Eighth Nerve Room Pack Acoustic Room Treatment

Category: Accessories

I am reviewing a Room Pack which consists of 4 Corners , 4 Seams ,
and 2 Echoes ( 10 pieces total).
After getting the components I have lusted after for so long I needed to take a look at what some people say is the most important component, the room. I live in a small NYC apt. with plaster walls and the acoustics suck big time. I read a review on this company at ecoustics.com , checked out the site and fired off an e-mail. It turned out that one of the owners , Bill Laurent , was coming to NYC from Nashville and would do an onsite consultation. He will also do them by phone if you fax him a diagram of your room.
After meeting with Bill he reccomended some tweaks which had nothing to do with room treatment and then he wrote my my room treatment prescription.
The first thing I installed was the corner treatments.
I auditioned with the song " Unforgettable" by Nat and Natalie Cole.
The result in my room was a light airiness with strings allowing them to soar, you can really feel when the musicians accentuate a phrase or note.
The string bass , piano , and drums became more clearly defined with better separation. I installed using velcro and did a few with and without corner treatment comparisons.
In a word I can't even listen now without the corners installed. It's like
getting the snow out of a TV picture, you can't go back to accepting a less defined image.
Next came the seams.
I removed the Corner Treatments I had auditioned and installed the Seam Treatments as instructed,vertically in the corners of the room, midway between floor and ceiling.
In my room this treatment improved the highs more than anything else. Cymbals were crystal clear, every splash, brush, or strike was amazingly crytal clear. It improved vocals , and other midrange notes to a degree and slightly improved the bass by giving it slightly better separation.
I would say the Corners made a more dramatic improvement to the midrange and the bass, the seams made more of an improvement to the treble and the highs.
Next I added the Echoes to the previous treatments already in place.
This piece is designed to be placed 1 inch from the ceiling in the center of the room. You should treat either 2 walls or 4.
I evaluated this treatment with both corners and seams already in place.
A room pack comes with 2 echoes. I initially started with 4.
I started by placing treatment on all 4 walls. I did not like what I heard. It drew in the soundstage and cut off the highs. I listened to a few different
types of music and did not hear what I wanted. I decided to remove just the two echoes that were on the side walls.
Voila! I instantly had the highs return and noticed the soundstage seem to lock in place. Better definition of instruments in the real space.
I would not reccomend this piece alone unless you need to tame brightness alone. It had more of a dampening effect in my small apt.

When added with the corners and seams it helped better define the soundstage, particularly on classical music.

I reccomend starting with a roompack and simply order two more echoes if it is still to bright.
In conclusion this upgrade has added much more valur to my system than what it cost. If you listen in an untreated room you will not believe how much more satisfying your system can become with this very modest investment. Obviosly ymmv depending on your room.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Weakness: The Seams May Have a Low Spouse Approval Factor.
(Comes in two colors though)
Product Strengths: Amazingly Low Price For Level of Improvement received

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: active speakers
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): Sunfire TG3
Sources (CDP/Turntable): HTPC with M- audiophile soundcard
Dac: Art Di/O modified by Bolder Cable fed by a GW Labs DSP
Speakers: Paradigm Active 40
Cables/Interconnects: various Virtual Dynamics PC
Music Used (Genre/Selections): jazz/pop
Room Size (LxWxH): 11 x 12 x 10
Room Comments/Treatments: Eighth Nerve
Time Period/Length of Audition: ! week
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Monster HTPS 7000
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner