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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
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Elizabeth, It sounds like you have a nice arrangement. Are you using long speaker wire or long interconnect?
rrog
1,958 posts
 
I recommend getting advice from someone other than the guy selling the room treatment.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
My pre to amp interconnect is 7 meters,(longer than I actually need, I could go 5 meters but it would be tight) the speaker cable is one meter
edge22
31 posts
 
Because of the physics of soundwaves and the dimensions of residential rooms, most rooms can benefit from room treatment, especially bass trapping. Although I can understand people like Elizabeth who may not like the aesthetics of room treatments (some can be made to look better than others if you get creative), this does not mean her room could not benefit from treatment -- it just means that she chooses aesthetics over getting better sound, which is fine if that what works for her and may be a perfectly reasonable choice (after all, in the real world there are always tradeoffs).

Rrog's comments seem to imply that room treatments are often not beneficial. While all rooms are different and some may need more or less treatment than others, most experts in acoustics believe that most rooms can benefit -- again, this goes back to physics and room dimensions. It may be that one of the best systems someone has heard has been in an untreated room, but what that does not say is whether it could have sounded even better with treatment.

I am very grateful for the others on this forum who directed me to try room treatments. I had good sound before, but after getting some broad band asbortion panels that help even out the frequency spectrum the sound is now great, and I had no idea what I was missing.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Edge22, I think what Elizabeth is saying is her room treatment consists of furnishing and window treatment and there is nothing wrong with this approach. Even if you use commercial acoustical products furniture and window treatment should be taken into consideration anyway.

As for me, I have used room treatment for over 20 years, but only where it is absolutely necessary. I believe "experts in acoustics" have a tendency to over treat rooms and over treating is as bad as undertreating.
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