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Open Floor Plan Listening Room

Hi All,

  I have an open floor plan listening room. Any ideas on how to close off the room in order to improve lower frequency bass response?  I’m looking for room dividers that can be made to close off the space when I want to listen to music, but have aesthetic qualities and can be opened/closed easily.  The open plan consists of my living room and kitchen together at 45’ L x 17’ W x 10’ H.

  The open section separating the kitchen/living is 15’ W x 9’ H.

  I don’t have other room options in my home.

  Any help appreciated.  Speakers are Apogee Duetta Signature.  I have moved them around to make a difference but still need to close off the room behind sitting area to get the lower frequency bass I desire.

  TIA!
sandpat
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
Leave it as is.  You are avoiding room nodes

And BTW, anything you put there will vibrate with bass notes.

For bass, you will use a multiple sub setup - many like REL.

But, you could build QRD diffuser panels to sit on the sides between you and the speakers -- if it would help.

What is the problem you are trying to get rid of besides lack of bass?
auxinput
1,538 posts
 

+1 randy-11

Closing a room or making a room smaller will increase the amount of bass problems you have in the room because you will be causing more bass nodes that will cancel/boost certain frequencies.

An open floor plan will actually help bass response because the open parts that lead to other areas of the house are essentially doing the same thing as "bass traps" (allowing the bass waveforms to escape instead of bouncing back towards the speakers and cancelling certain frequencies).

What amplifier are you using.  Since these are panel speakers, they really need a very high-current high-power solid state amplifier to really drive them.  If the amp is good and you still lack bass, add a powered subwoofer.

sandpat OP
20 posts
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I’m using a Krell FPB400cx amplifier.  Previously I was using a KSA-200s.

What I’ve noticed is that sitting at the kitchen island (creating a half wall of sorts behind me) I pick up a lot of low bass frequencies.  The normal sitting position on the couch in the living room in front of the speakers has a complete lack of bass.  My theory is that if I could put a dividing wall in behind my couch that can be opened or closed I can have the best of both worlds- open floor plan and an enclosed listening room.

Without a wall behind me I’m looking at a room that essentially has 45’ of space (with a large kitchen island in the middle) which I fear is too much for these Apogees.  I’ve heard them in a large but enclosed room and they sound much better.  Even if I enclose the room I would still have plenty of space for the Apogees to breathe (roughly 20’ x 17’). 


erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Two subs such as the Hsu VTF-15H Mk II.... properly integrated will be magical.

That is kind of key though. JL makes some of the best auto-EQ subs, but super expensive, and have known reliability issues.

Leave the room plan alone.

Best,

E
auxinput
1,538 posts
 

Ah, I re-read your original post. It looks like you have a very large rectangle room (open room) that contains both kitchen and living room. It is still considered a single room and will have bass "room nodes":

https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc?l=45&w=17&h=10&ft=true&r60=0.6

This means that certain bass frequencies are going to be cancelled out at your listening position. In addition, bass will tend to build up and sound louder in the back of the room (where you are sitting at the kitchen island).

Building a wall in between is not likely to improve things at all, unless you can build a "permanent wall". Your Krell FPB400CX is a very high power amp and you do not need to replace it.

I would start stacking up bass traps in the corners. Look at GIK Monster Bass Trap with FlexRange Limter (I know --- I love to recommend these things). Or maybe a GIK Soffit trap with scatter plate built in. You seem to have a lot of very low frequency room nodes (33hz, 37hz, 49.9hz, 56hz, 62hz, 66hz). The Monster Bass Trap with Flexrange will not be as effective for stuff under 70hz (but it’s still better than nothing).

I always hesitate to recommend full broadband bass traps (such as Soffit without scatter plate or Monster without Flexrange Limitor) because they tend to suck out too many high frequencies.

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