That Transformational piece of Gear We All Wish For

I like your thoughts. I’ll tell her that since we live on a dirt road with horses up and down our streets that I’m just keeping the tv clean. And dust free.

@wjcasey, I’ve never done that myself, as I didn’t think I needed to, as when my rig was in the living room the large TV was flush with a large cabinet and at the time I felt that made a wall in front of the real wall. I may have been wrong about that, but my standards were lower at the time.

But the beauty of the blanket over the TV trick, it seems to me, is how easy it should be to do and undo.

And since you cannot edit typos here for very long after you make them, I note that I typed anything bigger than a bread box between speakers is a "cardinal thread": I meant to type cardinal sin. (I am not a very good typist.)

Typically having no big objects between the speakers and having the rear wall dampened (not reflective… so just paint or a tv) is a bad thing. But like about all things in this pursuit, it depends. I had my audio racks in between my speakers and a reflective wall above that when I had planar speakers… it did not cause a problem. Although I had to treat (dampen) a one foot high three foot wide section at about five feet up behind the speakers. I switched to dynampic speakers and the audio rack destroyed the sound stage where it was and the reflections above interfered with the imaging. So, for my current system, only my amp in between the speakers and the whole wall heavily dampened does the job.. so, it depends. 

A properly dimensioned and treated room. Preferably that could accommodate properly placed Magneplanars. Everything else is pretty small potatoes by comparison.

I finally got a plan to treat my room done by people who know what they are doing- I don’t- and about 25% of the installation is done. Significant improvement- more than I expected. Better everything. I’ve tested several tweaks- high end switches, filters, etc.,  and honestly couldn’t hear a difference, certainly not enough to justify the cost.   The room treatment, however, made a clearly noticeable improvement even to my old ears. Looking forward to getting the project finished 

kerrybh

I certainly believe treatment and finishing my listening room will yield great improvements. My problem until now, has been: my current system is in a our living space which is not at all optimal; and buying new gear is sexy and fun.

I can't imaging buying GIK panels will give me the same "giddy as a school girl" excitement. I am however committed to that direction.