# First REW measurements



## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

If there is any advice i can get on my first measurements please let me know. There seems to be a large drop off in mid range at around 60hz and then it shoots back up. I am using a no cal radio shack digital slm and my desktop soundcard which was calibrated. I will upload the screen shots and hopefully it works.


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

I redid measurements a few times and the graphs look the same. I changed a couple of things around and even turned audyssey off and not a big difference. Could this be because of the design of my mains? Should I do a left and right comparison? Also is there a way to test all speakers? I have a 7.1 soundcard on my pc but not sure exactly how to set that up. Seems to me rew only reads a stereo signal.


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

It is really best to run REW curves on each speaker separately. Trying to measure all at once with sine sweeps gives results that are very position dependent and hard to interpret. Could you post your mdat file with separate left and right measurements?


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Yes I will do that today. Thanks for the response


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Here you go and I hope this works. This program is all new to me so please excuse my ignorance in this regard. Hopefully the mdat file is good and you can see everything. took measurements of both speakers once again with a new audyssey calibration but Im not sure if i should do another measurement with audyssey off? It wont hurt to try right?


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

here is the .mdat with audyssey off


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Looks like you can't pull up .mdat files on iPhone or iPad cause of mobile site. Is that correct or did I not post it properly? Any info on this and on my graphs would be much appreciated. Im not quite sure how to interpret the measurements as of yet.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

After applying 1/6-octave smoothing to eliminate the comb filtering and better see the overall trend in response, “with Audyssey” definitely looks better. The hole in response you were concerned about in the opening post was caused by the left speaker (assuming you kept the same “color code” between the Audyssey off/on graphs), and Audyssey did a remarkable job of minimizing it.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Thank you very much for taking a look at it. I appreciate it. I guess it would be good to add some room treatments next right?


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Depends on what you’re shooting for. All the comb filtering your graphs show in the upper frequencies means you have a somewhat “live” room. That bothers some people more than others. Personally I like the room a bit “live” because it sounds more like an actual performance venue, but others don’t see things that way. Treatments can make the room more “dead” and make your graph look more like something smoothed @ 1/48-octave. However, treatments for the upper frequencies do little (if anything) to correct frequency response anamolies. Treatments for low frequencies (bass traps) can reduce the severity of peaks and depressions in subwoofer response, but it takes more of them than most people are willing to put up with. Equalization can help with the frequency response issues, but does nothing for acoustics.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Thanks for the info Wayne! I appreciate it. To me my system sounds great! I don't mind a "live" room either. I do about 65/35 movies to music. I know there are a few spots where I wouldn't mind throwing up some bass traps and absorption panels but if I'm gonna need a ton of them to make a noticeable difference in my space at +6500 cu ft then I won't waste the money on it. Thanks again for the help!


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## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Beg pardon for being slow responding.

I Agree with Wayne P.'s assessment. Audyssey did a pretty good job controlling and "matching up" the two sides. The room is very live and could benefit from acoustical treatment, I would probably attack mid frequencies first, but that's just me.


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

AudiocRaver said:


> Beg pardon for being slow responding.
> 
> I Agree with Wayne P.'s assessment. Audyssey did a pretty good job controlling and "matching up" the two sides. The room is very live and could benefit from acoustical treatment, I would probably attack mid frequencies first, but that's just me.


Thanks for the response. As was mentioned I don't mind a live sound in the room but at the same time I am looking for any suggestions to improve my setup, so I appreciate your suggestion. My only dilemma is my room is going to be very difficult to treat properly and as Wayne stated the amount of treatments most people need will more than likely be way too much to make a serious difference. However if I could tame the mid frequencies with some treatments like you mentioned, I would be up to doing that. Here is a pic of my front wall and I'm sure the reason for the left speaker acting the way it did is because of the space opening up behind the speaker into a hallway but I'm not sure. Any advice I can get to deal with my front wall issues I would be grateful for. You'll see in the pic the issues I have and they are probably obvious. The cubbies are what I have always been most concerned with.


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## MPS (Nov 4, 2009)

Mike0206 said:


> Thanks for the response. As was mentioned I don't mind a live sound in the room but at the same time I am looking for any suggestions to improve my setup, so I appreciate your suggestion. My only dilemma is my room is going to be very difficult to treat properly and as Wayne stated the amount of treatments most people need will more than likely be way too much to make a serious difference. However if I could tame the mid frequencies with some treatments like you mentioned, I would be up to doing that. Here is a pic of my front wall and I'm sure the reason for the left speaker acting the way it did is because of the space opening up behind the speaker into a hallway but I'm not sure. Any advice I can get to deal with my front wall issues I would be grateful for. You'll see in the pic the issues I have and they are probably obvious. *The cubbies are what I have always been most concerned with.*


They seem to be quite deep maybe you could install some (as much as possible) damping material in the back of the "cubbies", it would be kinda invisible from the aesthetic point of view. Surely not the most effective location but rather an easy one..
Ceiling is normally an unoccupied large surface which could offer location for various solutions without interfering normal room layout.


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

They are quite deep 24" to be exact. If I were to close up the two cubbies on top by packing insulation like OC703 in them and finishing off the face with some fabric and wood trim and then do the same fabric and trim to the other two on each side as well but no insulation in them, and have them made out of acoustic panels but make them a functioning door to access the electronics, would that make a difference? Sorry for the run on sentence lol!


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Ok I have done a few treatments to the room such as filling the 2 top and 2 middle cubbies with r-30 insulation and finishing them off with a frame and some burlap fabric. My question now is based on my treatments, should I experiment with speaker placement more to try and even out the bass response further? I will post pics of the treatments as well as my new measurement


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Here are the graphs. The green line and I believe red line are post treatment.


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## Mike0206 (Jul 14, 2013)

Here are a few more current graphs i just generated tonight. I added some more panels on the back wall over the kitchen cabinets since that is the only place i can put them and was wondering how these graphs look in comparison to the previous graphs. I have overlaid previous with new on both right and left spl graphs. before and after added treatments waterfall graphs will be posted as well. Please let me know if there was any benefit to adding these other panels as Im still trying to figure out these graphs and making sense of it all. Thanks.


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