Room Treatments for Maggies

Ignorance IS bliss! Some folks think room treatment will make up for their inferior electronics.

Dsper,

Listen to Maplegrovemusic.

Unlike a couple of posters on this thread who lack first-hand experience in their own room with treatments (Elizabeth and Rrog, correct me if I am wrong about that, but you previously have acknowledged that with your silence), you will find hundreds of posts by people with actual experience in their own rooms talking about the dramatic improvement room treatments can make. It is not voodoo; it can be explained by physics. It is hard to believe what a huge difference it can make until you actually experience it.

As far as the best place to start to maximize impact, I would agree with Maplegrovemusic that it is absorption/bass traps. One thing to be careful about on the absorption is that for it to be "broad band" (that is, effective for a broad range of the frequency spectrum), it generally needs to be at least 4 inches thick. This can the DIY corner traps (sometimes called super chunks) that Maple speaks of. The GIK Tri-Traps are a reasonably price version of these that are pre-built. GIK (I am not affiliated, just a happy customer) also has absorption panels that are broad band, such as the 244 panel. While thinner absorption panels may have their uses in certain spots, ONLY using the thinner ones can result in a room with uneven frequency response because the lower frequencies are not being dealt with.

The main difference in room treatments with Maggies is how to approach the wall behind the speakers. Most people prefer diffusion for the back wave, but others prefer absorption. In my experimenting, I found that both diffusion and absorption sounds better than a bare wall, but that diffusion sounds the best and keeps that big, live Maggie sound. I actually have a combination and have GIK tri-traps on the floor below the diffusion, which really enhances the bass. It is surprising to find out you were not hearing certain notes that you can now hear after the room treatment. Also, I completely agree with Maple that when the bass is improved, it also improves the mids and highs.

Good luck!

(((Is there a best place to start that will maximize the impact?))Dsper

What resistor values have you tried with the tweeter attenuator?
Best Johnnyr

Johnnyr,

I am a novice. Please explain what the resistor does and how it impacts the sound. What happens if you change to one with a "higher value". With a "Lower value".

Currently using stock setup from Magnapan.

Having owned several upper middle level amps (Krell FPB, Levinson, Pass, BAT etc. . ), preamps (ARC, Aesthetix, Ayre, McIntosh, etc. . ) and digital electronics (Esoteric, Levinson, DCS, EMM Labs, Wadia) and a slew of decent speakers (B&W, Von, Thiel, Wilson [4 dif pair], Gemme, Maggies, Martin Logans, etc. . .), I can say with absolute certainty that in 3 of the 4 different listening rooms I have set up in my house that acoustic treatments make as big or bigger of a difference than pretty much any single piece of electronics.

If you are blessed with a very good room, consider yourself lucky. But if you haven't player around with room treatments to some degree it is impossible to recognize the impact they can have.

Hey, Elizabeth, I have always had a lot of respect for your comments. This past weekend I was in Chicago picking up a pair of Thiel speakers and the shop had a used pair of SMG-A (??? I think that's the model) Maggies used - and they actually fit in my truck after putting in the Thiel CS6's, so I bought them ( to a large degree on your Maggie comments). Now I just need to figure out what to do with them (my 7th pair of speakers in my house!!!????) I have an pair of Bel Canto Ref 1000 lying around, are these any good with maggies?