Need help moving to smaller room

[Saurav]

Just got set up in the new place, and my stereo is now in a space that's 1/4 the size of the old room. However, I now have a 'music room' (it was in the living room before), so I can think about room treatments. I would really appreciate some advice on moving a system to a smaller room. The room is also almost a square, which will be a problem too. Anyway, the two main questions in my mind right now are:

* Dipoles and room placement and wall distance - any general guidelines here for small rooms? Right now I have the speakers on the slightly longer wall, because that gives me more symmetrical walls on both sides (otherwise one speaker would have a window on the side and the other would have a closet). But in general, what should I be trying to do? Will absorption/diffusion help? Behind and to the sides?

* Right now only my midrange is dipole (open baffle). I've been thinking of trying a dipole woofer for a while now. Will a smaller room (and therefore being closer to the walls) make that easier or more difficult? The room is about 10'x11', so I shouldn't have too much trouble getting some bass, right? I left my big subwoofer in the garage, there's no way it's fitting in here.

I'm wondering if I can get this to sound better than it did in the old place. If I can take care of the reflections, that should clean up the sound somewhat. Also, I wonder how 'making speakers disappear' is affected by moving to a smaller space. Does being closer to the speakers help or does it make it worse? I wonder if I could turn this into an almost-nearfield setup where the room's signature would be felt much less than before. But nearfield dipoles... will that work?

Thanks,
Saurav

 

[NH7RO]

Saw your post while I was looking for info on small H-frame dimensions (wondering how small I can make them some for 12" TC2+ drivers and still get decent response).....I currently have a small listening room, about 9.5x15x8' ceilings but built some big Baltic birch plywood H-frames (29Hx19.5Wx18D)for the TC2+s anyway. They sound terrific but I would like to put them in slightly smaller frames that will soon be used with the dipole MTMs I am almost ready to hook up.

Anyway, the point of my answering your post is this; Your dipole bass should work out VERY well---mine certainly has despite my miniscule space (without added equalization until I hook up the DEQ2496 & DCX2496, too). Don't be discouraged at all---I too, originally designed my system for the larger space I once had but I can see now that my anxiety about how it would work out was unnecessary.

I just want to make mine a bit smaller because of the tight space constraints and I figure I should be still able to get excellent sound with a bit of equalization. I certainly don't need much spl in this small room!

One thing to remember is that dipoles are much less room-dependant than most other types of speakers---so forge ahead and good luck! I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised.

Btw, I will be posting pix and details here on my Corian-baffled SEAS/TC Sounds dipole system as soon as it is all up and running in the near future (am just waiting for a load of xlr cables to arrive). Cheers, Jeff