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RE: It probably isn't as straightforward as your numbers suggest

Posted by KlausR. (A) on May 21, 2011 at 01:54:56

In Reply to: It probably isn't as straightforward as your numbers suggest posted by David Aiken on May 19, 2011 at 14:10:49:

>Those differences in side wall reflection levels are going to have an impact on the perception of spaciousness.<

Many audiophiles put absorbers on the reflections points and do not complain afterwards, on the contrary. Moving to a large room has basically the same effect. Further, with the same listening triangle bigger speakers wouldn't make any difference because the relative reflection levels would be the same.

>Alternatively, neither the change in listening difference nor the changes in SPL are a factor but the increase in distance from room boundaries is likely to have an effect on boundary reinforcement at low frequencies.<

Reinforcement occurs only below λ/4. In room 1, with 85 cm to the side walls, reinforcement starts at 100 Hz with the maximum at 40 Hz. In room 2 that's 30 Hz with maximum at 12 Hz, in room 3 it doesn't matter at all. For your Dyns (37 Hz - 27 kHz) placed at 85 cm from the walls there is an effect, for my Genelec (66 Hz - 20 kHz) the effect is very small, if at all (response at 40 Hz is down by 20 dB or more). Boundary reinforcement anyway is resulting in boomy bass most of the time so you either increase distance from boundaries or you apply correction.

>A 1 to 3 dB drop in level may not be an issue if the speaker was capable of delivering more than adequate levels in the smaller room but if that were not the case and they were barely adequate in the smaller room, then that 1 to 3 dB change may prove to be the difference between barely adequate and inadequate.<

Fully agree, but you said: " [build a room] as large as you can, provided you can also afford a system that will work effectively in a room of that size". This sounds as if a move to a larger room automatically entails the necessity for a bigger system. If I take my main system in my room (room 2), setting the volume knob to 12 o'clock is pretty loud, at 2 o'clock it's very loud, too loud with dynamically compressed CDs. Setting the knob to maximum, i.e. 5 o'clock, occasionally causes the electronic limiters to operate, so there's more than enough headroom for a move to room 3, provided that the listening triangle remains unchanged. My small Genelec certainly would have problems in room 3 because in room 2 I have to push them almost to the limit to get the very loud level, whereas they don't have any problem when moving from room 1 to room 2.

While it is possible that a change in room size necessitates a system change in the sense that more SPL is needed, I still don't see a direct link between size and system capacity. Dimensions of the listening triangle, listening habits, favorite music genre all play a role.

I'm with you when you say that it is possible for a change in room size to necessitate a change in speakers, but it might as well be that the system you already have is powerful enough for the larger room.

Klaus

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