My system is ... well, not ready


Hi Everyone,

A lot of you have been asking me to look at my system, and it’s been an absolute mess in this apartment. However!! I am moving, and I have posted the new living/listening room up in the Systems part of Audiogon. I’m 3 weeks from occupying that space, so please be patient as it will take a while to clutter it up with electronics. :)

Right now the plan is to put the TV in the bay window. It only looks at the neighbors, so I don’t mind giving it up, flanked by GIK acoustics soffit traps and standalone panels, as well as adding curtains in all the windows and doors and ceiling mounted panels.

The room is about 13' by 17' and I'll be taking lots of measurements as I go along. :)

Best,

E
erik_squires
@erik_squires 

Nice thread. 

Glad you are using it to gather more info and points of view.

I'd suggest, as you have in the past, to get some pillows and blankets and experiment. It will help a lot. See below for my own experiments.

I've been in the same 13.5' X 20.5' room for nearly 25 years. But I just remodeled it about two years ago. I took everything out and only put my audio gear and a sofa back in - no pictures on the wall, no nothing. Carpet on floors and just two lights on the short wall above the TV. I experimented with pillows until I figured out where I needed help with the bass. I then purchased GIK Impressions corner traps and I was expecting them to be much better than the pillows, but I found only a modest improvement. Nonetheless, the bass is better now than with no treatments, but I found that I never had a big problem with the bass in the first place. Speakers are out over 2' from back and side walls.

In the first reflect area, I have a vase that is about two feet tall. It does make a slight but hearable difference and they've been there since the remodel. Last week I bought some dried bouquets and placed two in each vase, sort of mimicking a tall potted plant. Without even removing the wrapping, it was easy to hear the improvement. I never thought I had a first reflection problem, but this helped in a nicely positive way. This weekend I hope to have time to take the wrapping off and fan the bouquets out for more first reflection diffusion, and of course hoping for a nice improvement there. For $25, not bad at all.

BTW, I tried pillows in the rear corners and on the walls to absolutely no audible difference. Foam panels always made things worse.

I also tried a blanket over my TV and never found it to help. In fact, I just tried that again last week and it hurt the sound. So, what I'm trying to say with this all is that each room is different and experimenting will definitely help in narrowing down what actually needs to be done. Some rooms need more than others. Not saying I'm finished yet, but also saying I didn't really need that much room treatment.

Good luck with the new room and home!
Erik,

A few months ago I thought you posted that you were looking to move, if my memory serves me, to someplace in the South.  We moved into our "forever home" near Asheville, NC in November...our LAST move.
I just got a couple of e-mails from Mike at GIK.

He had a number of suggestions I'm probably going to incorporate.

For the ceiling, he's recommending 4 x 4" thick panels, vs my original 3 x 2" thick. He's recommending 6" thick Impression series bass traps and diffusion for the rear, along with similar for the front.

Interestingly, he's kind of replacing lack of surface area with thicker panels. Mike also recommended standing Impression series panels in the front under the windows.  I have been desperately trying to avoid blocking any windows, so these are the units I'm still unsure about.

While packing this past weekend I had to remove my beloved 2" thick panels from around the room, and I have to say that how obvious the difference was in the room.  Not just was the room more sibilant but it practically buzzed.