By
MCL
Wed Sep 22, 2010 7:50 pm
cheers for those measurements - what is the room height though?
I'm going to go on an average room height of 9 feet - but this is a bit of guess i suppose
given those dimensions your room is going to be resonant at these frequencies:
250Hz
434Hz
620Hz
These frequencies are the ones you want to tame - especially the 250 Hz range as this is very close to the frequency of the note B3 and your will suffer from 'one note bass' in that region - meaning this note will be over hyped and all other bass notes will sound very similar to this one - regardless of pitch.
You want to have bass trapping in all corners of the room - I know you have some in back - but trap the front corners as well - to aid with the bass response of the room.
Also apply broadband absorption to the mirror points of your listening position as well - ideally spaced away from the wall by a couple of inches to again aid with absorption.
Incidentally - if at all possible you want your gear set up along the smaller of the walls in your room (the 11ft one) - and you listening position should be %38 from this wall - about 5 feet into the room.
With all this taken into account - then start thinking about monitors. I know acoustic treatment isn't the most exciting of subjects - but good monitors in a poor room - will always sound shit - or average at best. If you do the above - I guarantee that your room will sound much better - and your M-audios will start to sound the way they were intended.
I would discourage rear ported bass reflex monitors - especially in a room your size - in order to get them sounding good - you would have to place them about 2 feet from the nearest wall to tackle the proximity effect, which is probably not practical, and I would suggest you place absorption behind these on the wall they face away from - this would place your listening position nearer the dead centre of the room - which is always a risky spot for a deep bass null in any room.
Also speakers with room adjustments built in are a good idea - and can certainly help make a room sound better - It is only really effective at deep frequencies however and doesn't go a long way to address mids and highs - I'd rather have a well treated room myself, but thats just me.
I would recommend a smaller monitor coupled with a decent woofer. This is what I use myself. My room is trapped and tuned with both bass trapping and broadband absorption at the rear, front and sides (although i have been thinking about placing a trap over my listening position - but not done that yet) - My room is about 20 feet by 13 and 13 high (can't remember the exact dimensions - I calculated, and treated it it a loong time ago.) My main speakers are 5 inch Genelecs coupled with a dedicated woofer. The room is tight and detailed. The use of the woofer allows the smaller monitors to better use their cones and drivers to reproduce only detailed mids - and not struggle with the low end - which is handled by the woofer.
So I would recommend looking into monitors that are front facing bass reflex - and better trap your room, bigger monitors doesn't always mean better sound - invariably it can mean adding more problems into the mix (literally). Also - try and listen to the monitors if you can before you buy. There is no substitute for hearing them in a good environment - any decent shop should have facilities to do this for you.
Anyway - good luck with it all - buying monitors is a pain in the ass!
Vinyl is killing mp3 sales
