Opinions for reaching the "next level"

dorokusai

I agree that room treatments are needed and often, very often overlooked but don't agree with your approach, big deal. If you get offended that quickly, good luck in this hobby.

Edit: How awesome for me jmierzur!

inspiredsports

Good grief, why can't we all just get along?

Pushing forward, I searched google for "audiophile room treatments" and then selected the "images" tab as I am a visual learner.

After about an hour of looking at images and then reading information on the sites where the images were found, I'm learning a little bit about the concept.

Face

Here are some room treatments in action.

dorokusai

Keiko wrote: »

No experience in room treatments, but I believe jm1 has a lot of experience in this area. Another becoming response there, El Capitan. Way to set the example.

Since when did it become uncool to have an opinion Keiko? You certainly do in here. Example? LOL, lead the way L T. I will continue to speak my mind, as should every single individual on this board.

I believe that Jim put a lot of thought into his room and listening enviroment, no argument, never was but I disagree with his end result...again, what's the big deal? I'm positive that the room sounds awesome and in the end that's all that matters anyways. Both of you should take a chill pill but Jm1 won't read this anyways.

Room treatments are easy and simple to explore, without being excessive.

george daniel

dorokusai wrote: »

Since when did it become uncool to have an opinion Keiko? You certainly do in here. Example? LOL, lead the way L T. I will continue to speak my mind, as should every single individual on this board.

I believe that Jim put a lot of thought into his room and listening enviroment, no argument, never was but I disagree with his end result...again, what's the big deal? I'm positive that the room sounds awesome and in the end that's all that matters anyways. Both of you should take a chill pill but Jm1 won't read this anyways.

Room treatments are easy and simple to explore, without being excessive.

Great point--mine are certainly not excessive by any means-the end result--a more realistic tone/sound,,a bit more intimate listening experience with a positive WAF,,lol.

Ricardo

dorokusai wrote: »

completely overdone

I consider mine is still medium-rare



.

george daniel

Well,, someone else knows about the ficus behind the speaks, ,eh? Ricardo--what amp do those fins belong to.

Ricardo

George, it's a Pass Labs X250. It's been here over a year. I was thinking that the previous two amps that stayed here for longer than 6 months or so came from Atlanta...Adcom 555 and Belles 350

The ficus. Awesome tweak, as long as you carefully place all the leaves at the right angle.

mhardy6647

Avoid square (or worse yet, cubic) rooms and parallel surfaces as much as possible.
A nice Persian rug will help too. On the floor, on the wall, wherever :-)

Dont't get me wrong: there's nothing wrong with room treatments per se but FWIW I see them as sort of a displacement behavior. To wit: Imagine if you will that Eric Clapton visits your house, acoustic guitar in hand, goes into your hifi room and starts to sing and play. Will it sound "real"? Will you wonder, "Boy, that's not bad... but there's all this room gain in the bass, and he's a little strident and echo-y sounding due to the fast echo off the back wall"?

Ricardo

In my 10 x 13 room, without treatments, the echo is unbearable. Eric would walk out after the first couple of notes

Toolfan66

I would love to get my ears on Ricardo's, and Face's Rigs. For nothing more to see whats on the other side of this Hobby...



Very Nice Fellas..

SCompRacer

Acoustic treatments. I am fortunate to have high ceilings and the back wall is ~25 feet away with this setup.




A couple of CP friends and fellow Rockford Audio Society members treated their rooms after hearing what they can do at my place. I started removing and then reinserting them while music played. Acoustic treatment should have been the first thing I did before messing with different gear.

http://www.polkaudio.com/images/showcase/218_96_big.jpg?rand=12205247

inspiredsports

jm1 wrote: »

No. Any enclosed space will require treatment of some type.

I sure appreciate your taking the time to weigh in and help me out.

I like to learn about the best possible solutions regardless of cost and time involved to implement, and then I customize my specific solution to my specific means.

I'm pretty handy and envision being able to build some of the components I've seen once I learn the math behind the dimensions needed and proper placement.

inspiredsports

The images you guys are posting are amazing!

Toolfan66

inspiredsports wrote: »

The images you guys are posting are amazing!

Agreed!!!!

Ricardo

inspiredsports wrote: »

The images you guys are posting are amazing!

Well, mine shows that it's a "man cave" compared to the nice rooms from Face and Rich

You are only a few hours away

(Mason, OH)

dorokusai

Keiko wrote: »

I don't think you'd like the answer to this. And with that, I'm out of this thread. Carry on....

I forgot you even posted. Happy Listening!

Love the room Carl...Ricardo...not so much, just kidding.

cstmar01

SCompRacer wrote: »

Acoustic treatments. I am fortunate to have high ceilings and the back wall is ~25 feet away with this setup.




