Yes, as noted above, a room built from the start with built-in treatment can look quite nice. A friend has a Rives-designed room that looks beautiful. Bass traps are built into the corners of the room and are covered in fabric so nothing is visible. A large curved wooden diffusor is at the front of the room, but it looks like an architectural design element, same with the sidewall diffusors. The ceiling diffusors also look good and integrated with the "look" of the room. This, however, was a VERY expensive approach.
I have also seen rooms which were "treated" with minimal structural work that did not look like there was any treatment at all. If you go to the Boulevard Audio website and click on the pictures for a media room in Arlington, Va., you will see this room. The wall is covered with fabric covered panels from Kinetic Noise Control, some panels being diffusors, others designed to absorb mid and high frequencies. Kinetics makes triangular shaped bass traps for the corners that also look like a design element for the room. I have my doubts about such shallow traps being able to do really deep bass trapping, but then again, the room does sound nice.
Even cheaper, I heard a room with only tapestries hanging on the walls that sounded pretty good. It just took some good ears to determine where to place the tapestries and to determine what is just the right amount of treatment.
I know it is dogma around here that room treatment is the foremost consideration in getting good sound. I too think it is important, but, I also think one can get great sound in almost any room with relatively modest acoustical treatment, provided that one has the luxury of locating the listening area and the speakers in optimal locations. Unfortunately, that often means speakers well away from the wall behind the speakers and walls to the side. Also, if one sits in the nearfield, generally within 10'in a typical room, the direct sound from the speaker predominates, and in this manner, reduces the contribution of the room to the sound. Some speakers sound horrible with nearfield listening, some are good, so one must plan speaker selection and room placement together to get good results.
My own room has modest treatment. I have wall-to-wall carpeting, but I have placed an additional "Audiocarpet" (very dense acoustical carpet from Italy) area rug between the speakers and my listening chair. An Audiocarpet diffusor sits near the back wall between the speakers. The front of the speakers are more than 6 ft from the wall behind the speakers. I sit about nine feet away, with the back wall about 5 ft. behind. But, the precise location of speakers and the listening chair was determined by trial and error, and the optimal locations are extremely tightly defined. That is why I say speaker and listener placement is THE MOST important consideration.
I have also seen rooms which were "treated" with minimal structural work that did not look like there was any treatment at all. If you go to the Boulevard Audio website and click on the pictures for a media room in Arlington, Va., you will see this room. The wall is covered with fabric covered panels from Kinetic Noise Control, some panels being diffusors, others designed to absorb mid and high frequencies. Kinetics makes triangular shaped bass traps for the corners that also look like a design element for the room. I have my doubts about such shallow traps being able to do really deep bass trapping, but then again, the room does sound nice.
Even cheaper, I heard a room with only tapestries hanging on the walls that sounded pretty good. It just took some good ears to determine where to place the tapestries and to determine what is just the right amount of treatment.
I know it is dogma around here that room treatment is the foremost consideration in getting good sound. I too think it is important, but, I also think one can get great sound in almost any room with relatively modest acoustical treatment, provided that one has the luxury of locating the listening area and the speakers in optimal locations. Unfortunately, that often means speakers well away from the wall behind the speakers and walls to the side. Also, if one sits in the nearfield, generally within 10'in a typical room, the direct sound from the speaker predominates, and in this manner, reduces the contribution of the room to the sound. Some speakers sound horrible with nearfield listening, some are good, so one must plan speaker selection and room placement together to get good results.
My own room has modest treatment. I have wall-to-wall carpeting, but I have placed an additional "Audiocarpet" (very dense acoustical carpet from Italy) area rug between the speakers and my listening chair. An Audiocarpet diffusor sits near the back wall between the speakers. The front of the speakers are more than 6 ft from the wall behind the speakers. I sit about nine feet away, with the back wall about 5 ft. behind. But, the precise location of speakers and the listening chair was determined by trial and error, and the optimal locations are extremely tightly defined. That is why I say speaker and listener placement is THE MOST important consideration.
