Room with an Entrance

[gus4emo]

Hi all, those of you that have one, do you use some type of coverage, or have used one, which way do you like your sound?

[cheapthryl]

All my rooms have entrances and mostly I use doors

[vneal]

my audio room has no doors at all

[hemster]

If the OP is talking about an opening without doors, I would say that a screen of some sort should be considered. There are many choices depending on the situation. These range from pocket doors to roll-up screens to tie-back drapes. I believe covering would be a better option than leaving it open.

[thompson12]

My room only has exits I have to go in through the out door

Mitch

[gus4emo]

At the end of the stairs leading to the basement the entrance is kind of L shaped, I want to come up with an idea to cover it, so the bass won't go up the stairway..

[509Paul]

Can you really stop bass? 

[gus4emo]

I'm sure it will make a big difference.

[Deleted]

My question is:  are you trying to make your room fairly soundproof to the rest of the house (keeping the sound in your audio/HT room) or are you trying to have the best sound within your room (and you don't care if the sound is heard in other parts of your house)?  Sounds like the first, but just in case:

If it is the second part you want, having the best in-room sound, then many times an open door or opening to outside the room is a plus.  In a house about 20 years ago, I had a second 5.1 system (Klipsch plus big sub) in my master bedroom.  The double door entrance was almost always closed as was the door to the master bathroom which was off to the side of the bed, which was my main listening spot (no other open doors or openings, walk-in closet door was always closed).  I would listen to music or watch movies while resting in bed.  I was not completely happy with the sound so I did some frequency response tests and found a bass hump issue.  After lots of experimenting, I finally simply tried leaving the door to the master bathroom open, rather than usually being closed.  BINGO! The bass frequency issues went away, it was that simple.  That opening off to the side of the bed apparently relieved a standing wave issue or some FR issue that was causing an annoying bass hump.  Not sure if this is helpful at all to you.   There was at times some humping in the bed but that was not a problem and none of the Lounge Lizards business!

[gus4emo]

The bass can spill out, my main idea is to contain it by blocking the entrance, keep most of the ultra low frequencies in the basement.

[Deleted]

I don't think the idea that the bass will spill out of the room is correct or that most of the lows will sneak out of the room and lower the volume of the bass in your room.  I think whether the entrance to the room is open or closed might effect the flatness of the bass but not prevent you from getting good and adequate bass at your main listening area/seats if the sub is placed in the best location in the room.  Maybe someone here can correct my thoughts if I'm wrong  

[jmilton]

                                                    ideal spot                                    null from cancellation

[yves]

Mar 1, 2016 13:33:13 GMT -5 gus4emo said:

The bass can spill out, my main idea is to contain it by blocking the entrance, keep most of the ultra low frequencies in the basement.

Bass waves can fairly easily travel through a closed door if it's not soundproof. As long as the door doesn't produce rattling sounds due to it starting to resonate to certain bass frequencies, bass energy "leakage" is not necessarily a problem in pure terms of room acoustics, and can actually even help to improve certain bass anomalies (at the expense of soundproofing between the two acoustic spaces in question of course). For another example of bass leakage, drywall instead of solid brick or concrete will help reduce the total amount of bass trapping performance needed in order for the room to start sounding pretty good. But the bass that escapes into the next room can also be reflected such that a part of it travels back to the room whence it came from. So the modal ringing of the room on the other side of the non-soundproof boundary will have some effect to the bass. The easiest way to find out what is happening sonically is to accurately measure the room acoustics, before and after a change is made, and then compare the two waterfall plots in REW by using the Overlay + Transparency features. The transparency mode in REW can be switched between main/overlay/both to ease comparison between the plots.

[gus4emo]

yves, I see your point, should I even bother or should I try and see if there's any significant difference in my basement, also another question, why does the bass sound better (most of the time) in a car?

[gus4emo]

I meant with windows up in a car

[gus4emo]

Mar 1, 2016 20:36:47 GMT -5 gus4emo said:

yves, I see your point, should I even bother or should I try and see if there's any significant difference in my basement, also another question, why does the bass sound better (most of the time) in a car? With windows up/quote]

[yves]

Mar 1, 2016 20:40:45 GMT -5 gus4emo said:

yves, I see your point, should I even bother or should I try and see if there's any significant difference in my basement, also another question, why does the bass sound better (most of the time) in a car? With windows up

A good explanation can be found in this article, specifically in the last part:
realtraps.com/art_small_rooms.htm

[gus4emo]

Thanks.

[Gary Cook]

My sub woofer fires towards an opening that is 4 metres wide and 8 metres high, so not much chance of cancellation echo. As a result not a lot of need for bass traps either. Note the similarity, open space and bass traps, does trapping the bass reduce it? Does bass get lost in a bass trap? Doesn't bass sound better with appropriate traps, note better not louder. If louder is your a aim then larger drivers with more amp power is a superior answer whilst maintains the quality with traps (or open space).

The car, with windows up, is more an enclosed pressure effect, you feel the bass due to the pressure changes inside the car. Not hearing the bass as much as feeling the pressure waves. The ratio of cone displacement to available air space inside a car is much greater than in the average room.

Cheers
Gary

[gus4emo]

I understand your point, my whole thing is that I want to keep the ultra low frequencies in my basement and of course low bass in it as much as I can.