Does the first reflection point actually matter??

You don’t match acoustic treatments to the operating range of the speakers. You match them to the reverberation of the room.

Anyone who says "well, my speakers work from x to y Hz and therefore so should my panels" is selling you bs. See practically any reference on room acoustics.

Quote me.


Best,


E

@aj523

The 40.2's are so far away from the side walls that I can't believe that they are much of a problem.  Vu of Deja Vu in Wash DC, a major Harbeth dealer, stated to me that they needed a *minimum* of 2 feet from outer edge to side wall, and yours have much, much more.

Frankly, it's the amount of glass in the vicinity that to me would be the major concern.

I see you have some kind of adjustable blind on most if not all of them.  So simple experiment: play the same track with all blinds completely up, and then all completely down.  I'd be curiously to know if you hear a difference.

For what it is worth:

The wife and I bought a distressed 3.5 story townhouse in the city of Newburgh NY for super cheap and did a top down restoration.

Except for the top attic floor.

It is there that I have my home office, studio and listening room. The room is insulated with rock wool: 6 inches in the walls and 17 inches in the ceiling. There are two dormers and a gable to break up parallel wall and ceiling reflections. Not that I have much.

My architect, who I know from college days, has designed some recording studios. He told me not to seal the rock wool behind dry wall, but instead to simply cover it with burlap. This would give me a semi-anechoic room. No panels to position etc.

The difference in the sound quality from my old New York City loft - with its tin ceiling, brick walls and huge glass windows - is night and day.

For the amount of money that I was spending anyway to insulate my home to get it to perform to near net zero performance levels, I got the equivalent of a room that is recording studio quality.

The one issue missing from this discussion is your impression of acoustic treatment at first reflection points completely depends on how wide a dispersion speaker you actually use.  A speaker that narrows with frequency, say a horn, will send less info to the side walls as frequency increases.  A ribbon or any planar device will also do this but it can depend on what frequency the planar portion of the speaker is working in. 

So imagine a ribbon working at 3K and above.  You wont get as much energy at 3K and above on first reflection points as they get fairly narrow even at 3K and get even narrower as you get to 10K and above.  This is easily demonstrated by rotating the speaker until it almost faces the side walls, you'll hear bunch of splash as you get more energy on it.  Also the wall material matters- glass is very different frequency emphasis than wood.   There are many different types of absorbers- some work well at HF, and some work better at mids and some are built to be LF absorbers with membranes. 

SO there is no universal answer to this other than to say if you have a wide dispersion speaker, the first reflection point absorption is critical to improving image.   If you have a narrow dispersion speaker you may not hear much difference.  Also you need to buy real absorbers like GIK, or make them, I like the 4 inch thick ones, they absorb more for the same wall space.   

Brad