[EDIT] - This definately appears to be room related and not speaker retlated. With the addition of a single bass trap the probelm is licked but I would appriciate your insight on this problem.

I was until recently using crappy computer speakers. Recently I upgraded and now have my soundcard going digital out to a Pansonic XR55.

The speakers used are PSB Image 1B and a PSB Subsonic 6 subwoofer crossed over at 100 via the reciever.

Unless I play at a very low volume my ears start to hurt pretty badly. This never happened with the crap computer speakers even at MUCH louder volume.

The room is a small 8 feet high, 10 feet wide, and 11 feet 8" long.

I'm about 3.5 feet away from the speakers. Initally they were about 2.5 feet and moving them back seems to help. They are sitting on my desk on little rubber mounts to isolate them from the desk. Before the rubber mounts the desk had a vibration - now it doesn't seem to.

I swapped out the PSB with a pair of Polk R15 and that didn't help. I did find out the Polk blow compared to the PSB but other than that not much changed.

The speakers are sitting aproximately 30" off the ground.

I am reminded of this thread. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=825461

I dont have room EQ setup - I tried but couldn't get it setup unfortunately.

I do have a Rat shack meter.

I am very limited as to how I can treat this room although I am building a 6 foot bass trap I hope will help signifigantly.

Any help would be appriciated.

What does your SPL meter show as the average and peak listening levels at your listening position?

What does your SPL meter show as the average and peak listening levels at your listening position?

I measured 80 dB average - peaks go 3-4 above that. I'm listening to rock so there isn't much in the way of dynamics.

That's a fairly decent loudness level. You certainly don't want to go higher!

Do you have the crappy computer speakers still available? Can you measure and compare?

Anyway, I'd suggest installing that bass trap and see if things get better. Other than that, I'd suggest playing some sweeps through the system to see where in the frequency spectrum you have the problem, and maybe try some active EQ.

Nope I sold them.

I have determined that the Polk speakers don't hurt my ears nearly as much at the same volume and compared to the PSB they are lacking in the midbass area so I'm hoping that bass trap will help a lot and perhaps inverting them will help too.

Well - I finished building a 6 foot bass trap - put it in the corner - problem solved.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/MUCHO/Loft/Bass.jpg

No more pain - even at 90+ dB with the PSB speakers.

Bad news - wife is not very understanding about this. :D

This leads me to my next question - for those in the know - do you think mounting this to my front wall (behind the speakers) at ear level would solve the problem as well?

It kind of sounds to me like you should use different speakers as it seems given your statement that the speakers in question are fatiguing to you.

It kind of sounds to me like you should use different speakers as it seems given your statement that the speakers in question are fatiguing to you.

Except the Polk speakers do the same thing. I think it is a simple case of my room resonating a certain frequency. Unfortunately I know very little about this.

Your speakers are at the corner of your desk and the wall - move them up to ear level on the wall and avoid the reflective desk. You will be suffering what is called speaker boundary interference response (SBIR) - to solve it you would have to cover your desk with that bass trap - which I doubt you want to do....but for sure inverting the speakers will make it only worse because it puts the tweeter right on the desk.

Now on the wall you will get a bass bump if they are not designed as on the wall speakers - hopefully your receiver can deal with that with some simple shelving EQ - some speakers will have a boundary compensation switch on the back.

Your corner trap is the best place for dealing with your room modes above the crossover - which you likely have very uneven response because of the small nearly square room. Hanging it from a wire rather than leaning it in the corner will make it more effective. Even more effective will be getting your sub away from the corner. Convince the wife it will look better if all the corners had a trap to even out the interior room design...but if that fails - try a fabric that closer matches the paint and a true floor to ceiling trap to make it look like an angled corner.

As far as fatiguing sound - make sure Windows or your sound card do not have any gimmicks loaded in - it can be rather difficult to get pure digital out of the computer without something mucking up the sound.

Krasmusik -

Thank you for your advice. I will definately try to lift the speakers off the desk more (currently they are sitting on some rubber gromets) to see how much that helps.

If the bass trap is mounted across the corner, it gives it a big air gap to work with (the quarter wavelength is the distance between the corner and the surface). If you mount it on the wall, the air gap will be smaller or non-existent, and you likely won't get as good bass control.

Try wrapping it in white fabric instead, and tell the wife that it's a good compromise :-)