Room improvement

As much more educated gents than me have pointed out, the amount of room treatment needed can vary a great deal by speaker, so the idea that one way or the other is more correct is not well supported.


Controlled narrow directivity can greatly enhance imaging and detail, reducing the need for room treatment. Line arrays, horns and panels (ESLs) can really help.


But a well treated room can take any of them and make them sound spectacular. A poor room will be much more speaker dependent.


The buyer's own preferences matter a great deal. Personally, I have to use a half and half approach. I used tweets with narrow dispersion, and add bass traps and room treatment.

My room also functions as a home theater so there's lots of leather chairs and wall hangings plus a acoustic tile ceiling.  My speaker are Maggie 1.7is

I’ve read Erik’s advice many times. A month ago, I did as he suggested and used pillows and quilts to treat behind the speakers, first reflection points, etc. 

It made quite a difference in my system. I always thought treatments were used to tame bass, and of course it can be. However in my system, the treatments improved definition in the middle and highs, as well as tightened the bass. 

In an attempt to keep learning, I bought a studio worth of foam treatment from a local moving out of state. I understand foam has limited effectiveness, but some simple treatment in my bedroom system improved the clarity of instruments, and songs almost sounded new and more interesting to me. Movements in music that sounded homogenous berfore now have more definition and separateness. 

My plan is to experiment

and move to a more permanent, decor friendly solution if the changes are real- and not just my ears adjusting.

Thanks Erik! I should have listened to you earlier!

Audiomaze, fwiw, my listening position is a leather couch with a back above my ears. Placing a throw behind my head cleans things up a bit. In my case the leather seems to reflect sound and smear the details some.