Room treatment success story

So, what do you do, with a room that is really quite much to small for the speakers - you just must have?

Does it even work decent?

Counting, from the size of my room and looking on how large a recommended listening room would be - for my speakers (Monitor Audio PL 300).
We talk numbers from 60-70% larger.
My room have these numbers: 515cm wide and 388cm deep. Height (floor to ceiling) about 247cm.

So, how does this work?

In the begining, the room suffered from flutter echo. But to my surprise, not as big of a subject for worst room-boom as numbers suggested.

As i listen to quite much alternative, i also listen to Canadian Frontline Assembly. The album Epitaph, push low bass and trigger nodes like nothing else.
Many highend speakers can sound compressed with this album.
A few speakers sounded just terrible, some are handling it superb.
If this album works in a room, i guess no-one will have problem with bass nodes in that room (happy you;)

For most music and probably 90% of what i have. My untreated room had a clear masking effect due to flutter echo. Also bass made blemishes that added to less than ideal results.
All people does not seem to find issues with this - the dark side of acoustics.
I have friends having even worse. Still changing very expensive cdp, cables etc etc without even caring for the acoustics.
Well, enough of that.

I contacted some acoustic companies and decided to buy what looked most in synergi talking shape/ size and colour options.
My choice became Gik Acoustics. So, i did a check up and found fair kits. I suspected these would not help me. Mosty due to the fact that the kits had lesser panels and bass absorbers, so i contacted GIK.
After same paintings and mails, i decided to buy a kit, suiting better in my room.
Mainly to absorb bass and reflection/ echo.
Most units are made to be wall mounted, or you can use them an optional stands. I decided to buy optional stands making them easier to move + no need to use nails in the walls.

The corners behind the speakers (front wall from listening position), i decided to use TRItraps.
2 units in each corner.

Behind the loudspeakers i placed 1 unit 244 panel, behind each speaker.
Between them, i placed 1 unit 242 panel (center of room).

Behind my sofa, (rear wall), i placed 1 unit of TRItrap in each corner. Above the TRItrap, i was going to mount 1 unit 244 panel, in the angle of rear wall and sidewall.
(i did not)

Directly behind my sofa i placed 2 units of Monster bass absorbers.

At the sides (left / right), between listening position (sofa) and the loudspeakers i have 1 unit of 242 panel at the first reflection.

To detect that is easy, when you sit in listening position, have a friend hold a mirror. When you view the loudspeaker, you see the first reflection.

The remaing 2 units of 244 panels, those that was ment to hang over the TRItraps of the rearwall.
I have now placed these, between the 244 units that are situated behind the loudspeakers and the dual TRItraps .

The difference is a more coherent soundfield. The slight blurr and smear of the flutter echo, and rumbling bass are very very reduced.
The readability - better view the very layeres of material, the dynamical contrast and impact. The silence the focus and depth.
Bass is more agile and clean impact is more firm. The whole music flows different when start and stop are more defined and firm. This is hard for me to put words on, it is just so much better. If you suspect you might need treatment, you probably do.

Sonics does not alter. I would say this is a very good upgrade.

I have a new loudspeaker cable. I compaired these two i have, before i got my GIK kit. The difference is way more obvious now.

I can concluded that in my case this is a very good upgrade.

I think it looks quite good, all units are black, they are easy to move on stands. Music sounds alot better, i better see into to soundfield and better orientate in the event.
There are no downsides of harsh treble response, shrill, thin, cold or too little bass. There are no holes or dips.

I had large industrial absorbers at one time. I bought them to try. Those are not made for music.
What happened was that the sound became dead, it felt as whole frequencies were sucked out and the experience was terrible.

There are probably bad absorbers and treatment avaible.
I have no intention to say these are good if they were not. IMO, this is a very nice upgrade and it helps you better hear what your system can do.

For 90% of the music i have, it is terrific and hope that a few more dare to invest to achieve audio-nirvana. The remaining 10%, is just when the lowest bass is too powerful in it's output.

If you listen alot to electronica with heavy/ low frequent bass. See to it that you are not buying to small absorbers.
As for me, i could use 2 more TRItraps and 1 unit Monster bass more.

I am sorry if it is somewhat inconclusive and/ or unclear - what i experience. If anyone asks (whatever really), i will try to answer best i can.

Inpieces - thanks for sharing your story above. Have you a digital camera to take pics of your room for all to see?

Like Inpieces, I too have traveled down a long road of room treatments. If there was any advice I'd like to share it's to educate yourself first so that you (i)don't go down the wrong path based on falacious reasoning or outdated theories, (ii)don't waste your money buying the "wrong" kind of treatment that is too thin or not deep enough, and (iii)can learn and begin to appreciate the physics that's occuring and why certain treatments work the way they do. Gaining knowledge, understanding, and common sense go a long, long way.

