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Room treatment success story

A couple of months ago I asked the forum for advice about what may make the best upgrade for my system (e.g., better amp, sub woofer, etc.) One of the responses was to focus on room treatment/room acoustics. While I had seen mention of the importance of room treatment, this was not originally on my list of possible upgrades. However, it got me thinking and doing more research.

A few days ago I took delivery of 5 GIK Acoustic 244 bass trap panels. WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I knew my room had a little too much slap echo (e.g., clap of hands echoed a little too long than it should), but I was not prepared for the dramatic change that the bass trap panels made. They not only took care of the slap echo problem, but the bass in the Magnepans have completely come to life.

A few of the very noticable differences:

-- Bass lines are much more prominent and it is much easier to distinguish individual notes (rather than low notes that sound more the same).

-- Vocals are clearer and more focused. For example, Mark Knopfler's vocals on the Get Lucky CD are now much more easily understandable and clearer.

-- Listening to Keb Mo's Slow Down CD, I realized that there were certain guitar notes that without the traps would seem to disappear or have such a lower volume as to almost not there, but now I am hearing notes that I simply could not hear before.

-- Some of my rock CDs that I thought were simply very poorly recorded (and perhaps are) are now much more listenable and actually sound pretty decent.

Before getting the bass trap panels, I had borrowed a REL sub from a friend for a couple of weeks. It sounded great. However, the roughly $400 spend on these bass trap panels made a MUCH more significant difference in the bass in my room than this $1,500 REL subwoofer. (Again, the REL sounded great, but I now realize that I was not able to hear what it or the Magnepans were truly capable of.)

GIK Acoustics was great to deal and was very patient in answering my questions. I am in no way affiliated with them, just a satisfied customer.

So thanks to Lenny_zwik for pushing me in the direction of improving my room acoustics!

By the way, I would still like to get a better amp and a sub woofer, but I plan on my next purchase to be a rug for hard wood floors and a few more bass trap panels (I have a large room).
edge22
clio09
3,360 posts
 
Treating the reflection point at which the sound from the right channel speaker hits the left side wall (and vice versa) may actually be more beneficial than treating the first reflection point. FWIW, from what I've read and experienced, diffusion is more beneficial in larger rooms where the panels are at least 8' away from your ears.

The Decware site has some interesting room treatment tips worth checking out, including use of diffusion (I own 4 of their diffusion panels). There is also an interesting method they describe that allows you to find all the reflection points, but you'll need a laser pointer and lots of mirrors to conduct the test.

In my room I treat first reflection point that also captures the opposite reflections as well using Real Traps panels. I use Acoustimac 6" bass traps in the corners of the front walls and I also treat the upper corners with triangles and the upper seams where the wall meets the ceiling with rectangles (I use Eighth Nerve products for the corners and seams).
schipo
1,268 posts
 
Yes to adjust the side wall treatment to individual "TASTE"..the individual taste may be wrong when it comes to treatment of first reflection.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Side wall treatment is beneficial particularly if the room has a left/right imbalance.

Front and back walls should follow the live end dead end theory. Preferably live end would be behind the speakers dead end behind the listening position.

Clap your hands and listen for a very slight reverberant decay. If there is no decay you have over damped.
inpieces's avatar
inpieces
199 posts
 
I know an audiophile who is blind since birth.
When we spoke of placement of speakers in room and also acoustics, he did tell me how our hearing works.
He has also been working in the upper high end and mostly with studios etc over 25 years.
We all do are own conclusions, but he have tought me some of value. Quite often i have noticed he has strong points.

I will not pull all of that here. But i can say, it is very interesting how human brain let us percept.
I usually try to do lots and lots of different set ups with my speakers. I have also noticed, while fine tuning and doing listening, i usually keep eyes closed (not when moving around ofcourse:).
For me, it makes it easier to concentrate on differences.
I am only using, same few reference tracks that i know is working for me.

As i was told, mostly from the acoustic companies that i have approached over the years. When doing one wall, start with that behind the speakers and corners.
I noticed some started off with that behind head.
Well, ofcourse it's pending on the actual room.
Though, it might be worth to consider.
Masking effects is what it's all about, that is for sure.
lewinskih01
909 posts
 
Interesting thread.
I've been doing a fair amount of reading on accoustics and I'm now building 2 16"-diam. x 6'-high bass traps a-la John Risch to be placed at the corners behind the speakers (dynamic speakers).

Next, I was thinking of adding self-standing absorbing panels (also a-la John Risch) behind the speakers and towards the center point to absorb their first reflection on the wall behind the speakers. Good second step? From this thread I'm getting that maybe a better second step might be treating the back wall.

Thanks all for posting your experiences and opinions. They enrich what one can read on books/papers.
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