Wall To Wall Carpeting In Listening Room

Surprised nobody suggested ripping out the wall to wall carpet!

 

A drawing and some detail would be helpful.

 

I always rip out the hardwood and replace it with carpet, haven't gone wrong yet.

 

I have always had good luck with a thick Persian carpet. I don't know if that will work in your case, but ensuring that you have some distance between you and the wall behind you will help greatly.

 

In my home I always go wall to wall carpet in every room (expect the bathroom and kitchen) with the thickest underlay. Put a good rug on top and it feels like you are walking on a crashmat. Nice!

 

SWAP

 

That is a good question, because your music and speakers can tend to be on the bright side.

Born in Miami, back when we had plastered walls and hard terrazzo floors.

Moved to new home in Fort Lauderdale, wall to wall carpet with heavy pad, heavy drapes, popcorn ceilings, wallpaper.

I thought that it was perfect for stereo, no reflections. Got used to sound this way for many many years.

Got out of Stereo for many years...

Started back with earbuds, then IEM's.

Current main room tile floors, lots of plate glass, plaster on walls and ceiling.

Motel remodeled. Big (about 450 Sq Ft) ugly, empty room! No way to have a decent sound system here, can't be done.

Some guests left behind a pair of speakers, I hook them up to a home theater in a box that I bought to decode DVD's.

Humm. Doesn't suck as much as I thought it would...

If someone had said to me before, you need a pair of $600 speakers and a 100-watt amp and you could have a good sounding Stereo, I would have thought that they were a bit off their rocker. There was no way to even approach getting decent sound in this room, nope.

As it turns out, during the remodeling, they sprayed knock-down over the plaster. I never gave it a thought, never liked it, hard to clean. But then I began t realize that it was not like sprayed on plaster, but was some kind of softer vinyl like product.

The "bumps" added surface area, and the softness tamed all sorts or evil reflections.

That being said, the room was still very much alive, but workable. Lots of "stuff" in the room taming the sound and the room is not a rectangle but has some shape to it that helps quiet standing waves.

It has taken several years to get everything to the place it is now, but it is a good place!

I have learned more about audio in the past 5-years, than in the previous 50-years.

What I have now is something that seems alive (to me at least). Much, much better than dead, over damped sound that I was used to listening to for decades prior.

Unless YOU have issues, that YOU hear, with regard to the SQ of your system (I am referring to the overly reflective sound issues), do not try to over dampen your room, because, you will be less than thrilled by the results!

Another point, your Klipsch speakers are excellent in controlling the "focus" of your sound. They do not throw sound around the room like most home tower speakers. Because they are more directional, they will present less first reflections than a regular tower speaker. In a room your size very little sound will be reflected before it gets to your listening position.

Remember something can be bright sounding and that does not necessarily mean that you have a problem with reflections. I might be that you are listening to bright music, through a SS amplifier and on to bright speakers.

Unless you have too much bass (another different matter), which I doubt that you do, all you need to do is to tame the brightness. Since WAF, is THE important consideration here, you can make use of a pile of overstuffed pillows, soft sculpture, carpet or something you can hang on the walls, that is decorative. It doesn't have to be heavy, you are not trying to build large bass traps, just to attenuate some of the HF.

When a musician is tuning an instrument, they may use a reference tone against the instrument they are tuning. You have no other point of reference. Now, say you were to purchase a $80 pair of Hifiman IEM's, you could listen to how your source material sounds through the IEM's as compared to your speakers. The IEM's take the room acoustics out of the equation. If it sounds bright (or however it sounds) through the IEM's, than it will sound as bright through your speakers. The IEM's do not have to be "audiophile" grade to use for this purpose, you are not looking for nuances, just overall sound. In addition, they will give you all the detail that you need.

Moving the carpet forward, was a solid suggestion.

There is one more point that was not mentioned.

Your third option and the best option when dealing with direct reflections, is a diffuser. Shine a flashlight directly into your face, bright and harsh. Place a sheet of translucent plastic in the path of the light beam and what happens? The light dims a bit but mainly, it becomes softer and no longer irritates your eyes.

Remember, that another member pointed out, just deadening the sound across the board, will upset the frequency balance and can throw things off kilter.

Diffusers are usually used at the point of first reflections, mostly at a single point on the side walls and the ceiling. When you see pictures of a bunch of little wooden blocks glued to a wall, that's a diffuser. The wood will absorb only a small amount of sound but will break up the reflected sound (not absorb most of it) and let it continue on to you "softened" a bit. It does not take away the brightness, it just takes the edge off.

First reflections are not necessarily a bad thing and are a natural part of listening to music indoors. They provide energy and dynamics. With the music you listen to, dynamics would be important to you, use them to your advantage, don't kill them off.

Consider each of these points, figure out which is and which is not an immediate concern to you. If more than one issue, suggest that you don't try to solve more than one point at a time. Address one issue at a time.

BTW...

In any room with parallel walls, you are going to have standing waves. There is no way around that point! You will not change the laws of Physics, don't bother trying, it won't get you anywhere. There are room nodes, there will always be room nodes. Audio inside a square room sucks and it will always suck. I use no room correction software of any kind and never will. Even room correction software will not correct this. All it can do is screw with the frequency response from your source, it will not correct "nodes".

Your ears are your best friend! USE THEM!

