This Saturday past I was fortunate to visit
@mb3195 Home Cinema during his Open Day. A great day and definitely worth reading my notes.
Here's My Write Up on His Thread
The Day was so well spent. It convinced me to change my own plans yet again!
Some Updates
I changed plans yet again and have cancelled plans to move my Kit to the front of my room and do something (albeit much less flash) akin to Mark's and
@IWC Dopplel by having my gear at the back but possibly separated.
Video
My Zappiti One SE 4K HDR arrived today so I am going to hook that up and see how it compares to my nVidia Shield.
I can make some real improvements by doing two visual things:
- Increase the amount of Devore along my left and right walls. Effectively make some Curtains like MB has so that when drawn along the walls they block any light in my peripheral vision.
- Create some manual masking for my screen to make it better for 2.39:1 movies. MB's was highly effective and oh so simple.
Audio
The other things I learnt was that at high volume between -10 and -5 in my room I was finding that high frequencies were tending to be tiring and a little shrill. In conversation on Saturday the suggestion came up to trim my Treble on my Denon by -3db. I made this change over the weekend and watched both Red Sparrow and 47 Ronin at -5db. Didn't feel tired like I had before, very pleased with that simple and easy change. This is pulling down my high end to much more of a slope rather than flat. Note that Audyssey is still configured as reference. You do this change by playing a Source and pressing the Option button on the Denon remote allowing Trim options.
The final change I made was recommended by Arendal. The 2 Subs in my room sound superb but I was getting some real low LFE vibration in my wall
now I don't like that very low deep bass. I'm not in America with single digit subs in a giant custom room in the middle of a field, so Arendal recommended activating the Subs "Subsonic Filter" at 16Hz. So I made this change and sure enough the issue disappeared. Basically the Subs are rolling off to nothing at this point very quickly. The additional benefit is that in the scenes that it was an issue the Bass is no longer muddied by that vibration. Sounds really awesome. Queue repeated viewings of the Fury Tank scene.
Sound above 400Hz is considered to be directional. In fact, the higher the frequency, the more directional the sound waves tend to be. In a home theater or 2-channel listening room, these bounce off the nearby walls and produce very noticeable second order reflections which compete with the direct sound from the loudspeakers.
These are easily controlled by strategically placing acoustic panels along the side walls to absorb these troublesome reflections. As a rule, these are mounted at ear and/or speaker height and positioned along the wall to capture the early reflections from the loudspeakers.
I'm using the
Mirror Technique (description shamelessly stolen from the Web) to add Acoustic Panels at my Reflection points. Whilst I have Acoustic Panels behind my LCR and Screen I have more to do.
Mirror Technique and Clap Technique
For optimal placement, the easiest and most effective way to position acoustic panels is to use a mirror. To do this, you will need an assistant!
- Sit in the listening position
- Have your assistant move a mirror across the wall surface in between you and the speakers
- Using a pencil, mark the beginning and end points where the speakers (Tweeter) are visible in the mirror
- Note that you will want to view the left and right speakers (and centre if used) in the mirror
- This will define the area that would be ideally treated
- Repeat for the second side
You can then mount your acoustic panels to the walls using these markers . Note that you do not have to cover the full area; covering most of the surface will provide plenty of control.
Once the side walls have been treated, you can enjoy even greater control by absorbing the rear reflections on the wall behind the sitting position. For this, you would turn around while remaining in the listening position and then follow the same approach by marking the wall where you can see the speakers in the mirror. Dispersion Panels are often used for this as they provide general area absorption without completely deadening the room. Too much absorption will remove the energy and excitement.
As a final measure, for those that want maximum definition, placing a couple of 3” thick acoustic panels behind the loudspeakers on the front wall will help eliminate comb-filtering caused by omnidirectional low frequencies emanating from the loudspeaker.
You can also check these points with the
Clap Technique shamelessly stolen from
@IWC Dopplel
Firstly go to a room with a very heavy curtain. Clap right next to the Curtain. You'll hear your sharp clap and immediately nothing. The Curtain will have absorbed the noise and not reflected it back.
Secondly go to the corner of a room with nothing on the wall. Clap
about 4 inches from the corner. You'll hear your sharp clap and immediately you'll hear echo from both sides of the corner. Do this a few times and get used to that extra "reflection sound".
Now go to your Cinema Room and to where the Mirror Technique says you should have an acoustic panel. Clap
- You'll almost certainly hear the same type of reflection sound. This is where you'd put your acoustic panel.
Doing this I found quite a heavy reflection point close to my left main, not one next to my right as there is a heavy curtain there, and one near to rear left surround.
@Conrad. has recommended Mafia Panels which I'm investigating, GIK is also an option, as is
EFoam.co.uk.
So in theory I should have my Devore Curtains that pull across the walls and cover the Acoustic Panels so they are not seen. The adventures continue...