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I can prove your room is bad

So you want to upgrade?  You want to know what the next big thing is you can do for a better sounding experience?

Try this.  Pull up a chair 2' in front of your speakers.  If you can't move the speakers, put it up to just 1, and listen for yourself.

The difference between what you hear sitting in front of the speaker like this, and what you hear at your normal location is all in the speaker dispersion and room acoustics. If you feel mesmerized, entranced, and wowed by your speaker at 2' but not 8' you really should consider improving the room, and if you can't, consider getting speakers with alternative room coupling, like ESL's, line arrays, bi-polars, etc.

That is all,


Erik
erik_squires
kingsleuy's avatar
kingsleuy
180 posts
 
@erik_squires The room is essential gear.

In my world my girlfriend is the ultimate Essential Gear.

Yes the room is horrible.  Absolutely, system can be improved.  But I and girlfriend enjoy it still.  As liberal as she is there are many things stereo wise I will not get away with.  Moving furniture around is one of them.  Hell will be paid if I move the speakers out into the room.  Temporarily, okay.  Been there.  Done and tried that.  Permanent?  Even with admitted "sounds better", NO.
kennyc
1,452 posts
 
@wsrrsw , perhaps Acoustic Art Panels may be spouse acceptable.  Just make sure it's art that you can live with - mother-in-law pics may drive you out of the room.
jhills
613 posts
 
@kingsleuy   Hell will be paid if I move the speakers out into the room.

What is there about women and speakers being too far out into the room? I think there must be universal something in their heads that just snaps and makes them a little crazy, at even the thought...LOL...Jim
Post removed 
jhills
613 posts
 
@three_easy_payments 
While I'm a huge proponent of applying smart room treatments I don't believe the room should fail to influence the sound at all. That's what's implied by suggesting the best sound you can get from your room is benchmarked at extreme nearfield listening. Yes, get bass adsorption, yes get good diffusion, and eliminate wretched slap echo --- but it's OK to hear some influence by the room! We don't want to be listening in an anechoic chamber. It's pleasing for a little liveliness to enter the sonic picture...and yes, you can certainly overtreat a room.

Thanks, I couldn't have said it any better myself, so I just copied and pasted.

I went through it my self. I treated my room, went too far and had to back off a bit, until things finally sounded right, at least something close to a live performance - minus the ear shattering volume. Now, to me, it sounds good, whether, standing, setting or on or off axis. A little closer to or a little further back - still sounds very good.

Listening to music in an anechoic chamber, it is completely dead and lifeless and sounds nothing like what you hear in a music hall, theater, lounge or chapel.

I understand where Erik is coming from - at least it's a place to start. Each room and system is different and sometimes takes a bit of work to get things right.
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