Room Tuning

[poppachubby]

I want some help and opinions on the best ways to tune my room. I know everyone has an SPL meter, is this the best tool? If so, what are some techniques for measuring?

Does anybody know what the pro guys do?

Anyhow, I've got things sounding really nice and I would like to be able to put some numbers to it, for my own reference. I have 5 bass traps, a few panels and good placement/isolation.

[JoeE SP9]

Home Theater Shack has some free EQ software that I've found to be very helpful. If you have an SPL or mike you can plug it into your sound card and use Room EQ Wizard. The program is very well supported and has an active forum dedicated to assisting users. There is a learning curve but it's not steep or high.

http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/

[poppachubby]

Right on Joe! I'll use the mic input on the Soundblaster...

[L3VY]

"Does anybody know what the pro guys do?"

I'm not pro but I can tell you what I do (in random order because I'm blown away after listening to Kuzma Stabi S + Stogi S + Benz Micro Gold):

Measure the room (Height Width Length)
Calculate resonance frequency
Find the best plase for speakers and listening place.
Measure by mic (response, reverberation time (RT60), clarity (C80), energy time, etc.)
Measurement analysis
Mark points of first reflections
Select the best RT time (depends on size of the room and preferred music)
Choose the best acoustic regimes (model, colour, shape depends on what client wants)
Few measurements between to enshure that every thing goes what it should be, if there is something to correct make a correction.
Enjoy.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

L3VY response is pretty close to what the pro's do. There are a lot of smaller details that are not covered in his post, but it is pretty close.

[eisforelectronic]

It sounds like complete voodoo and it looks like it when you see their demo, but I swear the difference was significant in their room at CES

http://www.synergisticresearch.com/

[poppachubby]

It sounds like complete voodoo and it looks like it when you see their demo, but I swear the difference was significant in their room at CES

http://www.synergisticresearch.com/

Fascinating. The review section is down on the site. Can you discuss the ART anymore for us E?

[eisforelectronic]

As far as my limited understanding of the Art system goes, the specific metal and design they use creates a type of resonance that to my ears opened up the soundstage and made the sound bigger. They do a very simple demo where they play a track without the cups in place and then they simply replace them and play the same track. As I stated before, the difference was significant. They also demonstrated a set of decouplers for your components that I believe worked better than anything else of it's type I've heard.

A Custom Installer/dealer I know is arranging to have the rep install the full system in his home theater/demo room whenever the guy makes it out to Hawaii. I'm very much looking forwaard to hearing what kind of difference it makes in that room.