Who actually has a 'dead' listening room?

House de Kris said:

Not what I'd call a "dead" "room", but early/first reflections are pretty much nil in my listening space. My solution was to elimiate the side walls and ceiling. Plus, the ground, with its variable textures and smoothness (along with the grass growing), assists with diffusion. Here's a view from above:

The squares are the palettes where the speakers sit. Here's a view with speakers installed:

Don't be consufused, there are still reflections - from the trees. But, they aren't as bad as a room with walls. Is it "dead"? No, not really. Is it a "room"? No, not really. Well, I suppose I shouldn't have participated in a 'dead room' thread then. But hey, I'll use any excuse to repost these pictures of my favorite listening spot.

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Just looking at the pyramid between the speakers. Preparing to play 'Eye in the Sky' or 'Pyramid'?

I keep seeing Pink Floyd in the middle.

Chubba said:

I keep seeing Pink Floyd in the middle.

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Good call. :thmbsp:

Talk about synchronicity: This is a brand new feature on Google maps

http://www.google.com/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/pyramids-of-giza/

Chubba said:

I keep seeing Pink Floyd in the middle.

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theophile said:

Good call. :thmbsp:

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I hear Pink Floyd and see The Wizard of Oz.

tomlinmgt said:

I'm going to double down on the rear wall panels. Early reflections, which you're getting from the rear wall, can really make a mess of the content coming from the primary wave (speakers). Maybe take a few dining room table chairs, set them against the back wall, and set a back cushion from the couch on each chair (unless your couch happens to be leather). That might be a free experiment you can conduct to see if absorption back there moves you in a direction you like.

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If only I could get my wife to limit it to a few pillows, for some reason my wife thinks that the purpose of a couch is to have a collection of pillows!

Ken Boyd said:

If only I could get my wife to limit it to a few pillows, for some reason my wife thinks that the purpose of a couch is to have a collection of pillows!

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Get it right. They aren't pillows. It's called "Accessorizing the couch". All the fashionable couches have them. They have to be arranged 'just right'. Your wife probably thinks that it is a shame to sit on a couch. Upsetting all that fashion.

Lots of humorous comments about the PVC pyramid, thanks for the smiles. In truth, it is the top half of a structure I'm building that will be covered by a parachute. Its been in this state for a couple years, and I now call it a Moon Dial. I have full moon listening parties (about once a month), and I use the pyramid to track lunar noon. But, I do like the PF angle, I'll have to see if I can work that in somehow.

And, yes davidro, it can get noisy sometimes. A couple years ago the katydids were in full force. Believe it or not, the music played did not drown out the insects.

GuyK said:

(...) People don't fare very well in spaces like this. Apparently, we start to hallucinate after a period of time. (...)

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Oh, actually one get's used to it - it's just a bit weird of a "sonic environment" at first. Can't comment on the hallucinating - maybe if one would just have to sit around in silence in there, but if you've got something to do like to set up a measurement you'll be busy and making enough noise anyway...

I'd fully agree that an anechoic chamber would typically make a rather lousy room for listening, though.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

My "room" is actually the upstairs level of a carriage house measuring 23' X 27' with a 10' center ceiling height sloping to about 5' on the two sides. When I sheet rocked and set it up I found it too reflective with several substantial peaks visible on spectrum analysis so I made a series of sound absorbent panels and placed then around the low walls and part way up the speaker end wall. I constructed them of fiberglass insulated 2" X 4" spaced pegboard with natural fiber fabric covering. I also covered most of the hickory floor with a couple of fine old heavy wool "room size" rugs. After that I tuned the room with pair of high quality 1/3 octave equalizers and mating analyzer. The system itself consists of extremely low distortion amplification driving Mirage Omnisat satellites and Fried transmission line subs. The resultant sound is as good as any high end system I've heard, and after 60 years in the audio world, I've heard a BUNCH. I find that there's no magic in great sound reproduction. No magic wires, cone points, ancient speaker designs, 50 year old vacuum tube electronics, and certainly NO MP3 source material will yield great audio, but well recorded LP's played on a serious quality turntable/cartridge, or CD's & SACD's feeding very low distortion amplifiers into flat neutral broadband speakers in a room optimized for comfort and limited reflectivity WILL do the job.