Has anyone tried corner cabinets?

TomB19

Active Member
I know it's not the same as bass traps in the corners but they would at least difuse the corner compressions a bit.

Anyone study the use of corner cabinets?
 
I'm also thinking of trying corner shelves and loading them up with over-stuffed cushions. Seems like it ought to help.
 
As long as the corner cabinets did not have reflective surfaces they should help. The cushions are a good idea. Please post pictures when you complete this .
 
If the corner cabinets are almost floor to ceiling, and have doors on the front, does that basically eliminate the corner of the room? Food for thought...

Interesting idea and topic @TomB19 !!
 
The main reason I never used Klipsch horns was I never had two good symmetrical corners until our last move. And I had already picked my favorite speakers by then. Though my speakers aren't quite as dynamic as a Klipschorn they don't have that overly horn sound from 1200 to 400 HZ like Klipschorns. Another issue with Klipsch horns is if you spread them to far a part then the center image isn't as stable when sitting off axis and then you need add a center channel . This is not just an issue with corner horns but with all stereo systems so I was using a center channel long before HT was ever thought about. I mean if its good enough for Bell Labs back in the 30's its good enough for me. They had already concluded that 3 channel was the best way to reproduce music in an environment. Be it at home in a theater above a stage or behind a screen. Do you realize more money was spent by the movie industry and theatre owners in real money developing sound for motion pictures than was spent to get Neil Armstrong to the moon. what are real dollars 1930's dollars. And this was during the mighty depression. Don Davis from Altec and Syn-aud com told me that a long time ago.

Whether Altec, EV, JBL, University or others made corner speakers there are some big advantages. The area of coverage is smaller making the speakers more efficient and extending the bass frequency response. You can cover a larger audience allowing a larger area to enjoy stereo phonic sound. You get more sound with less distortion all things being equal with a corner horn.. The main issue a lot of people have is arrival times from the drivers because of the different lengths of the horns. That became a real issue with large horns back in the thirties where percussive sounds of Ruby Keelers tap shoes would not sync up with the action on the screen. Plus some times you heard the different arrival times between the woofers and HF horns. Altec developed their A2 and A4 corrected those issues having the w00fer coil and the horn diaphragm coil in the same vertical plain. For the home you want the arrival times to be with in O to 3 or 4 milliseconds of each. other, preferably less than 1 millisecond. Unfortunately Klipsch horns don't do that. But as we have found out they are within an acceptable window for most listeners. If you do decide to have corner speakers and have a center channel use a good HT processor as your pre-amp. Then you can correct the listing distances to the nearest inch which will greatly improve the stereo presentation and better blend the center channel. Normally the sound of the center channel arrive first placing to much emphasis on that speaker. In a wide 3 channel system.

Using room Equalizers, there is no reason a corner horn can't perform spectrally as well as any other speaker. Of course they will have the advantage of higher efficiency requiring less power meaning lower distortion in most cases. Big zCorner speakers don't need sub woofers, but if you feel you do, It will take some big hefty ones with big built in power amps.

You can place any speaker in a corner, but the results tend to be compromised as they were never intended to be placed in corners. There are exceptions. Mcintosh ML and XR speakers that use the room EQ can be placed in corners with great results, and though they aren't as efficient as Klipsch speakers they will go a full octave lower. You just need 20 times the power. I didn't say 2 times I mean 20 times.. So you have a klipschorn and follow Pauls saying about all the world needs is a good 10 watt amp. For Mac speakers you will need 200. Which means either ML-4, XR 7, XR 19, XR 20, XR 22 . I guess you could use a XR 290, XRT 28 but I don't think you would find it practical. 500 watts for a 290 and 1000 for a XRT 28 seems out of reason in this instance to match a Corner horn using at the very most 50 to 100 watts.

JBL Hartsfield was probably the finest corner speaker for the 60's, with EV patrician, Georgian, Altecs from the 40's and 50's along with University, Jensen, karlson and Stephens. But today the only true corner speaker made is that most people know of with longest history of continuous production is the Klipschorn. And they have just introduced a new version that doesn't have to be placed uptight in a corner. You can pull it away a bit and rotate the top to angle the mid and tweeter for best coverage while keeping the woofer symmetrically centered on a line that bi sects the angle of the corner for best performance. Tannoy made efficient speaker in the past that will work in corners. But all of todays speakers are made for typical stereo applications. Though it would be fun to try a GRF 90 in a corner. You could almost place a Magnaplanar 30.7 with two separate woofer panels near corners with the tweeter& mid panel array away from the corners for best performance. But here again you would need 100 times the power, not 10 times, but 100 times. I guess you could use a 20.7 as a center channel, though I have never tried it. I tried AR-3's back in the middle 60's using MC 75 amps and the sound quality was great, but the dynamic range was less than desirable. Of course 100 watts was about all that was available back then unless you wanted to use MC 275's configure in mono for close to 200 watts. 3 ar-3a's connected in mono driven by a MC 3500 with the speakers spread across wall with two speakers in two corners and the third in the center was great sound and most folks didn't realize the sound was monaural. Here again dynamics were restricted A Klipsch horn could provide the same level with 5 watts.

