Accoustically treating an odd loft space??

[kurt]

I have an unusual loft space that I'm trying to make sound right. I feel good about the components I chose and in a controlled listening room they sound really great to my ears. Problem being they don't sound so great in my listening room.

I'm running all Martin Logan's for speakers. Please check my profile if u wanna see the exact gear. I have some odd stuff to go around such as a catwalk, stairs, exposed pipes and an open railing system behind my listening area. I definitely need to treat my room and I've been looking into all sorts of different companies and their products. Its almost dizzying all of the information that goes into tuning a room. So I thought I'd ask for some help from those whose know a bit more. I see there's a few experts with products on here as well as some people who have figured out what works best for their space so here goes. I'll start with the dimensions and then the pics and get this started before this post gets waaay to long...

Room Dimensions
16ftx19ftx16ft high.

[bpape]

Hi Kurt. Welcome to the forum.

The first thing I notice is the absolute total lack of any soft surfaces. Brick walls, all hard floors, etc. The furniture is good but just not enough in that space. Here are the kinds of things I'd recommend:

- Diffusion behind the MLs. This needs to be controlled and normally we'd use absorbtion. With a panel, you just can't or you screw up the balance.
- Get a good rug on the floor of good size between you and the speakers.
- Move your seat away from that hard surface (half wall) behind you and put some broadband absorbtion behind you on the floor/wall intersection
- Scattered absorbtion on the side walls for reflection control. This may be an issue since you have shelving on one side but if it's albums/books, they'll provide some absorbtion at least - much better than a brick wall for sure.
- Ceiling, this can be done with an absorbtive cloud (recommended) and/or some diffusion. I recommend the absorbtion since it's the same dimension as another dimension in the space.
- Broadband bass control in the front 2 corners and across the front wall/ceiling intersection.
- Up high on the side walls, now here's where we really need to think (and probably the last thing to be done). I'd do the rest first and see how you like it. If you're good with the imaging and the decay times are good but we still have echo/slap/zing from the untreated up high, then I'd go diffusion. If we need more control still, then a combination of absorbtion and diffusion is most likely the answer.

Bryan

[thekl0wn]

I'm sorry I don't have any useful acoustical advise, but I just wanted to say that, that space is completely awesome! I love the looks from every angle!

[kurt]

Bryan,

Thanks for the reply I have been checking out the GIK products and they do look pretty nice. I think with this space I'm going to end up with some stuff from a few different companies. I am currently interested in GIK, Realtraps, and ASC tube traps. I like what I hear about the tube traps and I will probably get a few of those but they are pretty big investment and won't work for all of the areas in question.

Areas in question?

I do plan to put some panels behind the couch. It measures 12ft which should work our perfect for 3 panels. Wondering if I should vary them highs, lows, diffusion??

I would like to put a rug on the floor sounds like an easy fix. Gotta battle with the lady to cover up the rail road tracks running along the floor. They're a little hard to see until I angle grind them so that they stick out a little more.

I have that big pipe in the corner which is going to be tough to get something in front of?

Theres going to be a rack for the components in the general area that they're sitting on the floor. So I don't know if that will interfere with putting a trap in the corner behind it?

I do plan on treating the ceiling area I will post some pics of the ceiling as well later today. I will wait to do this until I get a handle on the stuff on ground level.

Theres a bit more but I gotta head off to work so we'll pick this up later...

Thanks, I appreciate the help...

~Kurt

[kurt]

Lee,

Thanks for the compliment. I love this space too... I have a soft spot for old historical buildings that fall out of use and are reclaimed into something cool...

My listening space is an old loading dock. They left the old railroad tracks in there and just concreted up to them which I think is soo cool... Its fun to listen to music and think of what used to happen in this space.

~Kurt

[bpape]

The panels behind the couch would all be primarily for bass control and would be completely hidden by the couch. They'd be straddling the wall/floor corner most likely.

For around the pipe, something like a 4 or 6" thick panel straddling that corner would most likely go right around it with no issues and hide it at the same time.

Railroad tracks - huh? Hmmmmm. Rug that resembles a road maybe crossing the tracks?

Bryan

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Ditto what Lee said! - what an ultra-cool place! Especially the tracks – wouldn’t have noticed that if you hadn’t mentioned it!

Regards,
Wayne

[kurt]

I am working on the rug thing Bryan. Its gonna be tough. Does a rug really make a dramatic difference or is it pretty subtle?

Does GIK make custom size panels? I need some that are 1ft wide rather than 2ft wide to fit on the metal loading dock strip which is right behind my head when I'm on the couch.

I also considered putting some absorptive materials underneath my catwalk to catch some of the stuff that bounces underneath it as it would be easy to hide some 2 in panels underneath there.


Thanks

~Kurt,

P.S. Thanks for the compliments on the space Wayne.

[bpape]

Custom sized panels can be made as long as they're 2'x4' or less. 12" x 4' is not a problem.

Having a soft surface to kill floor reflections is not a subtle difference.

Bryan