Room acoustics - Spending and sound videos

i’m in the middle of the ordering process with GIK for my separate Home Theater room and got those same videos.

i’ve spent the last 16 years tweaking my dedicated acoustically designed 2 channel room so i have some level of understanding about room acoustics, but don’t consider myself any expert. GIK seems to be pretty competent, and while not cheap, i view their products and services as good values.

we will see after i’m done what i think.

my 2 channel room in my barn (the one listed here on Audiogon) has almost the whole room with built in diffusion. so the ’bones’ are almost perfect. my Home Theater room in my main house is a more standard domestic room; with a large window and patio doors. all i can do is to improve things, it will never be perfect like my 2-channel room.

but also the Home Theater room had 15 speaker channels and 3 subwoofers (9.3.6) with an all dsp signal path (Trinnov Altitude 16) so the dsp can 'fix' things. my 2 channel room has a pure analog signal path. the room has to be right fundamentally.......no dsp to fix it.

I do agree with the start small and grow your acoustics, and I think some of the rooms shown in the GIK demo were overtreated. There is however a minimum critical mass IMHO when it comes to room treatment. Treating bass requires big traps, and that is expensive, and it’s a shame a lot of poeple never hear how good a room can be with them, especially when it comes to giving small speakers a big speaker sound.

In the scale of $20K speakers and amps though, I don’t think investing $2-5k in your average listening room is a bad idea at all.

Best,
Erik

Room treatment is the most critical piece that most folks should have at least a bit of budget when designing a new room. At the same time it is important to experiment and find out "where" to place the treatment. Over treating kills the sound - speaking from experience here. Also, when you change the speakers or speaker positions, adjust the treatments accordingly. My current issue is with the ceiling reflection on the left speaker. The right side is fine, but the slight drop in the ceiling on the left side does not make the sound to appear to come from 3-4 feet outside the speaker boundary, like it does for the right side speaker. Not sure if a ceiling treatment would help, since it would make the ceiling even lower.

@milpai

Can you mount a blanket or something near by to test it?

I guess nobody will believe me that acoustic treatment can be done at no cost at all.... 😊Because the laws of physics dont give a dam about consumers pricey products and the price difference with a piece of straw or a plumber pipe...Happily for me....

I created my 18 Helmholtz tubes and pipes grid with leftover pipes and plumber tubes and 18 straws for neck.... 😁 it is the main part of my "activated" room acoustic system, the passive material treatment is the other one....This part is also made with homemade no cost materials...The ears perceiving experience guided all my experiments with success but in the long run.... It takes me 2 years for sure....

I wrote that post for those who dont have money and like sound quality anyway....

All is possible if i have done it, not in an esthetical way tough, save if you are very crafty ...And not in a common living room for sure with a wife guardianship....My audio room is only for audio....It is my most pricey gear : the room.....

I made it myself in the last 2 years in a continuous sets of experiments.... And for most people no upgrade will reach the level of impact and transformation of the acoustical settings of a room....

The acoustical embedding control is the KEY to audiophile experience....Not mainly and only the gear....For most of us anyway costly gear experience is inaccessible... But anyway when the brass orchestra is in the room with all his natural different timbre the essential is here.... Costly gear will ONLY improve this not changing it ....

I listened to half million bucks system on youtube so bad sounding that i was able to detect the deficiencies of the room through my own 500 bucks system.... That say something.... 😁 Many people confuse harsh details, piercing unnatural timbre with high quality....It is a fact.... They think that a piece of gear MUST be a microscope not a musical instrument.... They listen to the gear not to the music....Anyway....

Acoustic is the way....It is my experience...

My best to all....