My introduction to full-range

[Alex from Oz]

I wonder if the twin bed might be absorbing some problematic room modes?

[chuyler1]

Shouldn't be any different than a sofa...but it is tucked in the corner.

[chuyler1]

Using Tool's Lateralus as listening material, I experimented with corner placement today by moving some furniture around. The motivation was the sheer lack of imact that the album had which I couldn't squeeze out of the frugels even with turning the volume up. The wife hasn't gotten home yet so I need to put things back, but I figured I would report my findings.

The first graph is the difference between my original location and corner placement.

Green: 8" from the back wall and 36" from the side wall
Purple: 8" from each wall in the corner.



As you can plainly see, the bass comes to life and this is extremely audible! The sound is a bit boomy though but pulling the speakers farther away from the corner attenuates the corner loading affect.

Next I took some 12"x8"x8" boxes filled with books and stuff and placed two on top of one another behind each speaker. This isn't a precise deflector but I wanted to see what would happen.

Purple: 8" from each wall in the corner
Green: 8" from each wall in the corner with boxes behind them.



The RTA said it cut back the peak between 200-300Hz. What I hear is less muddyness. I guess I'll have to see about permenantly moving the furniture, or finding another room to put these in

~ Chris

[just a guy]

The green curve looks great, I wasn't able to get anything close to that in either of my rooms. Congratulations.

[chuyler1]

I moved the speakers into my living room this afternoon to do some listening in a larger room. It was a case of "hey what happened to my bass?". My living room is fairly large so corner loading was not possible and add to that we have hardwood floors and a sliding glass door.

I also brought up my DCX KX-10 speakers from the basement. I've had these for about 12 years. They've never sounded great but work as a reference I guess. They are composed of a 10" woofer, 5" midrange, and horn tweeter.

Switching back and forth I noticed the DCX speakers have more bass but it was muddy. I cannot describe what the bass sounds like, it is just thick no matter what instrument it is. Unfortunately the Frugels sound thin in comparison but I can at least identify whether it is an upright bass, electric, tuba, etc. The major issue with the Frugels is that the bass drum doesn't snap in this room like it does in our office. Midrange was about equal but the frugels were more transparent. With regards to upper range, I definitely preferred the smooth roll off of the frugels.

After listening to a few tracks and bouncing back and forth I hooked up the RTA. My conclusions were right about the bass but I was surprised to see that the frugels had a more extended upper range. The low end fell fast below 100 Hz whereas I was getting decent response down to 50Hz in our office.

Purple: DCX KX-10
Green: Frugelhorn

[renfrow]

You may want to radically alter your room arrangement, if it'll go over with your SO: moving the bed to the upper wall, desk to the right wall, and speakers in upper and lower right corners; moving other stuff around to fit. I have a very similar room and arranged it this way and am very pleased with the sound.

Tom.

[chuyler1]

I have definitely considered that, or something similar, but I like having the desk in front of the windows and placing the bed in the middle of the wall like that won't look that great since it has a high headboard. If it was a day-bed or a futon that layout would be great though.