There is a Klipsch website with a lot of his white papers he wrote for the AES group, that will give you a real education. With all the rules still applying today. Paul was a cantankerous genius, he couldn't hear thunder, but love to play piano duets with his wife using two concert grand pianos. He detested LP preferring two track tapes to reduce phase distortion inherent in LP playback systems, he told me once. He didn't have corners for his corner horns so he built false ones that compromised the bass below 40 HZ, but said he could live with that...
 
I know it's not the same as bass traps in the corners but they would at least difuse the corner compressions a bit.
I don't know about cabinets, but having the corners angled like that can be helpful, no matter how they're accomplished. Are you looking at wood or laminate surfaces for the cabinets? Will they stretch floor to ceiling? Angled corner shelves with soft items on them might also work similarly. Not quite the same I'm sure, but, we have to live in these spaces too.

PS Audio is building their new listening rooms with angled corners. Plus, one tip I didn't realize would help, but does, is to put crown molding at the top of the room, around the perimeter, as that also breaks up the corner. (And unless a total goof like me tries to install it, it can look pretty darned good.)

There are three recent videos, but this is the most recent:


I visited five days after the following was posted (9/20...I visited on 9/25), and this was pretty much how I saw the new rooms:

 
I had plans to pick up some corner cabinets from Ikea. We could use the additional storage, anyway.

Our livingroom has 3 x 90 degree corners with dimensions of 15 x 19. It has some nasty problems in the bass area and midrange.

We currently have one jumbo body pillow in each corner. I didn't even remove them from the plastic bag they come in. It made a nice difference to the bass and fixed the midrange enough to be enjoyable.

These were the biggest body pillows I could find. They are firm enough to stand up in the corners without slouching and they will stand without slouching with a stack of two which reaches exactly to our ceiling.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.ca/store/product/wamsutta-reg-quilted-body-pillow-in-white/1042926160

I'm so pleased with this, I ordered three more so they will be floor to ceiling and I also picked up some covers that my wife thinks will match our decor.

This solution was quick, easy, cheap, and reasonably effective in correcting our bass issues. I had planned to build something permanent but I'm going to spend some time with this solution and, if we're just as happy in four months when we return from winter vacation, I probably won't bother building a permanent Roxul setup.

Please keep in mind: I am not presenting this idea as having ultimate bandwidth absorption properties. It is merely a nice solution for us but I may play with other ideas in the future.
 
These pillows are specified to be 54 * 20 inches. Mine measure 48 * 16.5 inches.

I haven't even removed them from the plastic. I wanted to be able to return them, if I didn't like them. They will be staying.

I have some corduroy covers on order. My wife liked one of the styles in light grey. She will like not having pillows in plastic standing in the corners of the room. Lol.

Room measurements to come but I'm waiting on a new calibrated microphone to arrive, as I don't trust the one I've been using (Denon Audessey mic). I haven't bothered to calibrate the input/output yet, either. I've just been using RoomEQWizard as an objective reference.
 

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I may look into some corner shelving myself, as my room isn't the biggest and the current shelves are taking up too much room.

What you've done with the body pillows is pretty much like using corner bass traps. If I had room I would probably go that route--they are not too hard to make a triangular frame for, and I could cover them in fabric that blends in with everything else. Heck, even if I got corner shelves and put absorption on top of them to the ceiling, it might help things in this room. (I get great bass in the one corner by my desk, but in the listening spot there is a big dip in bass due to standing waves.)

A neat idea for someone would be to make a combination corner trap/shelving unit. Not too many shelves, but enough where someone could maybe line up a couple rows of books or other things. The spaces above and below the shelving portion could have the absorption. And have it be modular, so they could be stacked and unstacked for moving around. Hmmm...
 
I have not tried it yet but I have seen one on my friend's house and it seems great. I would like to try it too but my corner cabinets at home have some damages that could affect the sound. The cushion might do the trick but not in my corner cabinet, without fixing it first.
 
@TomB19
Thanks Tom for the tip re: the long pillows. At the moment, I've padded the corners in my listening room with some large unused sofa cushions that I've stacked 2 high. They certainly look after the sound issues, but almost ever time my wife walks into the room she says, "Y'know those look like sh**, eh?"

So, for $20 usd ... about $35 up here, (just one of the many un-pleasures of being Canadian), a few of those pollows would really clean things up. And my wife could easily sew up some nice covers/pillowcases for them. Very cool.

My top floor listening room, in general, is a little different, cuz I live in a 1 1/2 story house, so at 5 feet up, the side walls angle in at 60 degrees to the ceiling. It's an 18' x 15' room, and my Kef R107s are on one of the 15' walls, about 2 feet off the front wall.
The speakers are 9' apart, and I sit about 10' back from them, and there is a nice 6' of open, and softened, space behind me.
So when I'm looking at my speakers, the left and right walls angle in to the ceiling, and I have cushions in the corners of tbe front wall, and sound deadening on the side walls at the first and second reflection points.
So anyway, my point is ... I can hardly believe how good the sound-stage is from my very modest equipment. I really haven't spent much, so I figure that it must have something to do with the shape of the room and the way the sidewalls sngle in; eliminating that upper corner issue alonv the side walls.
And really, the sound of any type of music is impressive. Very full, nicely delineated instruments/voices, very forward and very wide; and quite enveloping.
I've arrived at my current setup/placement, by moving the room treatments, and speakers around, a bit at a time, and it's really paid off.
Anyway, I just figure that for the litttle I've laid out in cash, it shouldn't sound this good.

Dave
 
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