About to invest in room treatments; GIK, RealTraps, DIY -- what is your experience?


I'm reaching the point soon where I'll invest in some treatments for my two channel listening room. Standmount speakers with tube amps. Room about 28x14ft with low ceilings, 6.5ft. Probably different kinds of treatments are needed. I'm not exactly sure yet what I'll need or how much to spend. This is not my final listening room, but I won't be able to configure another one for a few years.

I've seen many people tout GIK on this forum and I'm already communicating with them a bit. I will also reach out to Real Traps and possibly others. I do not feel bound to go with just one company or solution, so if you've mixed and matched, I'm curious about that, too.

Any recent comparisons between these two, or others? Do you have stories of good or not so good products or service? Any comments about the value of competing products? I'm not super handy or have a lot of free time, but DIY is also considered. 

128x128hilde45
@hilde45 :   With respect to your bass issues you are presently seeing on your room sweeps, I guess I'd just say two things:

First, any data must be quite specific (frequency, +-db, left speaker or right speaker, mic placement, listening position in relation to speakers and in relation to room length, and show graphs/waterfall).  Also, I'm assuming you have no corner or front-wall bass traps in place yet?  If you have traps in place, what are they and where they are helps to answer specific questions.  You won't get much good advice with such a general question.  The second thing is partially addressed above: where is the listening position in relation to the front wall (and to the speakers).  At 6.5' from the front wall, I'd assume you are likely 13-15 feet from the front wall.  That would position you at half-way between the front and rear(?).  Or, are you already at the standard 38% recommended to avoid nulls.  No modes on your sweeps?

If what you are seeing on the sweeps before treating is just a couple of nulls, that's exceptional.   Treating is easy at that point.

Are you measuring each speaker separately?  Do they some very close graphs/issues?

Just a general response to a general issue is, bass traps/corner traps can be the product of known specific concerns.  It is pretty straight forward.  However, generally, a corner unit should be 34" wide for effectiveness, and maybe floor to ceiling, maybe not.  They usually won't cure the problems by themselves.   

You can reach out to the acoustics thread at Gearslutz forum if you provide pretty specific data - only then would you get good advice, including type and placement of LF treatment.  You can also tap into some great guys who have tested, built, installed treatment professionally.  But, you have to have all your data (room dimensions, speaker/listening locations, room sweep data).


@nolojunko

Thank you for your detailed and probing reply. A few answers/comments.

I am realizing that I need to do more left/right speaker sweeps. With help, I've built a spreadsheet to record db changes at key frequency points along with various positionings.

Yes, I have no corner or front-wall bass traps in place yet.

I am about 14 ft from the front wall, but the room is odd. It's 27 ft long in the rectangle I'm in, but there is an additional 8' x 5' hallway entering into it. This listening position was chosen because of the way it both sounded and measured. It's very hard to know where the standard 38% position is, given the irregular shape.

And yes, what I'm seeing on the sweeps before treating is just a couple of nulls; the member here helping me said it was one of the best untreated scans he's seen in a long time.

Are you measuring each speaker separately? Answer: no, but I will.

I will reach out to the acoustics thread at Gearslutz forum. I have a lot of the data ready to go. And if I stare at it any longer, I'll lose my mind.

Thanks again!
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