long room placement for Harbeth compact 7

[maple-k330]

Hi,

I just received the speaker today. This is for a room of 12' W x 35'L x 7' H. I placed the speaker along the 12' wall at the end, 3/4 feet away from back/side wall. When playing piano I think there is some resonance that does not sounds quite right. I had a feeling it's the room/placement. Can you give some advice ?

here is the image of setup:

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/9453/roomn.jpg

It might be the room is not well damped ? I may try it in another room.

Thanks

[Macjager]

The ultimate in Minimalist design! I would offer that you need some soft furnishings to absorb the reflected sound waves. There are a number of excellent topics/posts on these forums which I have used to understand how best to place my 7s and how I will be setting up my listening room in the future, including sound absorbers, diffusers etc.

Cheers

George

[do_Ob]

A simple slap test with your hands can give you an indication whether you need to treat your room. I suggest some broadband panels on the first reflection points on the side wall.

Walk around the room and listen for uneven bass response. Then, you will need some bass trapping.

There is nothing wrong with the C7s. Treat your room... and amazingly you will be in tears. Tears of joy that is!

[Don Leman]

Yes, I would say you are thinking along the right lines. Your best bet is to try and treat the room to reduce the hard surfaces. I would also be tempted to listen more near field by moving the speakers a little closer to the side walls and sitting a bit closer. At the same time toe in the speakers more to reduce the near wall reflection.

Try this first then let us know the result.

[Concerti]

Put some furniture in there - that room would ring like a bell.

[keithwwk]

Hi, I saw the picture. Your room is very empty and reflective. Try to put some curtain to reduce the reflection at side wall, floor and corner of ceiling...u may try to use mobile cloth hanger to position the curtain for experimental purpose...move the hanger around to hear the different...

[STHLS5]

Hi,
Your room reminded me of my room at the early stage of construction. Experts would say you need to do room treatment but IMO it is subjective. If you listen softly than bare room does sound very nice. I have a bath which is wall to wall tiled, and it is acoustically excellent for my mini transistor played at a very low level.

In your case, you can drag all the mattresses, pillows, blankets, thick curtains and carpets to the room. You can also stack piles of newspapers(100s of them) or books and listen again. If that gives you the sound you want then you can go for a proper room treatment using DIY stuff that you can find it here in the forum. Look for Alan's post a couple of months back. You can ask for someone to clap at the level you usually listen and see if you can hear the reverberation. If that is the case then you need to add a little damping.

Good luck.....getting a room to sound right is a long journey. BTW, how long can you listen sitting in the chair?

ST

[BAS-H]

Hi Maple,

Looking at that photograph, I'd say it's almost certainly your room that's giving you a resonance. Any plans to add any furniture?

Also, 3/4' from the walls is a little tight, especially if the distance from the front wall is the same as from the sides. Try pulling them closer, or pulling them into the room, but not both by the same amount.

[Takis]

Hallo maple-k330,

Your room is empty! It is alive and kicking and not damped at all. Clap your hands once in an empty room and you will hear clearly the resonance (or echo?) that ruins the sound.

Put some furniture in, or try in another room.

[Drdennis]

The room must echo. Walk around while clapping your hands. Add furnishings until you don't hear echo's. A sofa about 8-8.5 feet from the speakers would be a good start. Drapes behind the speakers and bookcases and music storage shelves would also help. More carpeting might also be helpful. Continue doing the clapping test until the room doesn't echo.

[maple-k330]

Hello, everyone:

Thanks you so much for your suggestions. I posted the question but did not see much response in the first day and then quite busy auditioning and play around with the speaker, thus did not come back to here.

As an electrical engineer who is familiar with electromagnetics, this reflection and resonance phenomenon is quite easy to grasp. I guess there are two ways to deal with this, either you put absorbing material on all boundaries( like an anechoic chamber), which is not realistic, or stuff the room with hopefully some not too reflective material, which will cause more random and smaller reflection that has less chance of in-phase interruption.

Since my last post, I have already done the following:

1 put a single sofa about 8 ft from speaker, my listening station
2. I have an un-used movie screen made of soft cloth and put it on left hand side wall between speaker and sofa.
3. Improvised a mobile cloth hanger and put a heavy drapery on it, and station it around 4 feet behind sofa, hoping to absorb some sound coming directly from speaker

I will try the suggestion above to pull both speaker in from back wall. Also will get another large piece of area rug and put them in.

Now I am thinking about what gives the most bang for the buck

1. Treat floor
2. Treat wall behind speaker
3. Treat two long side wall
4. Put a room divider behind sofa( either a bookshelf or a privacy screen)
5. Can not really do much about ceiling.

Will report back if I see any improvement. For now, I already feel mporvement in terms of resonance.

BTW, I have not mentioned how much I love these speakers. Live performance sounds so much closer to live event and I have heard so much more details on the same recordings that I have not noticed before. I don't see any need to upgrade from here on.