My bare room with just drywall for walls and ceiling and low cut pile carpet from wall-to-wall (with underpad) sounded terrible - too live a sound with too much flutter echo as one would expect. I began to tackle the bass region first with lots of bass traps and experimented with positioning around the room and with the distance between the wall and the back of the trap. All the while taking repeated measurements to see what was happening. You'll invariably be surprised at some of the sonic outcomes based on treatment location. For example, when a bass trap works better on the back wall than the front wall because the front wall has a door on it and the back wall doesn't and because the back wall also has a brick foundation behind the drywall. All of these things are factors that pretty soon add up to hundreds of permutations and combinations of variables that would make a Ph.D.'s eyes swim, let alone mine.

But taking it one step at a time starting with the bass region and then progressing to the mid/high region was key. I've reduced a 11db peak at 80Hz down to now just 3dB - an eight dB reduction - due solely to bass trap positioning and using thick enough resistive traps and pulling them at least 6"-7" away from the wall, sometimes as far as 13" away from the wall. WAF be damned!

The next region was the mids/highs which I only wanted to diffuse or reflect not absorb. You wouldn't believe how much HF wall-to-wall carpet can absorb so I desperately wanted to prevent a dead-sounding room. Again education came to the rescue with what kinds of diffusion to use and where, 1D vs 2D, seating distances away, calculating low freq effectiveness of diffusers etc. . .

The end result is pretty special as it's been about a 2 year journey (a slow learner?) and it really sounds amazing now. It's like having your own audio laboratory where the smallest of changes in tubes or cables can be heard. It's like falling in love with your music all over again, as cliche as that sounds. People who have spent their lives listening to music on boom boxes, or in cars, or on their iPods have the dumbest grins on their faces when they listen and point to places in space to the musicians on an invisible stage! it's the funniest thing to see but also very rewarding.

So, I would encourage all to treat thy room before upgrading your equipment as it'll pay back sonic dividends far greater than swapping out tubes, cords, preamps etc. Please email me if you'd like with questions and I'd be happy to try and convey my experience.

cheers,
kevin

Kevinzoe
Amen... Funny how some guys get 30,000 dollar speakers and switch them in and out, then you come to find they have them in a room worth about 2000 bucks! Build a house or a room to get the optimal out of that crazy speaker is far better and probably cheaper! Unfortunately nobody learns this up front, we all have made the mistakes and this always ends up last on the list.

But let me say this, this is just not possible for everyone, however somebody especially with huge multi thousand dollar systems there is not much excuse unless they are renting. However the guy with 5000 total sometimes into a system just has to make it work with what he has sometimes, and this is not always easy or efficient, they may never even know it unless they read this site everyday!

Kevinzoe,

ofcourse measuring is best. We have a pro company here. They do serious jobs and they are very good and have done listening rooms at high end stores around. Though, i rent my flat. So, i bought what i find best suitable for a future, as i will not live here forever.

Easiest way to describe listening in my room, is like listening through headphones. IMO, very balanced and with high readability and impact.

GIK Acoustics IMO, has been very nice fellows. They have the down to earth approach and always helps with questions and ideas.

It do sound very good here now. When i was into more expensive units i had some visits to audio freaks. Some had home made units, speakers and acoustic treatments. Some had undeniably expensive equiptments and half way to bad acoustics. Far too many have just positioned a system under not best conditions. I fully understand this is not for everyone. I just wanted to chime in as i believe those that gave this more simple approach as i took, would be superbly happy when finally listening. We could all go on trying to perceive an image of what is and what is not.
I guess, for most it's a matter of cost and you mention WAF. That alone, might be most difficult.

My quest was for:
Good to great acoustics.
Appearance/ looks.
How can i use these in case of moving?
How does it affect cleaning my room?

As is, all is fine IMO. There are always more extreme approaches. These units i have do not weight too much either. They are on stands, except for TRItraps. So they are easy to move around. They look realy sober in black.

I had bass absorbers in the past, weight was 50kgs each. They were huge. No more!

Friends who has been here, well, all have there own opinions.
As for how it sounds, none had argued. Most complement to focus and readability. While pushing the limits for higher db, it is an amazing agility and impact. It is easy going really high on volume, as no direct overhang or disturbances are detected. I try keep it at normal to low (neighbours/ complaints are not good). It sounds really good at quite low. But,for the sense of drama, pushing it is quite an experience.

Hello , I noticed you have magnepans. A suggestion : I recently placed a 2" thick oc 703 2'x4'panel behind my maggies 1.6 's . In a direct line behind them floor to ceiling . It was out of curiosity i tried this. All the stuff i have read online states to put diffusors behind them .I read you got advice to put all 5 of your panels in the rear.I also did that from the advice i read in this post .a great improvement .The sound is alot less bright doing this. Bass like crazy .i previously had floor to ceilng curtains behind the speakers which did help with some absorption and diffusuion. I just did this today and am very pleased with the new sound . I would recommend this highly !