Question on Room Size

[MarkZimmerman]

My combo listening room/living room is 11' x 19' with 3 exits. 1 on the right
leading to the bedroom and 2 on the left, one going to the kitchen and the
other to the front door. Actaully it's one exit that goes to the front door,
then the kitchen then back to the living room. Question is: is this considered
a large room or not? My system has never been strained by it (Adcom GFA 555
amp, 555 preamp and Infinity Kappy 8 speakers.

Best,

Mark Allen Zimmerman * Chicago

[Uptown Audio]

A mid-sized room by American standards. Especially if the ceilings are
8' or lower. The openings do increase the volume and should be closed
for greatest bass response. If you get too much bass, then you can
adjust by opening one or more. A nice feature at a nice price.
- Bill
www.uptownaudio.com
Roanoke VA
(540) 343-1250

"MarkZimmerman" > wrote in message
news:vVd2b.185694$cF.62226@rwcrnsc53...
> My combo listening room/living room is 11' x 19' with 3 exits. 1 on
the right
> leading to the bedroom and 2 on the left, one going to the kitchen
and the
> other to the front door. Actaully it's one exit that goes to the
front door,
> then the kitchen then back to the living room. Question is: is this
considered
> a large room or not? My system has never been strained by it (Adcom
GFA 555
> amp, 555 preamp and Infinity Kappy 8 speakers.
>
> Best,
>
> Mark Allen Zimmerman * Chicago
>

[Bob Marcus]

(MarkZimmerman) wrote in message news:<vVd2b.185694$cF.62226@rwcrnsc53>...
> My combo listening room/living room is 11' x 19' with 3 exits. 1 on the right
> leading to the bedroom and 2 on the left, one going to the kitchen and the
> other to the front door. Actaully it's one exit that goes to the front door,
> then the kitchen then back to the living room. Question is: is this considered
> a large room or not? My system has never been strained by it (Adcom GFA 555
> amp, 555 preamp and Infinity Kappy 8 speakers.
>
If your system has never been strained by it, then it's not too big for your system.

bob

[Jerry C.]

Uptown Audio wrote:

> A mid-sized room by American standards. Especially if the ceilings are
> 8' or lower. The openings do increase the volume and should be closed
> for greatest bass response. If you get too much bass, then you can
> adjust by opening one or more. A nice feature at a nice price.
> - Bill
> www.uptownaudio.com
> Roanoke VA
> (540) 343-1250
======================================
Bill,

First of all, I thoroughly enjoy and respect your advice. You are
always able to stay on topic and I believe your knowledgeable responses
are helpful to the original questioner.

I am curious about what you mean above when you say "The openings ...
should be closed". Are you proposing that Mark close the "openings" to
his kitchen, bedroom, or front door so that his audio system has better
bass response? I interpret at least one or two of the openings to be an
opening such as a hall or cased opening, rather than a door. Am I
misunderstanding something?

Jerry Cipriano

[Nousaine]

"Jerry C." wrote:



>Uptown Audio wrote:
>
>> A mid-sized room by American standards. Especially if the ceilings are
>> 8' or lower. The openings do increase the volume and should be closed
>> for greatest bass response. If you get too much bass, then you can
>> adjust by opening one or more. A nice feature at a nice price.
>> - Bill
>> www.uptownaudio.com
>> Roanoke VA
>> (540) 343-1250
>======================================
>Bill,
>
>First of all, I thoroughly enjoy and respect your advice. You are
>always able to stay on topic and I believe your knowledgeable responses
>are helpful to the original questioner.
>
>I am curious about what you mean above when you say "The openings ...
>should be closed". Are you proposing that Mark close the "openings" to
>his kitchen, bedroom, or front door so that his audio system has better
>bass response? I interpret at least one or two of the openings to be an
>opening such as a hall or cased opening, rather than a door. Am I
>misunderstanding something?
>
>Jerry Cipriano

FWIW I have a modrately sized listening room (13 x 23 x 18 high) with an open
staircase and foyer. The room also has 6 door-wide other direct potential
'openings' and 2 other possible adjacent openings.

Frequency response measurements and measurements of maximum SPL @ 10%
distortion at 3 listening positions with all the direct and indirect openings
closed show zero differences. I'm guessing that openings must be third-wall
wide to seriously affect the actual acoustical space that needs to be
pressurized.

Perhaps the coupled spaces (foyer and staircases) are so large that minor
openings are irrelevant. I just don't know.

I will tell you thata 12 x 22 x 8 foot room with a single 5-foot wide opening
on one wall (and no other) worked pretty much like an acoustically enclosed
space with one minor exception.

That being that the corner kitty-corner to the opening showed a disturbance at
40 Hz (re listening position) that the other corners did not.

[Uptown Audio]

I don't know whether he has the ability to close doors there or if the
openings are fixed as he did not specify. I guessed that one or two
may have been doorways, but who knows. It is really esoteric if the
room has all corners intact and is not terribly open to a much larger
space. If you can close-off a room acoustically, really seal it rather
well as with solid doors that fit into a trim, then you can increase
the levels there somewhat. If you have openings you lose sound
pressure and therefore bass response as you then increase the volume
of the space without increasing the output capability of the system. I
think that is why he was asking if his room was too small or too big
(optimum perhaps?) as his system seems appropriate for it now. Maybe
he is thinking of relocating it and is trying to decide where. Your
guess is as good as mine. I meant to provide a direct answer to
whether the room might be considered "large". The bass response was
just an added thought about how he might use the room to his advantage
regardless of it's size or the sound of the system presently. If you
were to imagine a room with "walls" consisting of all doors and posts,
then you can more readily imagine how opening and closing various
doors would affect the dynamics, reflections and response of the
system within that space.
- Bill
www.uptownaudio.com
Roanoke VA
(540) 343-1250

"Jerry C." > wrote in message
news:rO47b.289242$cF.89215@rwcrnsc53...
> Uptown Audio wrote:
>
> > A mid-sized room by American standards. Especially if the ceilings
are
> > 8' or lower. The openings do increase the volume and should be
closed
> > for greatest bass response. If you get too much bass, then you can
> > adjust by opening one or more. A nice feature at a nice price.
> > - Bill
> > www.uptownaudio.com
> > Roanoke VA
> > (540) 343-1250
> ======================================
> Bill,
>
> First of all, I thoroughly enjoy and respect your advice. You are
> always able to stay on topic and I believe your knowledgeable
responses
> are helpful to the original questioner.
>
> I am curious about what you mean above when you say "The openings
...
> should be closed". Are you proposing that Mark close the "openings"
to
> his kitchen, bedroom, or front door so that his audio system has
better
> bass response? I interpret at least one or two of the openings to
be an
> opening such as a hall or cased opening, rather than a door. Am I
> misunderstanding something?
>
> Jerry Cipriano
>