Acoustic treatment question: do you agree with Dennis Foley that $46k to $65k is required?

Well, I have made the point in this very forum that there is a minimum amount of critical mass needed before you take a live room and tame it enough to get real improvements.  Four 2'x4' panels?  Probably not a lot of benefit.  Maybe 6-8 panels plus some serious bass traps... now we are talking!

I should point out that while I am a big fan of GIK, especially for their advice services, ATS acoustics is also very good and even more reasonable.

Oldhvymec
He has - Ceiling treatment and moves a heavy bear skin rug in front of him.. Staring at that bear while listening, kinda weird.. Sure works good though..
A new excitement in your listening environment, when you nod off a little after a hard day at work, and you open those eyes see that bear staring at you for split second your heart races and you attribute it to your sound system. Cool

I like Dennis, and appreciate his knowledge, especially regarding room issues, and what to look for, or, look out for. But understand, his career has mostly been in high end design, fabrication, and installations. As I understand, he is getting out of the absolute designing and installing a complete room as a turn key solution (mostly due to health issues). He is concentrating on on making and selling his products going forward.

Obviously he believes in a quality level for his products and services that will solve issues in they way he thinks they should be solved. Fine. I’m in the design/build field and understand that desire as long as there are clients to spend money and pay the bills, but understand, his products are not for any or everybody. But I’m sure they work, and work very well. I would certainly trust his knowledge, expertise, and his products. But could I afford them. Again, as I am in the design/build business, you would probably be shocked at what some clients are willing to spend on a single room vs the ‘norm’. Some would say ‘that’s crazy’ and another ‘that’s what I want and I’ll spend the money to get it’. Geez, we have some in this hobby we who will spend $60,000+ for speakers or an amplifier, so why not the same or similar on room treatment? Most folks will think it’s crazy to spend even $1,000 for speakers, let alone a phono cartridge.

Are there cheaper solutions? Yes, just as there are cheaper speakers. Will they be as good as his products? Well, he doesn’t think so, so is only going to cater to those clients who believe in him, his products, and that comes with a certain cost.

If you can’t afford Dennis’ products and solutions, go elsewhere. But if you want his products, expect to pay a premium for them.

I’m certainly not going to beat him up for that, nor believing in his products and knowledge. 

Oh, not sure who brought this  up but yes, floor and ceiling are hugely important places to consider room treatment.

Also, keep in mind that even if you can't get everything where you want it, room acoustics are statistical, not absolutes.  You can make up for deficiencies in one spot by adding more in another.  More or less. Of course, early reflections are hard to compensate for if you can't fix them, but they are only a small part of the story. Controlling bass modes, and the overall decay of signals in the room is as if not more important.

GIK makes art panels and I am thinking of having ceiling panels that look like a night sky.  Or white to disappear on the ceiling.

You can reconstruct acoustically a room at high price...

Or create for example at low cost a grid of different Helmoltz resonators and solve the problem of room bass modes...

You can use cheap Schumann generators and small passive resonators and ionizer to act more on the high frequencies...

You can use cheap materials well chosen to treat.... You ears will say if it is good or not....

But it will takes time and experiments.... But it is way more fun than buying anything costly...

It cannot work only in my room ! 😁 but it is not easy in a living room ... I always forgot that cheap solutions are ugly.... Sorry i will mute myself....