I just got a serious lesson in room acoustics. Please let me explain.
I recently did some remodeling on my house and one of the upgrades was removing all the carpeting on the main floor and replacing it with hardwood flooring. At the same time, my family room (also on the main floor) got new book shelves), coffee table, end tables, etc. There is also a 7’ by 10’ rug on the floor. There is a small dining table and four chairs to one side and one upholstered recliner in the room. We are currently waiting for a small upholstered sofa to be delivered. The overall room size is about 15’ by 16’ with a fireplace. There are also french doors going outside with drapes which can be pulled across them. Needless to say, acoustically speaking, this is a fairly “active” space now without much to absorb sound. What I clearly did not appreciate was how active it was.
So yesterday I wired up a spot on one of the bookshelves for an amplifier and installed the Marblewood amp. I wired in speakers on either side of the fireplace so that we could get some pleasant background music in the space. And this is when the trouble began.
I plugged in an iPod and selected some light contemporary music; and I thought there was something wrong with the amp. The mids and highs were overpowering! On careful consideration I decided that the low end was there, and at an acceptable level, but the upper octaves were almost painful! So I checked out the amp and it seemed fine. Then I swapped in the Lacewood from the other room and suddenly the Lacewood had the same issue. And that’s that’s when my education started. It was the room!
So I played a variety of music from classical, to jazz, to rock. All had the same issue. Then I pulled the drapes over the french doors. That actually helped significantly. When I added a small rug to the room and covered more of the hardwood, it got even better. At his point I began to think about most of my listening areas in the past. In general, wall to wall carpeting was the norm, and lots of textiles in the form of furniture, wall hangings, etc. This past experience had seriously colored my expectations.
Please don’t misunderstand, I understand acoustics and am aware of how the absorptive qualities of materials in a room affect acoustics. But up to this point, it was more an academic understanding. But now that I have a VERY active space, the extent to which room acoustics can color the sound of an amplifier was really driven home. As we finish decorating and filling out this space, we will have to careful to balance the room acoustically as well as visually.
So, has anyone else had an experience like this? I’d be interested to hear.