Hello; this is my first post in this part of REP. I usually frequent Brad's Mastering forum as that is what I do. I know basically nothing about acoustics so hope this is not a dumb question...
I recently moved my gear into a new (to me) room and have been getting great results so far. I can hear much better in this room than where I was before. It is a Russ Berger designed room and is about 12'w x 17'l.
When I got everything set up and first started listening, I noticed that it seemed darker than what I was used to but I attributed that to the fact that I had a fairly large null in my previous room between about 80-160Hz. So, now that I can hear the bass, it sounds darker than what I had gotten used to.
The room has absorptive panels covering the front wall behind the monitors, on the side walls back to about 2/3 of the way back (~12') except for the left wall which is the typical Russ Berger window wall and then again on the back wall behind the listening position. Imbedded in the absorptive panels on the back wall are 8 2sq ft diffusor panels. The monitors are about 8' or so apart and toe in to the listening position which is just toward the back from the center of the room. The monitor axis points to the back wall just inside the opposite rear corners to a spot which is outside the coverage of the diffusion panels.
Anyway, I have noticed that when I cup my hands behind my ears, I hear a noticeable increase in the higher freqs.
Is this normal? or should I hear no difference in a properly treated room? Should the monitors point at the diffusors? I think the room needs some trapping so could this be caused by some bottom end issues? I'm able to turn out good masters pretty quickly so the room translates pretty well but I'd like to really tweak it in.
Thanks for any help you guys can offer.