Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Room acoustic question

Can the room acoustic affect the sound differently at different volume levels?
The reason I am asking is because my room is acoustically very bad, it's 20x11x8 ft, hardwood floors, plain walls and very little furniture. At the beginning it was pretty bad, then later, after putting a high pile rug on the floor, it became much better. Up to know, I only listened at moderate levels but this weekend, I had a friend over, I put on the Dave Matthews BD concert and as usual, it sounds very good. My friend then asked me to turn up the volume. At high volume, the imaging became pretty bad, the sound became more "blurry", and it sounded almost the same as before I had put the rug. When going back to lower volumes, it sounds good again. Is that possible or is it just me since I am not used to the sound of these speakers at this level?

Volume levels are hard to discern over the internet as well as listener preferences during that moment but I would also look into the possibility that it might not be the room acoustics but rather that you are clipping the amp or at least starting to push it to its limits when you start turning it up to "high volume" which is causing the negative impact on the sound quality.

Thanks Dr but I don't think it's clipping or at least I cannot hear it. For reference I was still at -8 dB on the receiver, the only time I've ever heard clipping was when I first got the speakers and I had it at +5dB (insanely loud). This sounds more like the sound is not as clear, not as detailed.

I think it is a combination of room acoustics and that the M80s don’t roll off the highs. One of the several reasons I bought he M80s was that unlike most other speakers that do roll off the highs the louder the M80s get the highs still keep up. In a potentially “bright” room this can sound quite harsh IMO.

Before installing my curtains I had a similar experiences with my M80s here in my house even with a carpeted floor. However, now with the curtains up 270 degrees around the room there is no harshness no matter how loud I push them as long as their not distorting.

Until I installed my curtain I just used the “front treble” to reduce the high end when playing them loud.

Can you explain what does that mean? I am not familiar with the terminology, sorry.

Also, the fact that the highs increase with volume, would that make m perception of the sound being less detailed, I don't find it harsh, I find the sound blurry. I had the same feeling before I put the rug, even at low volumes. I understand that the rug removes the first reflections, could it be that at higher volumes it is not enough and that what I am experiencing is just the sound bouncing from the floor and the walls at high volume which I don't hear at low volumes?

Hi Bruno. Dean would be referring to the frequency chart of the M80 vs some other brands as some manufacturers deliberately attenuate the higher freq's because they feel, well, that's what their customers prefer. Co's like Axiom, Paradigm and PSB, for instance, will try to maintain a flat freq response right up to 20khz as that is their design philosophy. Their testing has shown that this is preferred by listeners to the "rolled off" or attenuated highs that Dean aluded to.

(don't mean to butt in and answer for Dean, btw. Okay, yah I did...)

I think I understand, thanks. But if these manufacturer have lower highs, this will also be noticeable at lower volumes, not just at higher volume, correct?

Correct.

Also many speakers don't have tweeters which can keep up. As the volume level increases their dynamic range compresses. So at different levels the high frequency response is different. With two tweeters the M80s can play much louder without compression.