Having exonerated all my electronics as the source, I am left only with the room as the source of the ringing and shouty sound. The room has 8thnerve Adapt corner treatments which has helped a lot with tonality, and seems to have helped with the shout a little too. But it is still there and I can't figure out what is going on. On Bryan's recommendation last year I tried some GIK 244s behind the speakers to reduce SBIR. I found it hard to live with the deadening of the soundstage. Maybe because the rest of the room is so live, the absorption behind was not balanced? Many aspects of the sound did improve with the 244s behind the speakers though and I ran them that way for a couple months. Maybe the 244s are just too powerful back there. Behind the speakers they don't effect the shouty sound anyway, and that is the biggest problem now.
It seems that the more I improve my electronics, the worse the sound gets. That is not a happy feeling, especially when I am only improving electronics to get rid of the shout sound which seemed to be coming from the speakers, but now I know better. I think it is because the harmonics and dynamics are being played back much clearer and louder and are able to excite the room that much better than with the low powered Cary integrated amp.
I also got a couple GIK tri traps to try to even out a bass suckout around 65-85Hz. The two dips are very low Q so I don't really hear it. The Focus speakers specifically address mid bass suckout with a 12" mid bass driver so maybe that's why I have no problem with the bass, sounds awesome to me.
There is a lot of comb filtering, some of it 30-40dB in amplitude, and I suspect this is the harshness I am hearing. Most surfaces are in the room are hard, so there is a strong unpleasant room sound even just talking in there. It is a combo family room, kitchen, breakfast area with open passageways to dining room and hallway.
I am thinking I need more soft stuff to absorb mids and maybe some absorption on the walls of some sort. But I am just guessing, and I sure don't want to keep experimenting with treatments. I'll try one more go at it then I guess I'll have to hire Rives to come in here and figure it out.
I tried placing the 244s in various places around the room to block out reflections from reaching the listening position to isolate a source of the resonance. I put pillows behind my head and on top of my head while my daughter laughed and wanted to "do it too". I put the traps on either side of one speaker playing in mono. The resonance is just coming from everywhere. It is not one reflection. I guess that's why they call it resonance - haha.
How much hard surface should be exposed compared to soft absorbent surfaces?
I will make some new freq responses of the room with and without the Adapts, maybe we can come up with a concensus what to try? Here is the
floorplan.Thanks!
Rich