Suddenly, things are sounding awful...

Lousyreed, Re, "Perhaps thats not right"........

It's not right. The room and speaker positioning in it has a far more dramatic effect on the sound than most folks recognize. Even some of the folks that do, still underestimate it. Life (for us thats audio) should be so simple. :-) Trelja's idea is a good one if you can still do it, at least you will know if you have a piece of equipment that has changed. PS I don't think its the tube - when they age they get dull, lifeless, and noisy. New tubes can be a bit bright for 24 hours or so.

One of the many things that can happen when you rearrange speakers, for example, is in the new position you may well completely change the frequency respone curve in the lower mids and/or bass because of the rooms dimensions. Thin out the lower-mids and the highs will now 'seem bright' even though they may not have changed at all.

It really is amazing how many times I've been told about room acoustics and how many times it has failed to sink in! I'll keep all this in mind and not freak out too much about tubes. Thanks guys.

Lousyreeds1, we are just about all guilty of the same offense.

We focus on the glamour stuff, when the room is the most important component. The coupling of the room and speaker is directly responsible for a larger share of the sonics than any other component. Just try the same speakers, or ANY other piece of equipment, in two different rooms and it becomes instantly clear. Still, despite these words, like the cable folks and the myriad of snake oil salesmen in our hobby, be wary of those who want to charge lots of money to apply common sense solutions to one's room.

Take what I say with a grain of salt, the information being no better than the source. It has taken me a couple of years of living in a shouty, bright room to realize that I need to quiet the upper midrange and treble regions down to put the music into the proper balance. But, I have now purchased the material - burlap, long hair carded wool (need to buy some Mothguard), and am ready to fix my issues...

My system which I'm very happy with sat idle while I listened to my headphones because I moved to a new place and the brightness made it unlistenable. Seriously, now tell me what's improtant?

BUT, I can't hardly blame people for not knowing what to do with the acoustics. Acoustics aren't that complex, but all these companies that charge a premium will make it seem like it is something only experts can understand, and you have to pay $500-$1,000 for a panel that is just condensed fiber glass with a pretty fabric (I realize it's a little more complex but...). So, a lot of audiophiles go back to what's easy... upgrading components.

So I've had to move things around again, hopefully for the last time. Now I'm really clueless about what to do acoustically. I have everything shoved into half of the room, with one speaker about 18" from a wall. Yikes! My system is under 'getting started' and it's called 'the blue room'. There are pictures posted. Does anyone have ideas for me? I have more foam lying about.

Thanks!