Does the first reflection point actually matter??


Hello my friends,

So please read the whole post before commenting. The question is nuanced.

First, as you probably know I’m a huge fan of the well treated room, and a fan boy of GIK acoustics as a result, so what I am _not_ arguing is against proper room treatment. I remember many years ago, perhaps in Audio magazine (dating myself?) the concept of treating the first reflection points came up, and it seems really logical, and quickly adopted. Mirrors, flashlights and lasers and paying the neighbor’s kid (because we don’t have real friends) to come and hold them while marking the wall became common.

However!! In my experience, I have not actually been able to tell the difference between panels on and off that first reflection point. Of course, I can hear the difference between panels and not, but after all these years, I want to ask if any of you personally know that the first reflection point really matters more than other similar locations. Were we scammed? By knowing I mean, did you experiment? Did you find it the night and day difference that was uttered, or was it a subtle thing, and if those panels were moved 6" off, would you hear it?


Best,


Erik
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by jrwaudio

I have Maggie's 8 feet apart, 4 feet out from the wall and 11 feet from my listening position. I have my second set of tower speakers up against the wall behind my Maggie's  to help with rear reflections.  My big concern, and I'm stuck with it, is that my couch is up against the wall. Because the audio room is above my three car garage I have no issue with side wall reflections and l think the sloped ceiling also helps. I must say I'm very hapoy with the soundstage, inner detail and dynamics. If you would like to see (and hear) my room configuration just look up, magnepan .7's playing SRV  on Youtube