2ManyBoxes
pfm Member
This is a story about room acoustics.
Years ago I used to run Naim SBLs and I now run SL2s. It's only when I got the SBLs that I started thinking about room acoustics because there was a big treble problem, which could be too sharp. I tried all sorts of acoustic panels and mucked about with trying to get diffusion behind my head. None of this really cracked it.
One evening I tried a very simple thing. Whilst playing a track that had the treble problem in spadefuls, I cupped my hand over each ear in turn. I noticed that the treble problem was much stronger on the right hand side, even though the lead singer who was producing most of the problem was stationed in the middle.
I then looked at what was in the same plane as my ears and the tweeters on the right-hand side. On that side I've got four cubes of record storage in two stacks. The top edge of the top cube is level with my ears and the tweeters. Because the sound will bounce off a surface at the same angle that it came in at I could roughly work out what shape and size of triangle would have my ears at the bottom corner, the tweeters at the top corner and have the right angle of reflection. That gave me a point that was on the edge of one of the record cubes.
I then simply twisted that cube through about 15 to 20 degrees so that the treble would hit the bookcase behind my head. There was now no point on that edge that would directly reflect the treble to my ears.
Bingo, problem solved. I can now wick the volume up more because I'm not limited by the treble problem. If anything the room sounds a bit over damped because of all the acoustic foam I've put in over the years in the wrong places, I'll have to try removing some of it, but I'm just enjoying the music.
It seems to me that the interaction between your room and your kit needs careful consideration, particularly in the plane between your head and the tweeters and particularly if your kit produces a lot of treble. Hard surfaces at the wrong angle can be a nightmare.
You might ask why didn't I just ditch the SBLs? The answer is that otherwise they sounded absolutely bloody brilliant, a massive jump up from the Linn Keilidhs I'd had before.
Years ago I used to run Naim SBLs and I now run SL2s. It's only when I got the SBLs that I started thinking about room acoustics because there was a big treble problem, which could be too sharp. I tried all sorts of acoustic panels and mucked about with trying to get diffusion behind my head. None of this really cracked it.
One evening I tried a very simple thing. Whilst playing a track that had the treble problem in spadefuls, I cupped my hand over each ear in turn. I noticed that the treble problem was much stronger on the right hand side, even though the lead singer who was producing most of the problem was stationed in the middle.
I then looked at what was in the same plane as my ears and the tweeters on the right-hand side. On that side I've got four cubes of record storage in two stacks. The top edge of the top cube is level with my ears and the tweeters. Because the sound will bounce off a surface at the same angle that it came in at I could roughly work out what shape and size of triangle would have my ears at the bottom corner, the tweeters at the top corner and have the right angle of reflection. That gave me a point that was on the edge of one of the record cubes.
I then simply twisted that cube through about 15 to 20 degrees so that the treble would hit the bookcase behind my head. There was now no point on that edge that would directly reflect the treble to my ears.
Bingo, problem solved. I can now wick the volume up more because I'm not limited by the treble problem. If anything the room sounds a bit over damped because of all the acoustic foam I've put in over the years in the wrong places, I'll have to try removing some of it, but I'm just enjoying the music.
It seems to me that the interaction between your room and your kit needs careful consideration, particularly in the plane between your head and the tweeters and particularly if your kit produces a lot of treble. Hard surfaces at the wrong angle can be a nightmare.
You might ask why didn't I just ditch the SBLs? The answer is that otherwise they sounded absolutely bloody brilliant, a massive jump up from the Linn Keilidhs I'd had before.