bill@vrdxhq.verdix.com (William Spencer) (10/03/90)
I have recently acquired the ultimate audio upgrade: a new listening room (and a house to go with it :-). A few discoveries have been made in the process. We were listening this weekend and my friend Matt (I can't take full credit) got up and closed the bathroom door. Massive acoustic change! Evidently the room acted as a resonator. I was sitting off axis and the difference was probably even larger. The remaining room acoustics became much more defined and seperated from the direct sound -- even more important off axis. The bathroom is located on the side wall slightly behind the line of the speakers. This shows how signifigant something simple can be. The room is also L-shaped. The bulk of the room is a large rectangle but there is extra space to the right and behind the prime listening position. The extra reverberance is noticible and unbalanced. However, this is easily changed by addition of a room divider. It's not necessary to stop sound from getting over there; just blocking the most direct path from the reverberating area back to the listening position is sufficient. When I first moved in I tried the stereo upstairs in the living room. The more flexible wood floor and walls reduced bass which I did enjoy. Still, the basement is far more controlled than the concrete bunker apartment where I previously resided. The upstairs setup really demonstrated the effectiveness of carpet piercing spikes. Not only was bass coming through the floor into the basement below, considerable midrange was transmitted as well. This is undesirable vibration being removed from the speakers. Considering how loud the sound was under the floor, I'm sure the floor vibration was audible upstairs also as a coloration however. bill S.