[bhd812]

Well the Dodd audio 50 watt mono blocks are in, here are a few quick pics of the setup as of now. later on I will center entire rig and play more with the setup. the gear I am using now is..

Meridian g08 cdp (with tightropes AND Nordost pulsar points as isolation)
dynaudio 122 speakers
Dodd mono 50 tube amps
RSA hr-2 as a preamp (dont worry I will use something alittle better later)
mit interconnects
cardas speaker wire..


The probelm is the sound is way to open, I believe its more to do with the room,,When I clap my hands I hear echo, I need to dampen the room maybe? how ? where? Really the setup sounds like crap but I need to spend more time into the room.

the last pic is where I sit in the room to listen (yes I will be getting a better listening chair soon.)

Also this friday comes the vinyl rig, RSA XR-2 phono stage and a rega p3 TT..
it will sit on a wood base infront of the audio rack.
I will have marble tiles under the Dodd amps soon to, just need to dig them out.
also I have electro-harmonex el-34's coming in, and I will be talking to tube sellers about some 5687 for the input tubes..

 

[morphie]

Very nice

I wouldn't place my speakers this way tho.

 

[bhd812]

where would you do them?

I need help!!!!

 

[dwc]

How about a nice persian rug (or other) to absorb some of that echo off the floor?

 

[morphie]

further away from the walls, and inclined so each speakers' face is towards your chair. The chair about 10m away should do it. If you have styrofoam, put plates of that behind each speaker against the wall, it'll help in bouncing the sound back to you. Make sure its oriented towards your chair as well.

I think doing only this should already make a huge difference in sound, especially since your dynaudio speakers are somewhat like mine and it did great things for me

 

[S_Dedalus]

I love the little monoblocks. I'll be attempting to hack together a pair of diy 32 ohm speakers for my HD25 this summer, not nearly as cool as that setup.

 

[morphie]

Hmm, did you make sure those monoblocks were good to drive the dynaudio floorstanders? They're difficult speakers to drive i hear...

 

[GWN]

You have a lot of hard surfaces with little furniture. I would try to move the speakers out from the back wall, then bring them in towards each other just a bit. Toe them very slightly towards your chair. You may be in a null spot in the room weakening the bass output. Try playing with position the speakers a bit, my experience with Dynaudio it that the need to be well away from adjacent surfaces.

It also looks like the first reflection point for the left speaker is a rack of CD's, not great and I can't see what the right speaker first reflection point is.

Put in some overstuffed furniture, some drapes, a carpet and you should see improvement. You can buy or make your own acoustical panels, I would put one at each of the first reflection points and one in between the speakers on the back wall behind your rack.

I would also get rid of those Pulsar points. To my ears they make everything bright. A component rack with glass shelves doesn't help either.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[Len]

You definitely need lots of room treatment. A thick rug (as big as the floor permits) will help deaden the room and prevent nasty bounces. Acoustical panels (there's a wide selection to choose from) on the walls will help further control reflections. Some bass traps will control the lower octaves. I recommend you buy a cheap decibel meter (e.g. Radioshack) and a test tone CD (e.g. Stereophile has one) and adjust the bass traps until you get a flat response.

Unless necessity dicates it, I'd move the speakers further away from the back wall by two to four more feet. Speakers rarely sound good so close to the front wall and so close to the corners (exceptions like Audio Note and Klipsch). Dynaudio definitely sounds better further into the room.

I wouldn't toe in the Dynaudios as morphie recommends. Dynaudios, IME, sound best pointed straight foward or very slightly toed in. Most speakers do better with little to no toe in.

 

[Sugano-san]

Hi bhd 821

in my view you should

1.) move the speakers forward to increase the distance from the back walls (the left/right distance seems ok, but may be worth toying with at a later point in time);

2.) put the mono blocks on bases that isolate them from the floor (essential);

3.) put a huge rug on the floor;

4.) get rid of the glass shelves and replace them with wooden ones (or a comparable material with higher inner damping than glass);

5.) put the speakers on spikes; and

6.) experiment a little with toe-in of the speakers.


You may also want to try covering the walls with some textile or fabric (partially of course), starting with the wall behind and between the speakers.

Dude, one can virtually SEE on the pictures how [bad] this rooms sounds! The gear looks nice. I am convinced it could be very enjoyable in the right environment. Most room tweaks cost nothing, but they usually involve a lot work and you need to develop your perception and your judgment too. It pays off though! Good luck!!

 

[SHVentus]

Bass traps will help out a lot. Check out Ethan Winers site "RealTraps":

http://www.realtraps.com/

Bass traps in the corners & wall ceiling interface will help wonders with the boominess & slap echo.


And Cardas web page for speaker placement.

http://www.cardas.com/main.php

http://www.cardas.com/search.php

 

[jefemeister]

That room is way too hard and open. You need some curtains, rug, sofa, etc to soften it up. Also, maybe put some foam treatments on the wall. I really like the stuff from Auralex. They have 2'x4' panels for $20 a piece.

edit: the speakers appear too far apart. Here's the best way to get the speaker-speaker distance right. Put them literally one foot apart from each other and play a track with a nice vocal dead center. Slowly increase the seperation between the speakers until it appears that the vocalist's mouth is the correct width. IME, most setups work best with 6-8' between the speakers. There is another "rule" where each speaker and your listening chair should form an equilateral triangle.

Control the distance from the rear wall mostly by the bass response. Closer to the wall is more bass, farther away is less. But with the current harshness of the room will make it sound much bassier than once you treat it.

Be careful with toe-in. You almost never want the drivers aimed directly at you unless you absolutely have to have an extreme amount of distance between the speakers. The proper amount of toe-in is generally dictated by the order of the crossover networks. I'm not sure of Dynaudio's crossover order but I believe it's on their site. I'm also not 100% on the order vs toe-in relationship but I'm sure it can be googled.

About placement of acoustic treatment. Treatment behind the speakers is not as important as one might think. I would put something back there (diffusors), but you really want to treat the side walls, the rear wall, and the corners. You can ignore the ceiling for now provided you get some plush carpeting in there. Side walls should at least be treated at the point of 1st reflection, basically about at the point where a 30 deg line drawn off the front of the speaker baffle hits the side wall. For other locations do the clapping trick. walk around the room clapping your hands. You want to treat the side wall locations where the clap appears to be the sharpest and most unnatural.

Plants are also good for difusing sound. Maybe put a fake plastic tree (and be sure to listen to Radiohead during) in each corner behind the speakers, a little out from both walls.

Just be sure to not overdo it. Too much absorption without enough reflection and diffusion will make the room sound very dead and boring.

I wouldn't waste any money on isolation at this point. Your #1 priority is to tame the acoustics and finalize speaker position. Mess around with isolation later and I wouldn't worry about the glass shelves either. That is too fine a detail at this point as there are some other major issues to tackle.

 

[bhd812]

wow!!!!!

ok I am going to a business meeting but I assure you I will be trying all the super cool helpful tips later!!!!!!!!


thank you and please keep them coming

 

[morphie]

I think if you do everything said here, you will hardly be able to do anything more to make the placement better. Did you try buying a big power supply and good quality power cords for everything? That'd probably be the next step

 

[tom hankins]

I would defenitly bring the speakers in closer together, and off the wall more, and toe them in slightly.
I would add carpet, or a rug as big as you can get to cover the floor.
I would lift the amps up off the floor.
I would add some kind of acoustic material or rugs or whatever to the side walls somewhere between your postion and the speakers.
Enjoy! Speaker systems rule.

BTW, how big is your room? It looks to about 12' wide by ??? long. As much as I dont like subs, might help in the future.