"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 12 Aug 2006 13:09:58 +0800, "Alan Rutlidge"
wrote:


"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
MrBitsy wrote:
I am planning on moving in the next couple of years, so the wife and I
have been discussing houses. Of course I want a room dedicated to music
- just what is the ideal size room?

The bigger the better and the more irregular the better too. And one
which
is much longer than it is wide. A vaulted ceiling would be good too.
Then
treat all the walls, floor and ceiling to get rid of any reflections.

My speaker manual suggests I need the speakers X cm from the rear and
side walls, but what about space around the listener? Should there be
the same amount of space behind the listening position, as between the
listener and speakers - more/less?

Site the speakers across a narrow wall but not too close and sit roughly
half way down the room.

As it happens a through lounge in a Victorian type house say about 30ft
long where the original back room is smaller due to the stairs is about
as
ideal as you'll find easily.

--
*The older you get, the better you realize you were.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Other than having as large a room as possible to assist in reproducing the
low frequencies, isn't there ideal proportions to the room? I recall
there
used to be (or possibly still is) a good website that allowed you to
calculate these values. Anyone got any useful links?

Cheers,
Alan


There is no ideal proportion. Changing the dimensions just changes the
frequencies that give problems. Just make sure the dimensions aren't
all the same - that will pile up the problems. Making the room big
puts the fundamental room modes down below the audible range. The main
thing is to break up flat surfaces that face each other - this ensure
that standing waves have a hard time getting going.

If you are using the latest Internet Explorer, you can use the room
modes calculator on my web site to identify problem frequencies, but
as I say, it doesn't really matter what frequency they are, you still
need to deal with the walls to kill them.

Once you have prevented the modes forming, you can use soft
furnishings to get the reverberation time that suits you. The result
of all this will be a room you can't live in, so a compromise
somewhere along the line is on the cards.

www.pearce.uk.com/papers

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

Thanks Don. Very useful info. :-)

Cheers,
Alan