Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Hearing Things Stupid Room Tricks

Removing the panel on the right was too much. I tried a few combinations, including having two rigid panels in various positions against the "front wall" window, and ended up with something simple -- moving both panels (arrow and X) about 6" to the right. That seemed to balance the reflected sound a bit more consistently. All of the other options seemed significantly worse.

Putting two panels on the front wall rather than one made a big difference -- basically all the instruments in the middle of the soundscape stayed there but seemed really quiet. The instruments were still loud, but the impression of the instrument in a specific spot was much reduced. Not good. Maybe that's why the general recommendation is absorption on the back wall and diffusion on the front.

The interesting thing was that having an alternating mix of reflection and absorption really made a difference -- too much absorption in one place made for a really dead sound. In one sense this is a seriously black art, but the general guidelines from acoustic treatment vendor sites and forums seem to work really well.

AFAICS the complexity comes from the fact that the system is off to one side rather than being centered in the room. In my previous system setups (all centered in the room) getting the acoustics right has been much less work... but that was in another century.