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I can prove your room is bad

So you want to upgrade?  You want to know what the next big thing is you can do for a better sounding experience?

Try this.  Pull up a chair 2' in front of your speakers.  If you can't move the speakers, put it up to just 1, and listen for yourself.

The difference between what you hear sitting in front of the speaker like this, and what you hear at your normal location is all in the speaker dispersion and room acoustics. If you feel mesmerized, entranced, and wowed by your speaker at 2' but not 8' you really should consider improving the room, and if you can't, consider getting speakers with alternative room coupling, like ESL's, line arrays, bi-polars, etc.

That is all,


Erik
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
"A speaker that has controlled dispersion does basically the same thing you’d expect an acoustic panel to do, but it does a better job.”


Absolutely true.  The more controlled, the less treatment.  This is why ESL's can rock this test. 

erik_squires OP
16,059 posts
 
should have included dipoles in general
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,806 posts
 
This method does not demonstrate a need for you to improve the room. You pass.
FWIW, I've used the Classic Audio T-3s in a variety of rooms and I can safely say that in all of them- and without treatment of any kind- the speaker has *always* sounded better at the listening chair than from 2 feet or the like.

The YT link I posted hints at a possible reason why- the speaker's total room energy is such that it will do well regardless of the room. I'm just pointing out that this aspect really needs attention- if as Dr. Toole is saying is true, then a lot of speakers need work in this area, as in many systems I've heard the speaker does sound better close up than further away where the total room energy is more of an influence. Dr. Toole points out that the on axis response might be great, but the room energy being off will cause the system to be less than it could (IOW, cause it to suck).


mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,016 posts
 
In my experience and experiments, active acoustical controls are very impactful....Most people think about passive materials, absorbing or reflecting sound waves....

But active way are very powerful for modifying  the acoustic dimension: Helmholtz bottles, Schumann generators, resonators of different size and materials from bucket to tiny resonators.... I use them and vouch for that....
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