5 new game changing control rooms ready to rock !
All in with Wing diffusors (broadband nearfield temporal diffusion , Varitunes (adjustble Helmholtz modules ) and Crystal diffusors
Henrik Edenhed ( "Head of A&R” Epidemic Sound AB) statement :
"SMT and Matts Odemalm have done a brilliant job with the acoustic treatment and design of our 5 new control rooms
The rooms sound absolutely fantastic and are very well balanced, which means that everyone in the room understands what is playing in the speakers, not just the one sitting in the “sweet spot”.
That the rooms have an extremely comfortable and inviting vibe is just the icing on the cake.”
Finally my room acoustic treatment almost done liao,Mr Lee come over this morning to mount the 3pcs 120x60x18cm ceiling bass traps with BAD panels,added 2pcs 60x60cm BAD panel each on L/R side walls n another 2pcs on the back wall center corner GIK monster bass trap,really good service by him. Left balance 2pcs under fabrication to be put on the GIK monster bass trap directly behind MLP. After listening to various formats music for the past few hours,I would say that all this well worth the $$$,IMO put floorstander spks with big subs in a small room to still sounds good is not impossible,this can be done, just have to ‘invest’ more on acoustic treatment. By the way have to thank bro ron for all the advice given,u’re the doing all the experiment so I don’t have to trial n error.
I did install BAD panels before I get to know Mr Lee. If I know him earlier, I would have gotten the BAD panels from him instead of just the big ass bass trap.
No worries if u need help In Your new room, u can always let me know. Happy to contribute/help you.
NGSK room is very good now, so is Alvin. All very good. The quality is there. The room has been maximised surface/dollar.
The only 1 more item that I believe can still up the game in NGSK room is the use of 2 SMt wings diffusor, placed exactly at 90degrees surround location . Too bad the shipping is a pain from Europe. And we only found 1 piece on carousell. So that was a no go…
But I believe the upper midrange and bass is now clean, tight and faster. The binary amplitude diffusors not only improves the absorption coefficient for the bass traps behind it, it also lowers the room noise floor
Past 2 days no time to test out ht only do music listening,today got some time in the afternoon tested some IMAX,THX etc demo clips as well as some movie clips so can give a brief summary on both.
For music listening clarity n focusing of the vocals getting better,space,layer between each other on vocals,musical instrumentsnts getting clearer.
For ht the panning of sound from channel to channel more precise,seamlessly,this also ‘shows’ on multi channels music listening. With the bass traps + BAD panels on ceiling,raindrops now seems like dropping from higher ‘space’. Dialogues are crystal clear especially those scenes in The Age of Adeline or beginning of LOTR Fellowship of the ring when the male/female narrator speaks,the voices are getting ‘thicker’ n ‘biger’,as I’m running phantom center they appear to be like coming from across the whole front stage but still focused.
The whole ‘idea’ of doing acoustic treatment is to enhance all the above mentioned benefits n it didn’t disappoint in my case. So far didn’t encounter any downside of acoustic treatment,only have to be careful not to overdo it as so I’m consider done liao on it.
I encourage anyone if doable just go ahead n get it done,the benefits gained well worth the $$$ spent.
Phase 2: added 2x SMT S wing,6x GIK monster bass trap,2x used MOAB bass trap n 4x used GIK tri-corner trap on back wall L/R corners at the same time replacing the L/R side wall with 2" thick fiberglass panels.
On my part, the first thing noticeable was the noise floor being lowered. Automatically the room felt even more quiet. But I was lazy to measure. So just left it as it is
Then came the part for bass. The tightness was noticeable with music, but very apparent when it came to HT. Instantly it was telling, on many of the familiar scenes
Noise level did lower by 1~2db based on spl meter reading but @ the same time I found myself keep on wanna increase the volume although spks level remains unchanged after verifying,I think this is no good!
I guess less decay enhances the clarity and the craving for loudness / more impactful. I am guilty of that too. I also realised that I don’t need to increase the level of the center channel so much now.
I never thought the system can go down to -5mv, that’s insane!
2 years ago, -20mv is already plenty of levels. But of course back then the room had tons of flutter echo and resonances. So amplifying in levels just amplifies the resonances and echo.
Instead, -20mv seem right back then.
Fast forward to today, -5mv is when I feel really syok, clean, articulated, fast and impactful…
Yes, the other challenge I had , was to get the impact up to the chest level. That is also another challenge. That challenge was accomplished with stacking the subs and isolation.
Stacking is the way to go I’ve found. With stacking, you can’t see the difference in measurements. U can only see a+6db if both subs sum in phase. Maybe u get better synchronised timing response from the subs (since same location) , but the biggest takeaway is the “tactile feel”. Stacking gives u the type of tactile feel that extends up height levels
When we can accomplish the integration to have height impact and Low impact down to the legs, then we start to feel the bass articulation, layers after layers type of bass at differing heights
As you would have experienced by now, that is what I like and how I tuned the system , basically first to reference then to my preference. We must still have a reference point to begin with
The main focus of the tuning; is geared towards bass and vocals tracking online screen action , that means at any given time, the subs should be in cruising mode and at no point should the resonances and room mode dominate / or have less influence in the room. ( we know the room will still play a part)
That is why headroom and harmonic distortion are key components that can degrade system sound quality if not checked
Even if the room acoustics are good, there is also hardware limitations as well.
The previous Kk12 I had, cannot go past 100db , even with a high pass of 30hz. That is the max it can go with single kK12. The moment it goes past 100db, Distortion kicks in. So multiple stack is the way to go it you are after that type of tactile feeling…
How to deal with resonance? absorption? there’s certain bass notes in some song/soudtrack that can be unbearable, i assume thats resonance… the standing waves are 50hz (L), 64hz (W) & 66hz (H) according to the room mode calculator, so these are the resonance frequencies? Thanks.
Yes, the peaks that you hear in the room are when the primary modes are excited by the speakers.
The relative position of the speaker /subs and listening position will affect which one of these modes are dominant.
Usually it will the the lowest mode corresponding to the longest dimension in the room. The closer the listening position is to a room boundary, (eg back wall) the louder this peak is. Can be easily 20dB peak in an untreated room.
Like anything, a two-fold approach works best - EQ to cut the peak, as well and low bass absorption to control the energy reverberation and decay in the room.
For low bass, need to use large multiple large 2ft x 4ft rockwool or fiberglass based bass traps. Foam ‘bass traps’ that one sticks in corners will have no effect at all.
doing all the experiment so I don’t have to trial n error.
