Room treatment success story

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to share it's to educate yourself first so that you (i)don't go down the wrong path based on falacious reasoning or outdated theories, (ii)don't waste your money buying the "wrong" kind of treatment that is too thin or not deep enough, and (iii)can learn and begin to appreciate the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 !