Ideal Room shape?

[thewinelake.]

Just wondering - if one were doing a new build home and had free reign, what is the ideal room shape (including floor and ceiling profile) for a stereo system?

 

[Al ears]

Just wondering - if one were doing a new build home and had free reign, what is the ideal room shape (including floor and ceiling profile) for a stereo system?

Round?

 

[rainsoothe]

Definitely not square. (not joking)

 

[Superaintit]

From what I've heard a room with minimal reflections is best. In studios this is apparently done by making the front of the room round and integrating the speakers in the wall (infinite baffle).
For the same reason it is often recommended to have the speakers standing free from the back and side walls. For more and entertaining info I can recommend the videos from B&O's tonmeister. Your question is answered in the beolab 90 videos on room shape and reflections. http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/page/1/

 

[Electro]

I would start with a room with no parallel surfaces and go from there.

If the space was big enough I would build the non parallel surface room within a normal room.

 

[nopiano]

I would start with a room with no parallel surfaces and go from there.

If the space was big enough I would build the non parallel surface room within a normal room.

I was going to say similar. Non parallel. Pretty much like our new Charles Church home seems to be, by accident rather than design!

 

[bluedroog]

I believe a perfect square is about as bad as it gets. I'd be interested to hear what a round room sounds like, I'm in beer country right now and many homes are oast house conversions, I'd love to hear a system set up in one of those.

I imagine a room with a level of symertry while a minimum of parallel sufraces. Something to stop reflections between the ceiling and floor too which can be overlooked, they have an interesting acoustic solution in the Royal Albert Hall which previously sounded terrible.

 

[hg]

Just wondering - if one were doing a new build home and had free reign, what is the ideal room shape (including floor and ceiling profile) for a stereo system?

That is pretty much what recording studios are and so, as suggested above, have a look at modern designs for these. The general approach is to soffit mount the speakers in a curved front wall so that early off-axis reflections are guided past the listener to the back wall. The back wall is likely to be a lot of scattering devices to get the reflected sound out of the axial direction into the others particularly the side-to-side because it these that contribute most to a sense of space. There is often a lot of absorption above a false ceiling and perhaps some on the front and back walls. Imaging is helped by symmetrical early reflections and so this will be reflected in the design.

 

[Joe10155]

Having previously had look at a few websites (Google "ideal music room dimensions") it seems that it's too difficult to come up with a singular ideal rectangular size/ratio; so it must be pretty much impossible to come up with a perfect "shape"

University of Salford & Audiophilereview.com websites make interesting if possibly difficult reading.

http://acoustics.salford.ac.uk/acoustics_info/room_sizing/?content=index

http://audiophilereview.com/room-acoustics/ideal-room-size-dimensions-and-ratios-for-audiophile-listening.html

 

[thewinelake.]

Thanks all - some promising reading matter there!

 

[nopiano]

Cardas have some detailed ideas here. Couldn't find it the other day! Thanks to CnoEvil who I think has posted it here before.

http://www.cardas.com/room_setup_main.php

 

[ellisdj]

40 x 40 x 40 I think is the ideal size.

Or this video may help with more real world sizes for good sound.

Factoring in all small rooms less than 40 x 40 x 40 will need to be made smaller to sound better

 

[sheggs]

If you ever have the opportunity to build your own room then there is a lot that can be done to make it a great lsitening environment but the first of this is building it to the right dimensions. There are plenty of room mode calculators avaiable online. For interest people also use these to guess what their problems in the room would be but it doesn't work in that way and these calcualtors are there to help with design

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

In a flat that I rent in the last decade, I hade the chance to have a pentagonic living room. The room accoustic was amazing. If you know a little bit about room accoustic, it's evident why.

 

[thewinelake.]

And that's much more practical than curved walls....

I suppose the ceiling could be like the inside of a pentagon-based pyramid

 

[Artoo]

And that's much more practical than curved walls....

I suppose the ceiling could be like the inside of a pentagon-based pyramid

As well as the floor! :drink:

 

[andyjm]

40 x 40 x 40 I think is the ideal size.

Or this video may help with more real world sizes for good sound.

Factoring in all small rooms less than 40 x 40 x 40 will need to be made smaller to sound better

Having dimensions the same (height, width, length), or integer multiples of each other is about the worst thing you can do - resulting in standing waves, nulls and dreadful resonance.

 

[Artoo]

What if you run a second pair of speakers in your rear, playing the same material as your front speakers, though out of phase? Should prevent if not all some of the reflections... *SCRATCH*

 

[ellisdj]

What if you run a second pair of speakers in your rear, playing the same material as your front speakers, though out of phase? Should prevent if not all some of the reflections... *SCRATCH*

What about above you and to the sides of you - and how would you time delay it to coincide with the direct and reflected sound

Dirac has a project where they plan to use speakers for active sound control but it was only a "prototype stage" when I read about it.

An alternative is the B&O Beolab 90

 

[ellisdj]

40 x 40 x 40 I think is the ideal size.

not according to this professional acoustician Dennis Foley.

I think its a room large enough for all notes to form and dissipate and not reflect - same as being outdoors / no room.

He gives these dimensions a lot on his videos - but in reality who has a 40 foot high ceiling - maybe the pope but I heard he is a headphone listener anyway