Too much room treatment?

[JonFo]

Now, I will grant that for many, especially the 2ch only crowd, that the delayed, out of phase energy can give an ‘ambiance’ that no point source or monopole line source could give.

But I find it like having a permanent effect turned on in the system. There are recordings that already have a reverberant field encoded in them, and the overlay of all that additional reverb is just too much.

I’ve noted over the years that some of the favorite / most praised recordings on this site tend to be very ‘dry’ mixes (little original room sound). The reason is, this allows your system and room to add reflected energy without competing with what’s already in the recording.

 

[joealtus]

Well I'm back in town and back to my research on MLs and home theater.

From what I've read here, and there are a number of good threads here on room treatment, I'm getting the feeling that a healthy amount of reflection is welcome for 2 channel listening, but for multichannel, you want some absorption to let the multichannel mix do the work.

So I'd like to ask if anyone thinks that I've got a room suitable for MLs. Here are a couple of pictures. As you can see, this is a multi-purpose room with a lower level of seating for the screen and an upper level with a poker table and pool table. The room is roughly l-shaped, about 580 square feet (and roughly 8 foot average in height).

Where the screen is, the ceiling is "barn-shaped" but flattens out at the back of the room, except the left hand side keeps an angle all the way to the back.

As you can see, the front wall is treated, as are the first reflection points on the sides.

So my questions are:

1. Does this look like I could set up an ML multichannel surround system in this room? I'm considering the Vistas with a Motif center and Passage surrounds. The distance from the front of my current speakers to my ears is about 9 1/2 feet. The fronts of my current speakers are roughly 2 1/2 feet from the front wall.

2. When ML recommends putting the speakers 2-3 feet away from the wall (in the Vista manual), do they mean from the panel, or from the back of the woofer enclosure? If 3 feet from back of woofer enclosure to the wall is optimal, that puts the speakers about 7 1/2 feet from my ears.

Should I put this in a new thread?