The Terrible listening room discussion!

Figured it out!


You have something scattering or reflecting sound very close to each speaker, somewhere in the range 0.2 to 0.35m away. This is the first problem to fix; these will be ‘blurring’ and adding a layer of general confusion to the sound. Note that it looks as though these may also be causing interactions between the speakers further adding to the issue (the increased confusion in the LH + RH trace is showing sum and difference effects).
First try throwing a duvet over the TV and it’s cabinet, then try moving the speakers quite a bit further into the room to see if it helps by getting the speakers further away from the TV, bookcase and the ‘box’ for the door.

Next you have something significant that reflects sound increasing the path length of the left speaker by 0.78m and the right speaker by 0.73m. These are likely to be first reflections from the side walls.

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Mrs Bs out tomorrow night so i can try those things. Side walls are probably more than a meter away but cant think what else it could be either. Teddy bear placed at 1st reflection point

Just thought the wall behind the speakers is around 0.7m away could it be reflection from that?

That would increase path length by almost 1.4m (i.e. to the wall and back), still more likely to be 1st reflection from side walls, floor and/or ceiling.

Yay 1st acoustic panels arrived😀


And i am very pleased wth the way the artwork has come out

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Your right speaker is constrained, no space to breathe. No panel can really improve that. I would put the tt on wall shelf.

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The room is what the room is. I have that or the kitchen on the ground floor🙂

Plus side i do have concrete floors so TT is pretty stable.

Yes, nice piece of artwork…let’s hope you don’t need another one or people walking down your road and peering in might think your house is an Art pop-up gallery. :wink:

I am a little proud as it started as a stock Mondrian style image and i changed the colours to match our room!

If i get another it may have to be a landscape! GIK can print whatever you want

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I said about the wall shelf for tt in order to move the rack on the left side and create more space for the right speaker.

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The three things thing that concern me are:

a) Resonance in that cabinet under the TV (test this by putting heavy books on it and throwing a duvet over it)

b) The gap behind the TV (test this by moving it backward and throwing a duvet over it)

c) The proximity of RH speaker to the ‘box’ for the door. The front of the speaker needs to be well in front of the end of the wall beside the speaker. If you measure from the end of the wall to front edge of the speaker and place a straight edge on the front of the speaker, the straight edge should clear the wall by around the same distance between the wnd of the wall and the front edge of the speaker.
The Left speaker should the be moved to the same distance from the listening position.

All these concerns will cause complex interference patterns that are very difficult to analyse.

We can look at fixing the issues concerning the TT and the effect of the cabinet on the electronics AFTER sorting out the main problems of layout - do one thing at a time.

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Moving the turntable on a wall will fix some layout problems, as moving the left cabinet with lps elsewhere and fixing the tv on the right wall in front of the sofa. All this will create more space around speakers and ameliorate acoustic issues that are associated. Not?

Looks like the TT is on part of the main TV rack? I cannot see a join between the 2

Easy tiger you haven’t met Mrs B have you…change has to be introduced gradually! I genuinely value all input as often suggestions are things i hadn’t thought of😁 and i sometimes forget our house is a shared space. In fact the only space that isn’t is my cherished workshop!

Just waiting for somebody to suggest i knock down the doorway on The rhs…or simply move house😁 i have considered it myself in a lucid moment

Think hes referring yo the bookshelf on the lhs

I understand. Only suggestions. You then consider them as possible, or not. I had similar issue as you 2 years ago. My left speaker was very near a big and high cabinet. I had some bass distortion. When I removed it, I was surprised at how the sound became cleaner and open, with a better defined bass.

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LH and RH with newe art Panel some noticeable attenuation


And then for each speaker


Then moving both speakers forward

both speakerd fwd and a dovet over the tv

Baseline spectragraph vs with Art panel



and with douvet over TV and moved forward

Just Speakers moved forward

And finally Impulse Comparison