Acoustic treatment question: do you agree with Dennis Foley that $46k to $65k is required?

I am certainly not suggesting that treatment is important and helpful.  I am merely cautioning against the "more the merrier" approach or any kind of formulaic approach to treatment.  It is really a quite painstaking procedure that is quite hard to do because of the natural bias (hopefulness) toward thinking that any given addition is improving matters.  I don't know of any really good procedure except careful trial and error.  

A friend added some modest treatment to a small listening room (corner traps and diffusers, and absorption at the first reflection point).  An industry expert that has heard thousands of different rooms around the country is a friend of his that came over to help out with the room.  We were told to close our eyes while the expert performed some alterations which we then commented upon.  To our surprise, the sound improved when the first reflection point absorbers were removed.  I had thought that this was a basic thing that almost always helps, but, he said that while it usually helps, this is not always the case.  The next surprise was when he leaned against the side wall to damp some resonance--again that turned out to hurt the sound (certainly not my expectation).  The best thing for improving the sound turned out to be opening a closet door at the back of the room which acted as a sort of bass trap.  The point of this is not that this or that treatment works, but that it is nearly impossible to make any sort of generalized recommendation--proper treatment involves careful listening and application of products or practices after trying them out.

The point of this is not that this or that treatment works, but that it is nearly impossible to make any sort of generalized recommendation--proper treatment involves careful listening and application of products or practices after trying them out.

Very wisely said.... Thanks...


All industrial recipe may improve a room, but optimizing a room is not and never a result of a general recipe...I speal here of an usual and normal room use for music.... Anybody with money can redesign the acrchiecture of a room ONLY for music.... The cost then will be very high and possibly higher than the audio system itself.... My advices are for "poor" auddiophiles, about normal room used for music and treated and acoustically controlled at LOW COST.... It is possible....


No room has the same proportion, geometry, and topology and the same acoustic content ...These 4 factors make it impossible, especially if i add a fifith one, the specific speakers demands, to mechanize the acoustic work... EARS is the tool and the main one here....

No general recipe so costly it is will succeed in optimization, only a variable improvement at best....

We must use in a dedicated room not only passive material treatment, but also active mechanical Helmholtz controls to do so .... The room must be treated for the sound circulation waves, but also especially controlled for some specific demand and specific lack from the speakers specific "colored" band emmission.... I use a grid of Helmholtz resonators and diffusers precisely located to "sculp" the room pressure zones FOR the speakers sonic  physionomy TO MY SPECIFIC EARS...

It's required for Dennis Foley, obviously - sure ain't required for ME! I don't go nuts with this kind of stuff.... 

It’s required for Dennis Foley, obviously - sure ain’t required for ME! I don’t go nuts with this kind of stuff....

I dont know for the price, i make it myself at low cost, but Dennis Foley is damn right about the HUGE improvement acoustic give that no UPGRADE will ever replace....

You cannot say i need NEW speakers but not so much acoustic treatment and controls...

Most of the times we need acoustic work more than new speakers.... Save if they are bad, very bad one or not the right one for the room...

If you dont go "nuts" for acoustic you will never listen to what your audio system can do....

At an audio show, a manufacturer, I believe it was GIK, had a very impressive demonstration of room treatment.  They booked two identical hotel rooms, and treated one room with their products, and had the other room untreated.  They set up identical systems in the two rooms.  One could listen to something in one room then hear the same selection in the other room.  The treated room was NOT stuffed with treatment panels like I've seen in some audiophile system, so the room looked like something someone could realistically install in a home.  I liked what I heard, but of course, it was not just the products but also the expertise of the people doing the setup, that made the difference.