room treatment, where do you start?


an analysis of the room would seem to be the place to start, right? what tools do you need, what do you do first? Buy, or can better tools be rented?; One presumably wouldn't need to use such tools again until you move or change speakers. Do you first calculate the two fundamental room modes mathematically and buy devices to attenuate those? I last tried electronic eq in the 80's, which introduced an undesirable reduction in clarity (tone controls were still popular, then); are analogue eg units as useful as one would expect, substantially better than they once were (I am not interested in taking an analogue signal from LP through an a/d to d/a conversion). I am starting from scratch, understand tuning by ear will be required, want a more or less scientific, targeted approach. It's a rented apartment, so it's impractical to invest in experts, e.g. Rives.
lloydc
You start by determining whether or not you need room
treatment.

This question comes up on a regular basis. Many folks avoid responding and I should too since I'm beginning to sound like a broken record even to myself.

There is no guarantee room treatment will improve the sound of your system. Some of the best systems I have heard were in rooms with no room treatment at all.
My room treatment consists of the possible furnishings in the room. I have tall bookshelves in the corners to right and left behind speakers with DVDs filling most of them. The shelve are somewhat custom so they ar about 7' 6" tall, and thin in depth. They start right from the corners.
The back wall is a large window, with half open floor/ceiling draps, Then a low open design leather chair in between, with the amp behind the chair. My Magnepan 3.6 are about 4 ft ave from back wall and near-side edge is 2 ft from side walls with a larger than usual opening between, with tweets on inside edges. I am very satisfied with this position, and would say it is the final location of the speakers in space.
That's it. The equipment is at side of listening part of area, which is about middle of total front back space.
A loveseat on right, the plasma and stand on left. TTs behind on left wall, with rack closer into room to reach from seated position.
Good sounding, and little bass into walls, the bass seems to be channeled right to the listening position, with toe in of about 30 degrees. (eyeball guess-timate)
Perfect for low level 65dB to 80dB listening in apt.
Behind listening more shelves with stuff. The LPs are not stored in listening area.
I cannot stand the bits and pieces of artificial 'room treatments' so I would never allow them to be in my space. If it is not a usable functional item of normal furnishing, it ain't gonna be in my space.
The only thing I have thought about is some sort of wall hangings, more to insulate ajoining apt wall than to improve my experience.
Doing an acoustical analysis of the room using a mike and computer software (free kind) so you can 'see' what you are listening to. That analysis will point you to problems, if any. 'RoomEQWizard' is some free software that I've used and it was very helpful.
Elizabeth, It sounds like you have a nice arrangement. Are you using long speaker wire or long interconnect?
I recommend getting advice from someone other than the guy selling the room treatment.