Room Too Dead

@mannytheseacow

Easily achieve the same effect DIY? I guess that depends on your definition of easy. Dennis recommends very extensive treatments of absorbers that use activated carbon. To do what he suggests is going to take a lot of effort and money. Less money but more effort if you DIY.

I got to hear a room he set up last year at the Pacific Audio Show. It sounded good, but there was not much bass because he said he didn’t bring enough subwoofer for the size of the room. He brought a semi-truck load worth of acoustics just to treat a portion of that one room. He basically built a room within a room, building four walls out of bass traps and diffusers. He also intentionally used a mid level Klipsch system with some basic electronics to prove the point that the acoustics could make even a lower end system sound great.  

On a similar note, at the 2019 California Audio Show we acoustically treated a conference room that had a basic Behringer PA system with an array of TubeTraps all around the room and flanking each speaker. The point of that room was to allow manufacturers to give presentations about their products. Between talks the system would play music. I had several people tell me that room was possibly the best sound at the show! I don't know if I would go that far myself, but it was very nice listening to movements from Swan Lake there.

In my own experience, one note bass is mostly a speaker placement issue, but can also be addressed successfully with equalizing down peaks. I know some people are dead set against any kind of equalization, so if that’s out of the question, I think a distributed array of subs to break up the major modes is the only workable solution. Or, a very powerful and extensive array of bass absorbers.

Assuming the bass absorbers are relatively broad band that's what I would have expected as well.  Sadly my impression was, room after room, all the speakers bass sounded the same, as if they were playing the same song.  🤣

Should point out that the Tube Trap experience I had was in multiple rooms of different sizes. It’s also possible the actual problem I had was with additional absorbers in the room.

Still, I was mightily unimpressed by all the ASC treatments that show. I don’t remember which show it was but I think Pass was also sponsoring the show, so there were a lot of rooms using Pass electronics that time. That’s another story. :D

Without measurement, and using my poor acoustic memory, one possible explanation was a broad suckout of lower midrange. 

All those who are suggesting that the room needs to be lively miss the point completely. The need is to reproduce exactly what is recorded, not what is distorted by room interaction. A dead room does NOT interfere with the signal coming from the speakers. A live room distorts the signals by creating echoes and resonances that change the tonal balance and the sound coming from the driver surfaces.

Using near field speakers and sitting a couple of feet away from the speakers eliminates almost all the room effect. That’s the real beauty of that kind of design.

It's not hard to remove the room from the reproduced music.  Just fill the room with artificial ficus trees, 5' to 6' in height.  They are excellent diffusers and are inexpensive when compared to "audiophile" room solutions.  

A live room distorts the signals by creating echoes and resonances that change the tonal balance and the sound coming from the driver surfaces.

You mean like what you’d hear if you were listening to a band in a room?  Oh the horror!  Maybe all music venues should be lined with wool so there are no reflections whatsoever.  That sounds fun! 

It's not hard to remove the room from the reproduced music.

Yes, it’s called headphones.  If you wanna listen to a high-end audio system the room is part of it and you work with it like it’s a component.  Or you can listen in a rubber room.  No thanks.