Best orientation of HT Room for acoustics

[Raider]

I am working on an HT room. The room is is 17.5 feet by 16 feet. One side of the 16' dimension is adjacent to an open stairwell which effectively means it is 19 feet to the wall for the most part. The ceiling is a-shaped with the ridge of the ceiling running along the 17' axis. The peak is 10' high , the ceiling is 8' high at the side walls.

I can orient the room either with the line of sight parallel to the peak of the ceiling facing the 10' peaked wall, or perpendicular to the peak facing an eight foot wall.

To the rear of the eight foot wall is a walk in attic, whic would afford a lot of flexibility for running wiring, placing inwall subwoofer enclosures, building in racks, etc.

Which orientation would likely be the best acoustically?

I am planning to place acoustic treatment as necessary. Dimensionally wich orientation would be best? What are the most likely trouble spots?

Thanks

[colterphoto1]

I'm thinking that stairwell is you biggest trouble spot. Place it behind you and rear speaker placement might be a problem, if not acoustics. But if the open stairs are to one side, the room will sound different acoustically L to R.

I think the vaulted ceiling is beneficial either way. I'd say based on this info, work perpendicular to the vault. and project on the 8' high wall. That puts the staiwell behind you, it could possibly be blocked off with wall or other acoustical material to dampen any 'echoes'.

And whatever you do, you have 16 feet to play with, get the chairs out there in the middle somewhere. The room would be wide enough that you might be able to have your setup to one end of it and possibly put bar area or additional seating on the other end.

M

[damonrpayne]

Do you have a drawing of the area?

[mas]

I too was hoping for a diagram. []

Just a few ideas...

Generally speaking, a cathedral ceiling can be treated as a regular wall/ceiling surface provided its ridge orientation runs from the front to the rear of the space (and precluding any significant additional structures such as beams, etc.).

But cathedral ceilings can present a significant problem if their ridge orientation runs from left to right relative to the 'stage'. The reason for this is that the rearmost ceiling surface will tend to concentrate its reflection in the rear half of the room (the exact location dependent upon the specifics of the reflecting surface angle, etc.). In this case, more significant surface treatment utilizing diffusion and/or absorbtion will be required to address the focused reflection.

All other aspects of the room being 'ignored' in relation to this issue, I would orient the room with the ceiling ridge running from front to rear to avoid issues with the hard focused downward reflection.

But please bear in mind this is all hypothetical without the benefit of looking at the actual topology of the room.

[DrWho]

Ya, a diagram would work wonders. Acoustically I would agree that having the ridge running from front to back would be the best approach, but the alternative is a workable solution (and when tweaked well could possibly sound better...).

I think the advantages of the attic behind the 8 foot wall make it a very good candidate for being the front of the room.

I know we've been talking about custom subwoofage - you're in a prime position for infinite baffleage [H]