Hello mozartfan,
I watched your YT video you attached on your post from yesterday. I liked your equipment, your choice of music tracks played and especially your cool cat Cleo. But c’mon man, your room is so bright we all need shades. I had listening fatigue by the end of your 34 minute video.
I watched your video on my laptop but bypassed the computer’s inboard audio and listened via a combination of an external JDS Labs usb dac, Aune headphone amp and a pair of Sony Z7 headphones, an audio combo I would describe as accurate and detailed with a bit of warmth but never bright. I believe the brightness I heard is a result of an accurate representation of your very good system reproducing music in a substandard room.
I describe your room as substandard because your room looks and sounds like it consists of 6 hard and highly sound reflective surfaces (ceiling, floor and 4 walls) with the only acoustic room treatment being a medium sized and thin rug on the floor, which apparently has no positive acoustic effect.
Both of your speakers have been launching sound waves into this highly reflective and acoustically unfriendly environment/room from about 50 Hz on up, or about 27 Hz on up if you utilize the optional Merlin BAM electronic component-Bass Augmentation Module. The longer and omnidirectional bass sound waves under about 250 Hz behave much differently than the much shorter and unidirectional midrange and treble sound waves behave in your room.
However, a common behavior of all sound waves is that they will continue moving at the speed of sound outward until they meet a hard and reflective room surfaced boundary such as a ceiling, floor or wall. At this point, the sound waves are redirected, bounce or are reflected off the hard surfaced boundary and continue on in this new direction until they encounter the next hard surfaced room boundary and are redirected once again. In a highly reflective room with many hard surfaced room boundaries, this process continues until the sound waves either encounter an acoustic room treatment or run out of energy. Here’s a pair of diagrams visualizing this process - just scroll down to the direct vs reflected sound diagrams on this linked page:
https://www.magicoaudio.com/news/magico-news-for-fall-2019
As you can see, Magico estimates that about 80% of the sound you hear at your designated listening seat is reflected sound. Based on the brightness I heard on your video, you may be receiving even a higher percentage of reflected sound at your seat.
If I was an audio doctor, I’d be admitting your room to the ICU right about now and calling your room’s next of kin. The bad news is your room is acoustically seriously ill. The good news is that your room’s not dead yet and there is a reasonably priced cure called acoustic room treatments. I suggest you visit the GIK Acoustics website linked below and request a free acoustic analysis of your room.
https://www.gikacoustics.com/acoustic-advice/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2a32BRBXEiwAUcugiOIH9bLbsRdKbH7SIwJe9I9n3ltBBVZk96n6Qk1nsiH2ZK3Q58nsiRoCUTAQAvD_BwE
I’m in no way associated with GIK, just a very satisfied recent customer. I find it hard to imagine how you could possibly be perceiving the high quality, wide and deep, three dimensional stereo sound stage illusion, with solid and stable images of the musicians properly arranged and portrayed realistically within it, that I know your Merlin speakers are capable of creating when precisely positioned in relation to your listening seat.
I believe you’re going to be amazed at the significant and dramatic improvements that an assortment of properly positioned, high quality acoustic room treatments actually make to your room and overall system sound quality performance.
Sorry about sidetracking this thread a bit but I’m certain you’ll consider this reasonably priced investment a complete bargain once you experience the exceptionally positive results it provides.
Best wishes,
Tim
I watched your YT video you attached on your post from yesterday. I liked your equipment, your choice of music tracks played and especially your cool cat Cleo. But c’mon man, your room is so bright we all need shades. I had listening fatigue by the end of your 34 minute video.
I watched your video on my laptop but bypassed the computer’s inboard audio and listened via a combination of an external JDS Labs usb dac, Aune headphone amp and a pair of Sony Z7 headphones, an audio combo I would describe as accurate and detailed with a bit of warmth but never bright. I believe the brightness I heard is a result of an accurate representation of your very good system reproducing music in a substandard room.
I describe your room as substandard because your room looks and sounds like it consists of 6 hard and highly sound reflective surfaces (ceiling, floor and 4 walls) with the only acoustic room treatment being a medium sized and thin rug on the floor, which apparently has no positive acoustic effect.
Both of your speakers have been launching sound waves into this highly reflective and acoustically unfriendly environment/room from about 50 Hz on up, or about 27 Hz on up if you utilize the optional Merlin BAM electronic component-Bass Augmentation Module. The longer and omnidirectional bass sound waves under about 250 Hz behave much differently than the much shorter and unidirectional midrange and treble sound waves behave in your room.
However, a common behavior of all sound waves is that they will continue moving at the speed of sound outward until they meet a hard and reflective room surfaced boundary such as a ceiling, floor or wall. At this point, the sound waves are redirected, bounce or are reflected off the hard surfaced boundary and continue on in this new direction until they encounter the next hard surfaced room boundary and are redirected once again. In a highly reflective room with many hard surfaced room boundaries, this process continues until the sound waves either encounter an acoustic room treatment or run out of energy. Here’s a pair of diagrams visualizing this process - just scroll down to the direct vs reflected sound diagrams on this linked page:
https://www.magicoaudio.com/news/magico-news-for-fall-2019
As you can see, Magico estimates that about 80% of the sound you hear at your designated listening seat is reflected sound. Based on the brightness I heard on your video, you may be receiving even a higher percentage of reflected sound at your seat.
If I was an audio doctor, I’d be admitting your room to the ICU right about now and calling your room’s next of kin. The bad news is your room is acoustically seriously ill. The good news is that your room’s not dead yet and there is a reasonably priced cure called acoustic room treatments. I suggest you visit the GIK Acoustics website linked below and request a free acoustic analysis of your room.
https://www.gikacoustics.com/acoustic-advice/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2a32BRBXEiwAUcugiOIH9bLbsRdKbH7SIwJe9I9n3ltBBVZk96n6Qk1nsiH2ZK3Q58nsiRoCUTAQAvD_BwE
I’m in no way associated with GIK, just a very satisfied recent customer. I find it hard to imagine how you could possibly be perceiving the high quality, wide and deep, three dimensional stereo sound stage illusion, with solid and stable images of the musicians properly arranged and portrayed realistically within it, that I know your Merlin speakers are capable of creating when precisely positioned in relation to your listening seat.
I believe you’re going to be amazed at the significant and dramatic improvements that an assortment of properly positioned, high quality acoustic room treatments actually make to your room and overall system sound quality performance.
Sorry about sidetracking this thread a bit but I’m certain you’ll consider this reasonably priced investment a complete bargain once you experience the exceptionally positive results it provides.
Best wishes,
Tim
