If you have a nice system why do you really need room treatments?


Yeah you may need an absorption panel if your room is completely open, ie. No rug or furniture, ie just lonely single chair. But if your system can't cut it in any room then it's a system problem and you should be able to discern a good system regardless of the room.  Unless you put it on the roof of your apartment building but the Beatles seemed to have survived that effort

I think people go nuts with all this absorption acoustical room treatment stuff and it looks kind of awful.  Once in a while you see a really cool looking diffuser panel and I would definitely want one. But to have a system that works really well without any of the acoustical panel distractions is a wonderful thing.

emergingsoul

Hi - I assume you are not out to take the mickey out of the rest of us so,

It’s about a really nice system in a room and you should be able to discern the qualities of a really nice system in room.

in order to do that, you have to hear the qualities of the system. Not all closed spaces are ideal for music --

It has to do with the acoustics of the venue - but then, you are a musician so you know that! Concert halls are "treated", often to great expense, in order to improve acoustics - no doubt you know only too well how much better some venues sound than others!

Your listening room is a mini concert hall; the recording (and mastering thereof) and the system reproducing said recording, try to provide a sonic simulation of the recorded (and mastered) musical event. I am sure you realise that too.

If the room acoustics aren’t good, you won’t hear the system as well and won’t perceive what the system’s real performance can be. (Likewise, if your speakers placement is mediocre.).

Your statement seems to be more a personal philosophy than anecdotal or otherwise :). Regards.

It would be sheer luck to have a room that doesn't need treatment, unless a person doesn't care, or doesn't know.

The cost of room treatment for me was $1100.  

It is hard to integrate room treatment with living areas. I have a room that I can do what I want.

Okay. I'll give this a shot:

As long as our ears are still analog, we'll need to deliver music via mechanical means.  These changes in sound pressure, essential for the reproduction of music, are projected into a space and interact with anything and everything they come in contact with.  These objects create additional in and out of phase signals (coloration) and refraction/reflection (blurring) and other artifacts.  A quick demonstration of basic acoustic principals could involve: 1) speaking normally, then 2) cupping your hands around your mouth and speaking the same information.  A more advanced and room specific demonstration would be to position yourself in the center of the room and speak normally.  Then, position yourself next to a wall and repeat.  And perceived differences would demonstrate how "the room" is affecting the sound.

Helpful?

I've never had the need or felt the desire to have a dedicated listening room. After reading this post, I'm happy for myself!