The Law of Accelerating Returns

"It is not the "ONLY" way to tune a room completely"

First Helmholtz resonators and Helmholtz diffusers like said rightfully @helmholtzsoul are the main and ONLY mechanical way to modify a room and tune it and also tune each speaker for each ear by the way ...

The greeks and Egyptians and Chinese and Helmlhotz the father of modern acoustic and of psycho-acoustic thought so...

«In Helmholtz resonators, we have acoustical artifacts that far antedate Helmholtz himself. Resonators in the form of large pots were used in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans in their open-air
theaters. Apparently they were used to provide some reverberation
in this nonreverberant outdoor setting. Some of the larger pots that
have survived to modern times have reverberation times of from 0.5
to 2 seconds. These would also absorb sound at the lower frequencies. Groupings of smaller pots supplied sound absorption at the higher frequencies.»
The Master Handbook of Acoustics Fourth Edition by F. Alton Everest P.216

Second, the fact that you use DSP confuse your mind...

«Is it not better to NOT push power into frequencies that the room gets excited about because its dimensions and positions of speakers and sweet spot? Of course it is.»

DSP modify the speaker response only , the H.R. and H. D. modify the speakers and room relation by modifying each of them at the same time for psycho-acoustic effect for EACH ear from EACH speaker.... DSP AND MIC. are not an integral part of the room like H.R. or H. D. are in their working way....They are used to modify the source information to your taste and adjust in ONE chosen way the speakers response to the room...They dont modify the room response at the same time for the speaker sorry...

My sweet spot is not IMPEDED at all by the mechanical tuning devices in the contrary, my sweet spot is created by them and not only by the precise location of my chair in a short one millimeter range but for a larger range ... Then i had a better sweetspot because he is effective in a larger dimension than one millimeter range and dont lost all his effective action after that ...

And try to adress the Schroeder frequency and bass limitations with DSP... Good luck....Room passive treatment +DSP will not do it....It takes a mechanical control of the room whose pressure zones modification are possible with Helmholtz mechanical devices to reach a better dynamic, and a better bass clarity in small room......

😁😊

I don't think Helmholtz was ever married.

I don’t think Helmholtz was ever married.

😁😊😊

Never indeed!

«I divorced when she put flowers in my Helmholtz bottle»-Groucho Marx 🤓

« Because my mouth and ass were directly openly connected tube my body is an Helmholtz diffuser»-Anonymus acoustician

«if my body is an Helmholtz diffuser your brain is a Klein bottle»-Groucho Marx 🤓

«The resonator is to your ears what a vibrator is for some other organ«-Anonymus acoustic gear sellers

«A silence with no echo»-Zen acoustical koan

Back to the original topic.....

When I read the article I had quite a laugh. We have to remember that TAS serves an industry based on the simple assumption that spending more money gets you better sound. Anyone, even multimillionaires, want to think they are receiving good value for their money so the theory of "accelerating returns" fits right into the agenda.

I'm sure this idea has been floating around high-end showrooms for some time and the magazine decided to give it an aura of credibility. This idea is right out of the salesman's handbook. When you've got a customer that is willing to spend $500K why would you tell him that he could get just as good of sound for $300K? In the real world, the salesman's job is to convince that customer that spending $750K instead of $500K will bring a huge improvement in sound. If the poor guy cheaps-out and only spends $500K he will surely be disappointed because he could have had a system that was so much better. for an extra $250K.

The other factor to remember is that sound quality in high-end audio is only one factor in the buying decision. The appearance and story behind the gear is a key part of the buying decision but one of the most important elements of the sale is the relationship the salesman creates with the customer. The personal attention that one gets when spending several hundred thousand dollars on luxury goods is an enjoyable part of the process.

The marketing of luxury goods has a common thread in that the high cost of the item is actually a feature of the product. Exclusivity is a selling point. The idea that there is a accelerating improvement in performance with increasing price is a wonderful piece of sales propaganda. A commission salesman's wet dream.

When VPI introduced its top end turntable the Japanese distributor complained that the price was too low. Their customers wanted to spend more money than that and it didn't matter that the VPI would compete with six figure turntables.

After going to two audio shows (pre covid) I came to the conclusion that the correlation between sound quality and cost is tenuous at best. The best systems I heard were indeed expensive but I found no consistent pattern of high price leading to better sound.

Upgrade everything ASAP!!