A couple of CP friends and fellow Rockford Audio Society members treated their rooms after hearing what they can do at my place. I started removing and then reinserting them while music played. Acoustic treatment should have been the first thing I did before messing with different gear.

http://www.polkaudio.com/images/showcase/218_96_big.jpg?rand=12205247

wow....

are those DIY treatments or did you purchase them?

heiney9

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86154&highlight=room+treatments

Here's what was done to my brother's front room. Rich was a big help as were the rest of us local RAS guys as we all held the treatments in different areas to judge what sounded best.

Then my Dad came over and helped hang all the panels. The panels over the front windows are easily removeable. It looks great and the room sounds 2000X better.

H9

megasat16

I learned passive room treatments are over rated. It improves a little for acoustics reflections but nothing like what you can do with Active Room treatments (using multiple speakers and in strategic placement.)

Go with Active Room Treatment or Plant flowers near the speakers. I know it improves t he sound better when I planted money tree near my speaker. Believe it or, I sometimes put cats on the speakers and it seems to absorb all nasty reflections.


Ok! I was just kidding about plant and cats. But using both passive (sounds absorbing panels) and active Room Treatment (such as multi speakers, DSP correction / tone control, etc.) improves a lot of what you can hear.

heiney9

megasat16 wrote: »

I learned passive room treatments are over rated. It improves a little for acoustics reflections but nothing like what you can do with Active Room treatments (using multiple speakers and in strategic placement.)

Go with Active Room Treatment or Plant flowers near the speakers. I know it improves t he sound better when I planted money tree near my speaker. Believe it or, I sometimes put cats on the speakers and it seems to absorb all nasty reflections.

Couldn't disagree more!!! The passive room treatments I've heard before and after were simply amazing.

H9

Ricardo

^^^^^^^What he said + 1,000,000

You should come over for a before and after.

megasat16

Ok! I forgot to add YMMV!

Passive room treatment, Hanging flower pots, placing baked rocks, placing kittens inside subs, reinforcing speakers with concrete blocks? Been there, done that.

inspiredsports

Wow, thanks for the link to blakeh's thread. I don't know how I missed that last year when it was being posted.

In the meantime, today even before I saw his thread, I have been covering my Sam's Club 24"X60" "Lifetime" brand white vinyl tables with large beach towels and moving them around the room mimicking the images here in this thread and what I've found searching google images for "audiophile room treatments".

I realize I can randomly impact the sound at my listening point with these simple passive absorbers, and that more learning is needed, plus it's even harder to actively control bass response so I also searched to learn more about quantifying what's going on.

I've found opinions about ways to measure the dullness/liveliness of my listening space using tone generators and SPL meters to determine RT60 and some math formulas to determine mode points.

So, this is exactly where I wanted to be. I have a tiptoe in the water just enough to realize that there's about 99.5% more to learn , and that I should be able to quickly fill in the gaps with the expertise here.

Final point . . . I'm happy people have dissenting opinions, but have made up my mind to go forward with passive room treatments. I would prefer not to have to wade through negative comments about room treatments here in this thread . . . I'm going to try it.

heiney9

dbl post

heiney9

megasat16 wrote: »

Ok! I forgot to add YMMV!

Next time do them right :)

H9

reeltrouble1

I would get some electrostats, room treatments.....yish, gottem, thought you were trying to get to a new level.

RT1

inspiredsports

Ricardo wrote: »

Well, mine shows that it's a "man cave" compared to the nice rooms from Face and Rich

You are only a few hours away

(Mason, OH)

Small world! A good friend of mine just took a new job in Cincy and is moving his family to Mason before school starts. If he ropes me in to helping him move I will PM you.

inspiredsports

reeltrouble1 wrote: »

I would get some electrostats, room treatments.....yish, gottem, thought you were trying to get to a new level.

RT1

I must be thick and not getting this, but are you also suggesting passive treatments don't work, and that I need to pile on more electronics to remove sounds that I've used electronics to generate ?????

jm1

inspiredsports wrote: »

I sure appreciate your taking the time to weigh in and help me out.

I like to learn about the best possible solutions regardless of cost and time involved to implement, and then I customize my specific solution to my specific means.

I'm pretty handy and envision being able to build some of the components I've seen once I learn the math behind the dimensions needed and proper placement.

Thats a good summary of what I applied to my situation.

This book is good read.

- Floyd Toole
- Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms


One day I would like to take a road trip to hear this room. The information on the initial page is somewhat old as he hasn’t been updating this although the pictures are up to date. At the bottom of the description, there is a URL to a Positive Feedback article he created about the room construction. Buried within all 38 pages of responses is a wealth of information if you know what to look for.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vaslt&1036349020


I would also look to this forum for guidance:

http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=rives