Newbie room - boomy bass

[mysticaldodo]

Hi, I'm a newbie here and I would like to ask your advise before trying to improve my room's acoustic I can. my problem is there is a noticeble amount of boominess in the bass.

My setup is as follows:

Cambridge Audio 640C version 1/ Goldring 1.2
Cambridge Audio 640A version 2
DIY silver wire Speaker Cable/ Siltech I/C
EPOS ELS3

My room (pls forgive me for the illogical rendering and wierd size...I'm beginner in Adobe Illustrator)

My room is 8 feet tall. I think the ceiling is plaster. The bookshelves by the way are toed in to my sitting position and are approximately 1/2 metre from the rear wall. EPOS recommends up to 20 inches from the rear wall.

My previous position was the 2 speakers in front of the window and my sitting position on the bed. The bass sounded soft and tight but the mids and treble were slightly dry and lack a bit of weight. Also due to limited width space I had to put them closer together sacrificing soundstage.

In my new position which is by the long wall, the mids sounded better to my ears with drums and voices having more weight. But the bass became boomy. I tried playing some tracks with electric bass in the fore front and it sounded nice. When I played some average pop records and acoustic material, there was a bit of boominess. Maybe its only the midbass that is boomy? I'm sitting at the rear of the wall.

Also my cupboard and toilet door are have glass on them which should be reflective plus a mirror in the corner. My window has some kind of wood blinds which I close everytime I hear plus 2 sheets of thin drapes.

I can't move the furniture especially the bed and table (various reasons) They are no other rooms. I prefer to keep it in my own room anyway.

I've no carpeting on my floor. I just want the best sound I can get possible. I can get DIY diffusers for USD 40 a piece but prefer not to mess with the ceiling LOL!.

I'm not sure what my walls are made of, bricks, cement then paint or possibly plaster. Whe I accidentally push the table againts the wall, the surface caved in, probably plaster. Anyway i don't think its resonant. When I clap my hands in the middle of the room, I clearly can pin point the sound coming from my hands.

Thats my wall.

Some more pictures of my room

I plan to get a floorstander for bass extension (my current one goes down to 65HZ only) but want to solve the bass boominess problem first.

My toilet door...a glassy type of material?

My cupboard

By the way, I have a dealer who has a small room like mine (maybe 9 feet x 10 feet?). His seating position is also touching the rear wall but he put a diffusor on the wall behind the head. I sense no boominess in his room too.

Thanks!

 

[Tim D]

Ideally your speakers should be along the short wall...so in otherwords they should be rotated 90 degrees. Then if possible you need to decide which short wall...facing the window or against the window. Do you really listen to speakers while sitting next to the toilet door? If it was on the short wall you can listen while sitting on the bed or something. You could also get a remote or wireless keyboard for your PC and really lounge. If the speakers were on the other side, bed pushed on opposite side of room you get more distance between the speakers. You already have the windows draped and your bed itself absorbs boominess.

 

[dwc]

I'm not an expert, but I will repeat some of the rules of thumb that are commonly touted.

1. Reduce boom by moving speakers away from the walls and corners.
2. Get a nice, thick, comfy rug to cover that hard, reflective, boomy floor.
3. Above poster is right that listening should be done along the long axis of the room.

If I were in your room I'd try the following. I'd remove the lamptable temporarily, and then slide the bed more to the center of the short wall. I'd put the speakers at the foot of the bed on either side of the bed, but out a foot or two from the wall. Speakers pointed at the window. Then I could listen while lying in bed (feet to the wall, head where it says "6 ft" on the bed), or I could listen at the computer desk while working, and for serious listening I'd slide my chair back from the computer desk and turn to the left and put my feet up on the bed.

Part of the deal is that I'm hoping that the bed serves to absorb some of the sound that would otherwise be reflected from your floor. I think you could get a decent soundstage. Anyway, that's worth about 2 cents.

-Dan

 

[peter braun]

My first suggestion would be to pull the speakers out a little bit from that corner. If that does not decrease the undesired low-end bloat, try tweaking the bass setting on your integrated amp.

 

[mysticaldodo]

I solved the problem, well nearly.

From my sitting position, I did some changes to my cupboard and toilet door. Guess what those were made from? GLASS!

Yes, there were glassy enough to see your own reflection. I opened the cupboard and with my clothes inside, it acts as a sort of dampener. I opened my toilet to, who knows what happens then?

The bass is much better. It actually sounds like the HD 650 bass but without the punch. I lost soundstage depth but gained soundstage width. But I feel the layering is a bit muddled maybe because I'm sitting nearby. I find putting a pillow behind my head reduces the bass slightly, but affects the midrange slightly.

Regardless, I've learned alot from this situation and in the future I'm going to procure speakers that

a) work in corners
b) near field or not needing great distance

Thx for your advice, folks!