I'm trying to choose between two rooms in my house to setup as a listening room. I want to do some room testing for setup. I've come across calculators like amroc-the Room Mode Calculator (https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc) and similar ones. Is there anything out there that can actually test the room as is and give me some guidance as to the setup. I've come across this link too. (http://www.bluefrogaudio.co.uk/roomtesting.html.) Has anyone tried this and got some useful results? Is there anything else like the second link out there you guys have tried?
It might help to know what the dimensions of each from are. It may also help to see a pic of the room and its furnishings. Can the furnishing be removed and room treatment materials be applied to the walls, etc., for either of the rooms? Do the rooms contain large reflective surfaces such as TV screens? Do the rooms contain resonant structures and or musical instruments? Do you have constraints on where in the rooms you could put the speakers? Lots of things can affect sound. Basic resonance modes between parallel walls can estimated or measured with some equipment. There can be much more to it than that though.
Thanks I'm on the baby steps here and looking into room measurement and researching mics and method. I'm thinking just getting a UMIK-1 plugged into the PC with a USB extension and using the REW software. The other setups I've looked into don't work out with the gear I have or can borrow off friends.
Don't use REW much myself, so the other guys may be able to help more with that. A UMIK-1 or similar, mic stand, mic cable, connector adapters as needed, and a sound card (presumably 24-bits), should be enough to capture some room responses. Are there particular speakers you want to use to generate test signals for the rooms, or do you want to try to make room impulse response measurements with some sort of purely-mechanical impulse source?
If you already have the room built than don't bother with those calculators. Just get straight to measurements and start treating. Amroc added the irregular room feature recently. Regular room types sims did not help me much when I started out in my case.
As a beginner Jesco Lohan's videos are good starting point on YouTube. He has free mail subsricption offer too where he regularly sends some articles.
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Another important tip I can give is find your listening sweetspot and speaker position/tilt first that gives the smoothest bass response and overall sound. Based on the practicality in each room and response your are getting in diffrent positions you can finalize the room. Then start treatment. And then finally eq. Each of the phases are important and will decide the efficacy/ease of the following steps.
All these will take time esp you have to decide between two rooms when you going through position, measure, listen cycles. Following general guidelines can speed up this process.
All these will take time esp you have to decide between two rooms when you going through position, measure, listen cycles. Following general guidelines can speed up this process.
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