantime, how do I find out what the Audessey settings are?

After you finish the Setup you just review the results , i.e Sp config this will show if speakers are at Full band or speakers set to 100,80hz ect .

you can still adjust results after saving them under speaker config (amp setup). but that is if new amp has Audessey