Tommy_tucker

Clearly much more to this than I had realised, and much more space required as well. Thanks again for the time spent in responding. Ultimately I dont think I have an additional 30cm to spare behind the bookcase, the bookcase itself is already eating into valuable living room space and my wife definitely wont understand the project. Starting to wonder whether I should stick with the ARC room correction and be happy. My daily browsing of the classifieds for a pair of larger floor standing speakers may have to come to an end, wonder what I will do with my free time now. 😉

Ha, no I try to avoid hurling money around when possible. I have taken room measurements using ARC on my anthem mrx avr and posted them above. Is there more to it than that?

Your bookshelf and room design looks really fantastic, thank you for sharing. I can only imagine how much better a room like this must sound. The bookshelf design has given me a few things to think about.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Yes, wooden floors and panel type of ceiling (its old, so not really gyprock but similar). I will look into this then as a first step. Sounds like more drastic treatment is needed but will take it one step at a time. Ultimately Im still pleased with the sound I have at the moment but the bass issues have certainly stopped me from chasing after bigger speakers for the moment. Both a blessing and curse.

almikel / thirddrawerdown, Thanks for your replies. The priority is control of bass in the room. Sound isolation is a secondary concern. The room is double brick on all four walls (with exception of the large window on the left). almikel - I am assuming these design recommendations are at the front of the bookcase?: using absorption at the top/bottom/sides the entire the depth of the book case limp mass at the front of the absorption on some "cells" of the book case - requiring some design based on your room's bass issues I was hoping something behind the bookcase would provide some benefit as I am limited with how I can change it aesthetically. 'cheap poly batts' - I looked at the bunnings website, should I go for something in particular - ie. higher R number or lower? Would you describe my room as rigid? the measurements below are from my anthem mrx AVR. When I turn on ARC it cleans up the bass but it sounds like I lose the lowest frequencies.

Cool, thanks. I will put some stuff down the back and see what happens. Looking forward to testing the room after it is complete. I would like to move from bookshelf speakers to floorstanders but I am reluctant to do so while I have this issue. Have also wondered whether a more powerful amp might control the bass better but that is a different conversation.

Thank you for the replies. batmaqn - Speaker position is non-negotiable with my wife unfortunately. I have tried, trust me! Originally I had it set up facing away from the bookcase wall but it is a shared room and I had to compromise. I have moved the fronts around in their current location and have noticed a significant difference in sound, even with only 15cm adjustments. Ultimately the bass problem may be exacerbated by my listening position which is close to the back wall. Bilbo - In wall insulation is probably a step too far for me, I am only considering treatment between the planned bookcase and the existing wall. Equally, corner bass traps would be ideal, but I can only go as far putting something behind the bookcase for aesthetic reasons. From the responses is sounds like the bookcase and books may reflect most of the sound before it reaches any material placed behind the bookcase. Luc - thanks for the photos, looks like a great room. So soundcheck gyprock and acoustic insulation behind the bookcase was your choice. What acoustic insulation did you use? Was your intention to dampen the room with this or prevent noise escaping the room? I can imagine your acoustics being good from your photos (carpet especially) - I have wooden floors partly covered by rug. Mat - agree 100%, our child is also good at sleeping through noise, even with the sub vibrating the house 😉. He is 2 now, wondering whether he start complaining in a few years.

Can I pick your brains. I am having a bookcase built in to my living room (proposed location in blue below). I find low frequency bass becomes muddy in my room and was hoping I might be able to correct this by putting some material behind the bookcase, or by designing it in some other way to maximise its dampening ability. If there is no dampening benefit to be gained by putting material behind the bookcase, will the bookcase in itself help my issue? I have read conflicting advice on the acoustic benefits of books. As the bookcase will be at the opposite end of the room to my speakers (but not facing them), is there still a benefit to be had in this location? I am assuming anything is better than the existing bare wall (brick). Layout below: Secondly, my toddler's bedroom is next door to the living room, the other side of the planned bookcase. My next priority (after dampening) is to increase soundproofing. Again - can someone recommend a material that I can put behind the bookcase to help soundproofing of the room. My gut feel is soundproofing may be easier to achieve than dampening but keen to learn from others, thanks in advance.

Great feedback, thanks for posting.

I think the query was anthem receiver's built in amp compared to external amp (Elektra etc).

Me too.

Thanks Snoopy, thats what it boils down to I suppose. So for movies I might get better bang per buck from a multichannel elektra, as suggested by Happy Sacks, but for music I would be better off with an integrated. If I put in an integrated amp does all the AVR's power that is saved from the L&R channels end up being rerouted to the centre and surrounds, or is it not that simple? My surrounds are small satellites, so I would hope most of the power would be thrown into the centre channel where it is needed most. Or does each channel have an allocated power limit somehow.

Interesting - but this wouldn't bring any improvement to the pre amp stage, do you think the mrx's pre is good enough already?

Hello, MRX 310 owner here. I am pleased with the sound from my anthem which is paired with Dynaudio x18s (4 ohm / 86db) for the front L and R of my 5.1 system. However, I have upgradeitis and have been wondering about ways I might be able to make music sound even better. I was recently advised by a friendly forum member that stereo performance might be improved by adding an integrated amp. I am just tinkering, and perhaps I should quit while I am ahead as I do like the sound I get now, but then I wonder how much better it could be. I streaming Tidal through chromecast audio, which I find sounds fuller and richer than Spotify premium. To put it simply, my question is whether my speakers will benefit from an integrated over my 310, which is the lowest powered unit. I am not trying to make music louder, just improve quality. That said, when I watch movies the volume is sometimes right up in the 0 -10 range, so maybe I do need more power. I have experimented with speaker positioning and found it makes a noticeable difference - just crossing that off the list of possible improvements.