Acoustic Panel Help

I read somewhere that having a tv between your speakers is no worse than drywall or windows or wood. I’ve tried absorption covering the tv but it just sounded like the center image became diffuse, flat and dull. Uncovered sounds lively and open and no smearing of the image.

I have a bunch of GIK alpha panels and corner traps and some commercial wood diffuser. I’ve been moving them around the room for a few years and found that, in my room, a 2’ X 2’ diffuser behind each speaker (ear level) and absorption panels in the rear (of the room) and in a (wet) bar area of the room works best. The wet bar makes my room a fat “L” shape. I had a nasty bump between 80hz and 125hz. Loading up the bar area with absorption panels + corner traps solved the problem. Any absorption on the front wall sucks the life out of my Maggies and too much diffusion (front wall) makes it sound phasey and weird. I experimented with placement until I found what sounds “right” to my ears. BTW, my GIK Alpha panels are equipped with scatter plates and the corner traps have range limiter facias.

A hard reflecting surface, like your OLED screen centered between the speakers is not necessarily a bad thing.  This often actually helps to create a sense of focus or solidity of the center image.  You can try covering it up with something like a comforter to see if that helps; if it does not, don't worry about it.  You can also try diffusion on the rest of the wall behind the speaker, but that too may no be necessary.  There are commercial panels made by companies like GIK that may improve the sound and can be covered to your liking visually (including blowups of photos that you like), but before spending that kind of money, you could try othe decorative "treatments" like large potted plants (real or fake).

Good luck on your endeavors.   

Doing this will be a trial and error experiment. I have used Maggies for about 30 years and have been through more changes than I wanted.  These dipoles are tricky as for room treatment, just a small change in treatment will produce great effect.  So take your time, listen for a few days or so before making another change.  Nobody has the same room as you.

+1 for @larryi ‘s comment. I have a wall-hung plasma tv between my speakers (which are placed about 3 feet in front of the wall) and my imaging is precise with a great sense of 3-D instrument location. The tv does not seem to affect the imaging (the tv was not always there).

 @audiodidact 

I have a similar setup with 1.6's but with a little more room to the sides of a 50" plasma to the side walls which are at a 45 degree angle from the back wall. When I had a 24" CRT on a table in the middle I had very good sound staging. I tried absorptive panels on the back wall and it just killed everything so I put them at a first reflection point on one far sidewall. To my surprise, it tamed that 100 hz's or so bass node that Maggies seem to produce. When I put the plasma on the table about 2' from the back wall it kind of messed up the soundstage. When I hung it on the back wall I got 90% of the sound staging back compared to the CRT. Good enough. I write this because I've always wondered if diffusion on the back wall next to the plasma would improve the soundstage even more. I'll try to follow this thread and see what you learned.

Jim S.