Order of Room Tests

Hey guys. My room is starting to shape up now so I was wondering how to go about testing the room. Is it best to start with it completely empty - then move speakers in and find a good position, or put basic things like bass traps and soffits in and then test from there? I'm just wondering as I don't want to put the bezel on my soffits until I find the best speaker spots, but don't want moving other treatments in to effect the testing process. Thanks, Gareth

Gareth, There are no hard and fast rules about it. But, IMO, testing the room empty is only useful if you're going to use the room empty. Which doesn't seem likely. I would suggest moving in the largest bits of furniture and gear that are not going to be very mobile into the room. That is, if you know where they're going. If you're flexible on that aspect (i.e., you aren't set on how the room will be set up), then you probably want to start your testing there; arrangement A vs. arrangement B vs. ... Same with treatments - some might be in the room regardless, so you might as well start testing with those in place, give or take. If your treatments are all portable (more or less), then find the right spot for your loudspeakers first. Then start adding treatments. All the best,

Good tips! Guess I won't bother doing much until I've got most of the parts constructed - perhaps leave things like putting slats on helmholtz resonators until I know the problem frequencies of the room. I'm assuming its best to keep the speaker alignment until all the treatment is in, which would probably give the best room sound - I was just concerned putting soffit bezels on would change how I would need to treat the room. Thanks for the tips, Gareth

A good question with no good answer. :( Personally, I would build the soffits, install the speakers, put in about 95% of the treatment I calculated I need, and then test like mad to determine final amounts and fine tuning them. [urlhttp://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1991-07.pdf]BBC RD 1991-07[/url] has an example of reverb time INCREASING with added absorption. Fig 7 shows this. Other BBC RD reports have shown how room modes are greater and lower in frequency compared to calculated. Well measured, Andre