concrete vs. wood listening room

I was simply offering the link as a different pespective. You have to take seriously the realities of your situation. I would take a recommendation from a person who really knows my speakers any day. Good luck,

Just in case you see this again was thinking about how muiscians seek out old wood paneled room where classics have been recorded and even though gear is way more sensitive now back in 50's you still heard tha magic of a particul;ar RCA hall or another label.It's not just pannleing but type,how it's attached to wall behind it,etc.Some counties have real problems because of type of construction they use.Lived in Isreal for a year and that's a place wher all houses ar stone and would need treatment on that basis or have speakers that sound good with hard walls.Some show demos sound terrible (or holmes and folks can't igure it out) because of false drop cielings (again prevelnt in some countries like England I think.Plus housing in Europe and japan is usually smaller so problems an solutions can be specific to smaller enviorments others universal and need addressing.you can use carpest or drapes as opposed to expensiove acou tic tiles and traps.But here and www.audiosylukm.com will have comments,links,help in general to do your fix.I fould Robert Hartley's book on high end to have a good section on room acoustics (where i got tip about getting mylar (or move mirrors if large enough say on a chair) to put on walls and you put a lamp where you sit and that's where waves just like light are going to hit and you can just apply fix to narrow strip of area to deaden "standiong wave affect" (where end of note collide with beginning of next.This happens in side your speakers to that's why many have desigened them now to not be traditional box but more curved (again to break up standing waves).That's why you see in in a an anechoic chamber (where room is dead and loudness measuremen\ts or anything,a lawn mover maybe. is done because those soft material pyramids are designed to break up waves wuickly instead of refelctoing off a 90 degree sidewall etc.
Good luck.
chazzbo

In my last (late, lamented) home I had a dedicated listening room w/carpet over concrete floor and framed walls. This is the best combo I've found. In a prior home, I had two concrete walls with a concrete floor. The floor is great, particularly w/a turntable. The walls were more problematic.

To deal with the wall issues, you may wish to follow the process I followed:

Pick up a whole bunch of absorbtive wall treatment (there are a lot of options out there and many are reasonably priced; e.g. area rugs) and experiment. Cover most of the wall surface to begin with and then incrementally reduce the treated area. Leave the first reflection surfaces covered throughout. You may want corner bass traps to complement. At some point, you'll find your best mix.

Good luck.

Marty

Chazzbo, I have Hartley`s book and will go back and read the section on room treatments. It`s been quite a while since I`ve looked through his book, and in fact, forgot that I had it. Sheesh. Thanks for the reminder.

Martykl, I too have two concrete walls, and by your suggestion, I`ll heavily damp them and then subtract accordingly. I have further issues in that it`s an L shaped room (living room and dining room).

Thank you both for your input.

Hi Capt369,

I've been living with my listening room for over 4 years. It is in a finished basement. Carpet over concrete, two sides frame and drywall over concrete block, the rest are frame and drywall. It is also an L-shaped room, which does present some challenges all on its own.

Definitely spike the speakers to the floor. I am also getting good results with sand boxes.

Since it is a living/dining room I'm guessing that you have even more limitations on what you can do. Just to give some encouragement I will tell you that I have been playing down the long end of my L with great success. The trick is to make the speakers "see" the same effects from side walls as much as you can.

For instance, in my setup one speaker is positioned at the break of the L and so it sees no side wall at all. What I did was make some simple absorption treatments for the opposite side wall so that the other speaker almost sees no wall at all. This has worked very well for me.

These irregular rooms are very common, very challenging but also provide many options depending on what you can do regarding the dual uses of the rooms.

Best of luck,

Dan