Rather than formulate theories, formulate some of your own ideas, get those gears turning and try out some ideas. First, you are trying to get your mind to understand how thing sound and then make some temporary changes. WAF, I know, I know. Wait till she is out of the house, then place another plush chair in the room, move it around a bit. Take your mattress of of your bed and lay it against a wall, see what happens! Build a temporary DIY diffuser. Doesn't matter what it looks like, search for some examples online. Find some scrap wood, nail more scrap wood all over it, don't worry about what it looks like, it will work.

When you sit in the listening position, imagine if your speakers are bouncing a ball off the wall to you. Where on that wall would that ball have to hit in order to hit you in the chest. This will be about the point of first reflections. Lay your diffuser board against the wall, does it help. Again, remember, you may not necessarily have a problem.

If you don't have any access to scrap wood. Obtain a piece of plywood from the lumber store, have the lumber store cut a foot from the top. Buy some trellis from the garden department and put two layers across the board, nail into place and put it at a point of first reflections, see if it helps, things like that.

Since you have your rear wall already treated to absorb most reflections, concentrate on the points where first reflections (if any) are occurring.

You are accomplishing two things,

1) Can I improve the sound that may be caused by first reflections?

2) You are teaching your brain to understand how sound reacts in your room. You are learning from practical experience, not theory.

Nothing beats "hands on".

Now get started!

 

I had already used the mirror approach I learned online. Placed thick blankets there (removable/WAF) but don't hear any difference. Now that I know what IEMs are, I do have a pair of Senheiser C2s. I had already used them to compare degrees of brightness as you suggested and same brightness; it's in the music and it's brightness I like. So I'm double happy with my PA-ish speakers !

Thanx for your polite and useful advice man !!!

 

I don't use any room treatments, other than a lot of stuff in the room, but that's me. I kinda felt that you were not having any issues beyond the usual ones that everybody has in any room.

I figured that you music was bright.

What sense does it make to take music that you like and then beat it down so that there is no brightness?

I've been a PA speaker man from way, way back. Had my first pair of A7's custom built fro me whan I was 16.

In the last few years, I have learned how to mod them so that they compare to high end home speakers in SQ.

They are not kind and polite but that is what I like about them! I would NEVER sell or trade my A7's for any other speaker.

 

thick blankets wont do much absorption.

 

I have carpet and rugs on the floor. Drapes too. My listening room is as dead as a door nail. I like it that way.

 

drapes and rugs will only absorb HF. it lets midrange and bass totally unaffected.

 

How far away do the sidewalls need to be for them to not be a factor? On my left side (when I am facing the stereo, in the sweet spot) I have long cloth curtains that cover most of the wall. They are 5.5 feet from the edge of the speaker. On the right, I have a wall that only extends 3 feet from the front of the speaker. Then it's wide open space. So no reflection there, right? And the other side is OK, with the cloth curtains? No reflections there?

My speakers are 61" apart (center to center) and the sweet spot is 105" from the front of each speaker. The speakers are toed in to meet on the wall behind the sweet spot. And the rear of the speakers are 20.5" (outer corner) and 19" (inner corner) from the rear wall.

 

Sure is tough to find the good advice buried in this thread. Tone controls!? Sigh.

If the room is not dedicated, then there's no chance to experience the best that given gear can deliver. So, give up? Nope. But why settle for doing nothing at all? Or worse, doing the wrong things.

 

you will still have tons of reflection from left side. the wide open space is definitly good but take a mirror, place it at the right side on the wall just before the opening, sit at your listening position. if you dont see the right or left speaker, it means you dont need reflection on that small wall. but your left wall need more then drapes. even moreso since your open space on the right,



Curtains, rugs, drapes to control first reflection is a audiophool myth. it doesnt work and its sad that people have been told that it can absorb low enough. at best, it will only affect very HF leaving the rest of the FR totally unchanged. its not comparable to real absorption panels.

if all one can put in his listening room is rugs and drapes, Id suggest for effective <<room treatment>> is active dsp room correction. will work much better then rugs

 

Your advice is inconvenient, so readers should be skeptical or perhaps even angry. We've already been advised in this thread that either the room is fine as it is or that tone controls should be used. And maybe some drapes.

 

7 Khz on ? Some people regard HF start lower/higher. What's your opinion ? Will 2-5 Khz bounce off a rug or curtain unnafected ? Doesn't seem likely to me, but I of course may be wrong.

 

With a mirror at the end of the short wall, I can see only the side of the right speaker. To see the front, I have to lean in a decent amount. Since the sound comes from the front, I am ok, right?

 

if you see the side, you need treatment ideally there.
lean backward? if lean backward, that means that if you move the mirror closer to the speaker on the wall, you will eventually see the right speaker. that means you have first reflection there. the open space at the right helps for the reflection from the left speaker but your right speaker reflectt before the open space.

 

No, lean forward.

 

rugs are will only suckup a very narrow range depending on the particular rug amterial in question.
its not even close to what true absorption panels do.
carpet and rugs will help with echo and such, but wont replace first reflection panels on ceiling, side walls and back wall.

 

you may get away with no treatment there if thats the case!
but since you have no reflection from the right wall, youll very likely, without serious first reflection panels on the left wall, experience a balance problem: the left speaker will most likely sound louder then the right speaker.
also remember that the right speaker also reflects on the left wall.

 

Great.

 

Your DIY speakers do not compare to modern, hi-end speakers in sound quality, but you like them. No one can tell you what you like, but why try to fool yourself or otherwise disparage a sound which you aren't familiar with ("kind and polite")?

 

So....you take for granted @SandAndGlass

a) has no experience with modern, hi-end speakers whatsoever and

b) has not compared his own with them, but yet chooses to use them, when it's clear from a look at his profile he can afford them ?

Dude.....