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Single most effective electronic room treatment?

I have a listening room bordering between small and medium size, measuring 16'x 13'x 7'2" high.

Construction is 18th century timber frame, plaster over lath, with crown moldings and square corner beams exposed. One wall is paneled (with two paneled doors) flanking a recessed brick fireplace and tile hearth. Two walls are exterior, each with one window which is covered with a lightweight, translucent scrim curtain. Rug and 1/2" padding cover 90% of the floor. There are a couple of bureaus, a large palm plant and a U- shaped melamine work table, necessitated by combining office and listening room.

Until recently components have been in a Michael Green-type clamp rack made of 2 1/8" laminated MDF which I will reconfigure as an isolation stand for my TT.

The arrival of a top loading CD player will render the clamp rack redundant.

I've experimented a bit with physical first reflection treatments on the walls and ceiling.

What *electronic* device have you found --and kept in your own listening roon-- that would make the greatest difference in the room's *MUSICALITY*?

Is placement an issue? What has your experience been?

I'm considering Acoustic Revive options, particularly the RR-77 (anyone have one for sale?) and its siblings, but am open to the experience pool of the GoN.

Thank you
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danlib1
819 posts
 
I owned the TacT unit, worked with it for months. While it made a difference in all the expected ways, it did slightly inhibit transparency. Some will claim that I must not have set the unit up correctly, or tried to settle for simple setup. In reality, I worked hard with the unit, and I am no idiot.

When the dust all settled, an expensive analog room treatment approach using 16 inch ASC tube traps and diffraction and absorption devices made the difference I was looking for. Sold the TacT, never looked back.
rodman99999
6,170 posts
 
I'd been an active bi-amping, straight-wire-with-gain guy for over 30 years, and was about nothing, if not transparency(I listen to live acoustic music every week, at least twice per). Colorations iritate me, no end. I'm now a devout TacT RCS 2.2X user, and can't consider looking back. The MauiMods power supply and unfiltered IEC assembly made a major improvement in the unit's transparency and dynamic potential. If you've not tried them: you've not heard of what a TacT RCS is capable. I've had Aurlex treatment in my listening rooms for years, and there's no comparison to what the TacT RCS can do. The Auralex DOES make the job easier for the TacT. The better the room to start with: The better the end result w/correction. The Tact will tweak your first arrival times and response to a "T". I use a DEQ-2496's 6th octave RTA, and the TacT's pink noise generator, to test the steady state response of the room. That combo gives all the flexiblity one could ever require for accurate musical reproduction(given a reasonable room/well resolving system to start with). Of course- your results are very dependent on proper speaker placement/choice, the ambience recovery/sound staging potential of the rest of the system, etc.
dgaylin
255 posts
 
Very interesting and informative thread. One question -- rather than modding the TACT units, have any of you tried to use a very nice external DAC instead and then go to an analog pre-amp?

A special thank you to Jeffb28451 for one of the most thoughtful discussions on this issue. I've been trying to learn about -- and decide whether to take the plunge on -- a TACT unit for some time now, and this really helped.
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
I agree with the bass trap idea. Get at least four Aurelex Lenrd bass traps and put them in the corners of your front wall. This will improve things tremendously.
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