What can I do with my room?

I'm hoping someone here has a good idea as to what can be done with this room. Its a good sized room, but its probably about one of the worst possible as far as audio is concerned. [it was like this when I moved in] The lack of any sort of carpet etc tends to make the low end seem very muddy I think. The narrow width of the area where the TV is also makes the sound stage waaay to narrow. Actualy, the narrow sound stage is the main thing I want to fix. I'm willing to move just about everything in the room, so if you have an idea, tell me.

BTW: the setup is...
AVR 435
Athena Audition AS-F2s, AS-C1, AS-B1s


now for the pictures...

How about a nice set of headphones ?. Heh sorry that probably doesn't help but it would be a viable alternative.

One thing I would do for lack of carpet is a good sized area rug. Even get a couple. That will help some with accoustics. Plus it will break apart the areas. Not in the sence of partitions. It helps if the rugs kind of matches the furniture it sits under.

As example. I noticed you have a rug under your bench. It actually does well there. Since the books near it are multi colored and linear. So it just fits in to the eye.

Plus a good rug adds a neat touch to hard floors. They are usually easy to clean with a broom too.

I took a peek at something I would want infront of the tv. Don't mind the price. Look at the color and design. Sample carpet design


If you notice. The very simple pattern. It will help break up that crazy pattern the parquet flooring gives. If you get a crazy pattern it will make it look even busier. So look for soft patterns and simple earthy colors. It will also make the hardwood floor look even bolder and do well. I assume you like the color green or near abouts. So something in green hues might go with many picks of furnishings and decors for years to come.

That is a fairly nice room.

--pak

pak said:

That is a fairly nice room.

--pak

Click to expand...

Yeah, but the problem is getting my system to sound like it did before

Carpet is not going to help with low frequencies. Low frequencies are dealt with by bass traps, and absorbers with significant depth to them (the depth of the absorber is porportional to it's low frequency effectiveness: a 1/2" thick rug will not do anything to 100Hz and below; no matter how big that rug is). Carpet WILL affect midrange and highs, but not the bass.

Having your speakers "Corner Loaded" (2Pi Radiation against a wall; or even 1Pi radiation in a corner) is building up the Bass, and you are also going to get extreme early reflections at your listening position due to the close proximity of the speaker to the wall.

The best way is just to move the speakers around until you find an optimal placement at the listening position. It is kind of a crap shoot unless you know exaclty where all of the modes are in your room (you don't want your Speakers OR your listening position in the middle of a mode - be it a peak or trough)...

If you can afford deep Absorbers (you can DIY them) and Bass Traps - that is also the "Pro" way of taming an un-ruly room...

Here is a fantastic forum about Acoustics. You might be able to get some info from thre to help you out:

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/index.php

Rock and Roll

I don't know if this will help or not, but for low bass I've heard that you should sit your speaker in your seating position and then walk around the room. When you find the place it sounds best, place the speaker there.

PS - I bought those same speaker's (Athena F2.2's) for my Pops last year! Not too shabby for a cheaper $400 pair of speakers! They are a perfect cosmetic match for his Wega TV, too

You may need to add another sub or reposition your current sub closer to your listening position and away from the wall. The easiest way is to go to radio shack and get yourself a sound meter (~$49). Then use that to measure with a test sound as you move around the room with the meter.

The issue I see with that room is that you have the entertainment system in a sort of cubby hole which is probably reflecting the sounds oddly once it escapes that area. I suggested another sub because where the room opens up, most of your bass will get lost and you get that muddy sound instead of the backbone vibrating result of a big bass. Put your speakers outside of the cubby hole to see if you can get some better results too.

p.s. Are you connecting the HT system to your pc or just calibrating strictly for your HT system?