Room and Cabin Gain

[jackfish]

What is it?

[Ethan Winer]

jackfish wrote:

What is it?

Room gain is simply a peak (increase) in the frequency response. All rooms resonate at some frequencies, and wherever there's a resonance there's a corresponding increase in the volume level. (There's also an unnaturally extended decay time.) These peaks are typical 3 to 6 dB, but in a cube room they could theoretically be as high as 18 dB at some locations in the room.

--Ethan

[Sonnie]

Glad to see you posted this Jay...

Generally isn't the room gain noticed more when the speaker is closer to a boundary such as a wall? For instance, subwoofer response will generate more room gain in a corner than in the middle of the room.

[jackfish]

My understanding is that low frequencies are harder to deal with than those above about 200 Hz. Simple room treatments can deal with mid and high frequencies whereas low frequencies may require more sensitive speaker and listener placement.

[Ethan Winer]

Sonnie wrote:

Generally isn't the room gain noticed more when the speaker is closer to a boundary such as a wall? For instance, subwoofer response will generate more room gain in a corner than in the middle of the room.

Yes, exactly.

Also:

> My understanding is that low frequencies are harder to deal with than those above about 200 Hz. Simple room treatments can deal with mid and high frequencies whereas low frequencies may require more sensitive speaker and listener placement. <

Bass traps can do a good job down to 50 or 60 Hz if you have enough of them. Below that you could use EQ to reduce the last peak or two a bit, but I'd never try to EQ a null, nor would I use EQ much above 60 Hz.

--Ethan