My wife has little interest in my audio hobby, so I usually don’t get into the details when I am upgrading or installing a tweak. Last week the Isoacoustics isolation feet I ordered arrived while she was at work. I installed them immediately and gave them a listen.I did all this while she was at work, not to hide the fact that I was doing it, that is just how it worked out. A few days later we were playing cards with friends in the kitchen with the stereo playing in the background. One of her favorite songs started playing and she started listening to the music. She looked over at me and said, "Did you change something with the stereo?" I asked why she would ask that and she replied, "Something is different, it sounds much better tonight." She was hearing the same thing I heard when I was critical listening after installing the Gaias. They made a profound difference in the sound of my system!
Second opinions — how have others (including non-audiophiles) helped you?
Have been building a system since December 2020, just about at a place where I can rest for a while. Very enjoyable process of researching, trying, listening. Last phase, room treatments, are just about done.
Along the way, it's been very useful to bring in other family members and some close friends to listen and tell me what they hear. Most are non-audiophiles. But what jumped out to them helped me recalibrate what I was attending to and listen anew.
I was really trying to listen critically — sometimes with checklists of qualities to pay attention to. But myopia is a hard problem to see around, if you will. In some very important moment (including speaker tryouts), they pointed to obvious problems which I was missing.
Here's one recent example. I had been trying to tame some bass peaks and loaded the front of the room up with panels. I got those peaks under control — tight bass, well placed imaging, natural sounding instruments. Then, I had my wife sit down, and in a couple of seconds she noticed that things sounded "constrained" and "missing air." I pulled a couple bass traps out of there and things opened up — "Ah, that's better," she said. As I sat to listen, she was right. Better reverb, more space, lightness.
That's just one example. My question to anyone wanting to share is how other people (including non-audiophiles) helped you improve your system.
Along the way, it's been very useful to bring in other family members and some close friends to listen and tell me what they hear. Most are non-audiophiles. But what jumped out to them helped me recalibrate what I was attending to and listen anew.
I was really trying to listen critically — sometimes with checklists of qualities to pay attention to. But myopia is a hard problem to see around, if you will. In some very important moment (including speaker tryouts), they pointed to obvious problems which I was missing.
Here's one recent example. I had been trying to tame some bass peaks and loaded the front of the room up with panels. I got those peaks under control — tight bass, well placed imaging, natural sounding instruments. Then, I had my wife sit down, and in a couple of seconds she noticed that things sounded "constrained" and "missing air." I pulled a couple bass traps out of there and things opened up — "Ah, that's better," she said. As I sat to listen, she was right. Better reverb, more space, lightness.
That's just one example. My question to anyone wanting to share is how other people (including non-audiophiles) helped you improve your system.
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- 43 posts total
- 43 posts total