room brightness

[kinggimp82]

im experiencing brightness and would like some tips to treat my room.

i live in an apartment. room is aprox 15' wide x12' deep x 8' high. the right side opens to the kitchen. the left side is a large plate glass window with blinds. the floor is basically indoor outdoor. its like basement carpet over concrete. and the back wall is pretty much empty drywall.

incase you need to know my system is as follows.
FRONT: ascend accoustics CBM-170 SE'S
CENTER: ascend accoustics CMT-340 C SE
SURROUND: None (ascend accoustics HTM-200s soon)
SUB: Hsu STF-2
REC: Pioneer VSX-514


what could i do to treat my room? id imagine a large rug and thick curtains would help. any info would be much appreciated.

thanks,
andrew

[ebh]

man, your place sounds almost identical to mine, and same with your setup. I get a bit of brightness too, especially when I turn it up. gives me a bit of listener fatigue tho i usually don't find it offputting.

both your suggestions would definitely help. if you live alone you could get room treatments designed for acoustical applications--not much WAF there tho. Others can probably point you to links for these treatments.

depending on how customizable your layout is, you could try to move any speaker that is close to the windows and blinds a bit farther away, and just move the speakers away from reflective surfaces in general.

[chas]

Can you provide a photo or drawing of your room?

There are several companies specializing in acoustic treatments that would probably offer suggestions if you contact them. GIK acoustics, Realtraps, and ATS acoustics are a few that come to mind. The AVS forum has a lot of info on room treatments in the Dedicated Theater Design and Construction forum.

Do you have the speakers set to small or large in the Pioneer? What crossover? What are you listening to when experiencing the brightness?

[Jorge_Burrito]

A couple things you can do, some cheaper then others. As mentioned, instead of blinds, cover up any windowns with thick curtains and try laying down an area rug. Do you have a living room table in front of your chairs or couch? If so get rid of it. Normally I would say install some acoustical panels at the first reflection point..but it souds like that might not be pratical with your room setup. At any rate you can make some room treatments pretty cheap and can actually make them fairly "artsy" to meet WAF. I don't have a specific link but check out the AVS forums for multiple threads on make your own acoustic panels.

Last, if you have not done so already, play around with the placement of your speakers. A couple of inches can sometimes make a big difference.

[kinggimp82]

Can you provide a photo or drawing of your room?


Do you have the speakers set to small or large in the Pioneer? What crossover? What are you listening to when experiencing the brightness?

i will post some pics a lil later.

the speakers are set to smalland x-over is 100. the brightness only bothers me during movies at higher volumes (between -25 and -20 is the loudest id play movies.) in stereo mode i have the treble turned down in the tone controls. in stereo it sounds great at all volumes. my receiver doesnt allow the use of tone controls in movie modes.

[kinggimp82]

one other thing i wonder is if the center speaker being placed on a tall entertainment center adds to the brightness? its about 5" high and id say roughly 2' 5" from the cieling. there is a shelf under my tv but its just wide and tall enough for the 340 center. i may move it there. would the speaker being in a tight space effect the sound in any way?

the only other thing i wonder about moving the center is it would only be a foot and a half high (between flloor and speaker) and at my listening position is 3 and a half feet high. dunno if the angle from the speaker to my ears is too great. i could always try and angle the speaker upward slightly. anyone try that?

[S_rangeBrew]

This is a common problem in small, untreated rooms. Have you tried different sound-field modes on your amp? My Pioneer 1014-TX has a "THX" sound-field mode that basically tones down the high notes like a fancy treble adjustment. It really takes the edge off in my small room and lessens the fatigue a lot. (That's what they designed it for) I'm going to try some treatments eventually, but they are ugly, IMHO, and not always feasible in a room like yours.

A blurb on the THX.

To receive certification, receivers and controllers (preamp/processors) must include THX's patented Re-Equalization (ReEQ), Timbre Matching, and Decorrelation features. Since soundtracks are mixed to allow for the acoustics of a typical theater, the ReEQ circuitry compensates for smaller home spaces by rolling off the treble to keep the sound from becoming overly bright.

Try some room treatments if possible, if not, maybe trading in your reciever for one with THX Select processing might work best.

[kinggimp82]

This is a common problem in small, untreated rooms. Have you tried different sound-field modes on your amp? My Pioneer 1014-TX has a "THX" sound-field mode that basically tones down the high notes like a fancy treble adjustment. It really takes the edge off in my small room and lessens the fatigue a lot.

well i read my manual for my receiver over and found a Dynamic range control setting that does what you describe. ill try that tonight during a movie. thanks for pointing out that type of adjustment.

the manual writes

"Dynamic range is the difference between the
loudest and softest sounds in any given
signal. With this setting, you can compress
the dynamic range, so that low level sounds
can be heard more easily (sounding relatively
louder) yet louder sounds won’t be too overbearing."

[muzz]

I leave my Dynamic range at Max personally, I want to be able to hear different loudness.
I personally do not like the "compressed/everything sounds the same loudness theory".
But it's NOT my system we're talking about, try it and see if you like it.

I feel Dynamic range is an important part of the experience, but everyone is different.

[Jorge_Burrito]

The THX mode and dynamic compression are not the same thing (although admittedly the description your receiver gives is somewhat vague to what it is doing). Typically, dynamic compression doesn't really cut off or roll off any frequencies, it just makes it so the loud parts are softer and the softer parts are louder through out the entire DVD, not just as a given time (actually that is not true I think with some receivers the bass gets rolled off as the setting is largely designed for late night viewing where you don't want to anger the neighbors). Dynamic compression is basically making it so all audio that comes from your speakers throughout the movie is at the same volume. You should listen to it anyways, just because that is part of the audio process but this will not likely help your situation at all.

The THX select applies a equalizer to all audio whether it be a loud or a soft part. The THX mode actually makes JUST the highs frequencies a little less loud. Thus making the speaker sound less bright.

I still think your best choice is some simple room fixes like talked about above. Tweeters are fairly directional as well, so if you have your speakers toed in right now you might try pointing them away from you a little bit as well as messing with the distance from the wall (that will not make the highs any less bright but it might improve the bass a little bit).