What a difference a room makes!!!!!

[RCHeliGuy]

I just moved my ML's to the basement and got a hernia carrying the amp, but vive la différence ! ( joking about the hernia, but that thing is a tank )

Carpeted Concrete floor, 15' wide by 22' long x 9' ceiling
Concrete foundation + framed and sheet rocked on the front wall and framed sheet rock divider walls on the back and sides.

I've got both speakers set with bass at 0 pulled well away from the front wall, and set up symmetrically. Lots of bass, very clear, nice imaging.

Another thing I've noticed is that the ringing is much better. I can drive a lot more volume now.

Oh yeah, and I don't have my gas log screen mesh on glass vibrating when serious bass comes calling.

 

[GW1800]

I just moved my ML's to the basement and got a hernia carrying the amp, but vive la différence ! ( joking about the hernia, but that thing is a tank )

Carpeted Concrete floor, 15' wide by 22' long x 9' ceiling
Concrete foundation + framed and sheet rocked on the front wall and framed sheet rock divider walls on the back and sides.

I've got both speakers set with bass at 0 pulled well away from the front wall, and set up symmetrically. Lots of bass, very clear, nice imaging.

Another thing I've noticed is that the ringing is much better. I can drive a lot more volume now.

Oh yeah, and I don't have my gas log screen mesh on glass vibrating when serious bass comes calling.

Absolutely!! I have a very similar room in my basement and Shawn comments frequently how lucky I am with this room. He mentions the cement floor versus a wood supported floor and the surrounding dirt. Although I have not moved my room from upstairs to down like you I can clearly say the bass I have in my room is the best I have ever achieved

 

[twich54]

Congrats on the new found sonic improvement. My man cave is similar (14'6" x 24'6" x8')

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I need to break out room eq and my calibration mic / preamp and see how the ringing looks now.
It seems like the sweet spot is wider now, but the speakers are also wider apart.

 

[JonFo]

Good to hear Mark, that space is a nice size for line-source dipoles.

And yes, rooms are a huge, enormous part of how a system can sound. If all your walls are bare now, then you still have a lot of opportunity for high frequency resonances to build up. So if possible, start experimenting with some mid to high-frequency absorption in the front and sides, and a bit of diffusion in the rear.

I find that a difusor place mid-back wall and at least 5' from the MLP can help break up some of the direct reflections from the panels. But you really need a fair bit of absorption in a room to tame the resonances. And if you use products like the RealTraps MiniTrap HF, it also helps in mitigating the dipole cancellation when placed along the front wall behind the speakers.

What treatments are you planning Mark?

 

[RCHeliGuy]

What treatments are you planning Mark?

We have two sets of floor to ceiling drapes on the right wall already, one for a window and one for a door to our screen room. The door also has a an a large fabric retractable covering.
We have a wrap around sectional couch that is against the left wall and extends all the way to the drapes on the right just leaving enough room to walk through.
Also we have a double door opening at the left rear, and a door at the back. I had the left doors wide open while I was listening, but could open the rear door as well. There is another 15' wide room behind it that isn't quite as long.

I just pitched my Velodyne subwoofer that I had repaired a couple years ago. It doesn't seem to want to work again. The sub is for my surround system and I'm thinking of getting one of the new wireless tall units to put in the back corner since the front wall is pretty full. I hadn't really considered getting it to match with my ML's, but I'll think about that too before I buy.

Past that I have a full kitchen remodel underway as well as the bath on the main level and I'm going rebuild the pantry myself while waiting for the Quartz and Granite counter tops to arrive.

Basically room treatments are way down my list of action items at the moment.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

I've been considering one of these SVS PC-4000's along with the wireless kit. It appears to have plenty of power and earth shattering bass for movies.

At 16.6" diameter I could stick it in the right rear corner of my room which is really the only place it would not be in the way.

I know, lots of compromises.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Update. I got itchy and pulled the trigger. I probably should have waited for a Black Friday sale. A moment of weakness....

That said, I'm going to match the sub to my surround system and not my ML's because I will use the sub more for movies than music. I'm pretty happy with the bass listening to music.

 

[timm]

I just moved my ML's to the basement and got a hernia carrying the amp, but vive la différence ! ( joking about the hernia, but that thing is a tank )

Carpeted Concrete floor, 15' wide by 22' long x 9' ceiling
Concrete foundation + framed and sheet rocked on the front wall and framed sheet rock divider walls on the back and sides.

I've got both speakers set with bass at 0 pulled well away from the front wall, and set up symmetrically. Lots of bass, very clear, nice imaging.

Another thing I've noticed is that the ringing is much better. I can drive a lot more volume now.

Oh yeah, and I don't have my gas log screen mesh on glass vibrating when serious bass comes calling.

Yes I'm similar too. Carpet over concrete / drywall. This is my second music room in in a basement. I find them to be ultra quiet. My room is 17x30 with my big Maggie's. I fretted over this room for quite awhile and it turned out pretty good

 

[JonFo]

We have two sets of floor to ceiling drapes on the right wall already, one for a window and one for a door to our screen room. The door also has a an a large fabric retractable covering. ...

A key thing to try and achieve is symmetry in relation to reflection/absorption from one side of the room relative to the other, as that can skew the soundstage.

I hear ya, lot's of other projects to do. And that's a nice new sub, congrats.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

My sub was just delivered!

In terms of projects, our kitchen demo is done and tile is down
I customized my pantry a bit last Saturday. It's coming along.
Time for primer and paint to match the new cabinets that come next week. The electrician starts tomorrow.

 

[RCHeliGuy]

Looks like a giant cat scratching post, but here it is

The port plugs drop the efficiency and drop the peak kick 20Hz, 18Hz, 16Hz.

I'm going to try with all 3 plugs in initially and see if I still have plenty of power for the room.