A U
D I O... P A P E R

OPTIMAL DIMENSIONS for a LISTENING ROOM

JAN 2002
by Steve Deckert
 

The very first thing one should consider when choosing or building a room for dedicated
listening is it's physical dimensions.  This alone will effect sound quality more than any
other thing you can do. I know, I learned this the hard way - more than once.

My listening room at the shop was based on no engineering whatsoever.  I knew it

would be a bad room before I started.  I thought this would be ideal for evaluating our
amps in a handicapped environment (the real world) and would prove more enlightening
than a perfect room (which few people have).

Well to make a long story short, I was a bad room and served its purpose admirably
until about 2 years later when I simply couldn't stand it anymore.  After re-reading my
Masters Handbook on Acoustics I was inspired to remodel the room, especially after I
realized that it was physically possible to change it's dimensions to exactly fit one of
the optimal formulas below:

The optimal dimensions for a listening room are:

  DESIGN OPTION A DESIGN OPTION B DESIGN OPTION C

Room width   = 1.14 x Height 1.28 x Height 1.60 x Height
Room length = 1.39 x Height 1.54 x Height 2.33 x Height
       

They key in my room was the drop ceiling.  Above it I had almost another 12 inches
meaning I could go for a 9 foot ceiling height, change two walls and be done.

The new room is Design #2

The ceiling height was changed from 8 feet to 8.83 feet (106 inches)  That was as
close to 9 feet as I could get it.  Everything keys off the ceiling height.  

The width was changed from 12 feet to 11.3 feet. (8.83 x 1.28)

The length was changed from 22 feet to 13.6 feet. (8.83 x 1.54)

Here is a pic of the old 12 x 22 room.  

Standing in the same spot here is a shot of the new room.

It has a 6 foot opening at one end with the

remainder of the original listening room just
on the other side.  Flanking the opening with
a pair of speakers gives the sound stage
almost infinite depth.

So as you can see, the room was actually

made smaller.  The difference in sound is
amazing.  The two rooms can't even be
compared the differences are so vast.

The results of this near perfect room were

easily measured and it has elevated the
sound of my stereo to a point far beyond
what it was.  Speakers, amps, sources, cables, power conditioners, and tweaks didn't
make enough of a difference in the original room to be worth while when compared to
the difference this room made using the exact same combinations of gear.  Let me drive
this home a little harder...  A man upgrades to a $4500.00 source and sees a 15 %
 improvement in the overall sound of his system..  Then we take him back in time and
have him keep his original source, but change rooms on him to something like this.  Now
he hears a 40% improvement in the overall sound of his system.  Then we get him the
$4500.00 source he wanted and because he is able to accurately hear it in his new
room, he realizes that it makes more like a 25% improvement - not 15%. !  The end
result gives him a 65% improvement in the overall sound of his system.  The remodeled
room cost around $1000.00 with treatments.  After spending many weeks with his new
room and system the man hears into everything farther and finds out that certain
cables he thought he liked he actually doesn't like anymore, and on it goes.  If you're
accurately going to judge a beauty contest it helps to have 20/20 vision.

So study the formulas.  See if adjusting a wall or ceiling a few inches or feet can put
you into a ideal room dimension.  Don't worry about it getting smaller or larger than it is
now, it really won't matter.  As long as the room fits one of the three formulas it will
sound better than good.

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