I am a doubter no more. It wasn’t that I did doubt room treatment, I was just unsure how much effect it would have in mine, full of furniture, large rug, and ‘stuff’. I didn't see a need for more dampening.
Thus, I went to the basement and found a few sheets of styrofoam, and started temporarily handing them on various wall surfaces, and was surprised by the result, some good, some bad, but a definite affect.
What I didn’t have was anything to use as diffusers, but still, realized there could be a positive to using something more permanent and was willing to experiment further. So, I bought some acoustic tiles, and also a box of 3D tiles, which some had used as diffusion panels in their own listening rooms.
For me, with my Vandy 2CE Sigs about 3’ from the back wall, I ended up with some absorption panels at the rear behind each speaker, and applied the ‘diffuser tiles’ to each side wall *behind* the Vandys, (exactly the reverse of what I thought I would do), and after playing around some more, put up more ‘diffuser tiles to the sides in front of the speakers. And finally more of the ‘diffuser tiles’ on the rear between the speakers.
I believe what I realized was my room was probably ‘dead’, too dampened overall, and the various diffusion panels, along with some absorption directly behind, finally did what has bothered me the most about the Vandy’s in my room after trying all types of things; it actually helped them to, finally, disappear within the soundstage, while also expanding its width and depth by a fair degree. The overall imaging and separation of instruments is far better now than anything I believed I could accomplish with equipment all by itself.
Is it perfect? No, not yet, but glad I took the plunge, because I’m now convinced how much our space, and not treating it, can deprive us of what our equipment is capable of, and how good my music can present itself, at a fraction of the cost of said equipment.
