I know I'm not the only one thinking this, but there are some ass ugly rooms housing some of these great systems. We may have great ears, but we have no sense when it comes to making our rooms look good, with a few exceptions, of course. Any comments? JP
As I thought about it last night, he was on the leading edge of the state of the art in audio. I think he talked to people all around the Mi, Mn area including people at ARC. Back in 1989, I paid him, if I recall correctly, about $400 to upgrade my ARC SP-6b pre-amp. He turned it into a musical instrument. He replaced the RCA jacks with Gold/Teflon type, all the resistors from Carbon to wire wound, Litz wire throughout, new Volume pot, new voltage bias pots for the tubes and all the film capacitors with WonderCaps. I also recall that he added more capacitance in some places. I enjoyed that pre-amp for 14 years and only upgraded so I could try low output MC cartridges. Even his homemade speaker cables made from welding cables were good for the time because the cables were very thick and welders operate at high frequencies. That's what started me down the path making my own mod's and tweaks to my system components through the late 80s and 90s.
My room is 14.5' x 20' x 8'. Not as large as I want but will do for now. As for the WAF, my wife stays out of my room design. She can suggest but can not add without my okay. It is a man cave not an US cave. Maybe just maybe if the items she wants in MY room came some cash, I might, I said might add them to the room. She does help with finding items I cannot locate thou and is very understanding of my affliction. BTW to build my cave also cost me the money to finish the attic space 20'X30'X8' with walkout deck for her
In the late 80's, I had a buddy who's hifi would fit the title of this post. His listening room was in the basement which had some acoustical treatment. He had taken the grills off of his Quad ESL's and mounted these speakers into rigid wooden frames made with 2X4's and weighted down in the back with concrete block. So they looked like a pair of copper panels reflecting your image at you when sitting in the center. He had welding cable for speaker cables. He had his Sota tt mounted on a modified Billy Bags turntable stand. He had a highly modified ARC SP-6b pre-amp that was closer to being an SP-8 and he had a Quicksilver Tube amp with the cage removed. Next to all this was a 1 Farad capacitor- a large grey metal can to filter the AC power into his system. From a looks standpoint this room was a 1. But being a couple of engineers I could appreciate how that room looked- extremely technical but not pleasing to the eye. When he turned out the lights and with just a warm glow filling the room from his amp, magic happened. Those Quads put a soundstage in front of me as tangible as the artists standing there in front of me. I can still remember the first few records he played for me. I was so blown away.
Today, many $$ later, I think I am there, but the impact factor is past me now. I never built a system/room that looked that rugged, but I didn't focus too much on looks until the last 10 years or so.
I feel very fotunate to have a great listening room.Of course it is a recession/deco man cave ,complete with acoustic treatment made from old temperpedic mattress cover (bass traps),mostly empty(now)wine rack which acts as a diffuser,NOS sofa (purchased from a consignment shop),humidor,scotch glasses and mid century furniture picked up at a yard sale. The room is about 16ft wide and a whopping 30 feet long! This makes for pretty good acoustic,though the ceiling is low. My Acoustat 2s work very well here.
The best part is that I can entertain my audiophile friends with wine,single malts,brandy,port and cigars while we listen at any volume we wish without disturbing the neighbors and pissing off the significant other.My friends seem to like it,though it is not posh in a Mid town Manhattan/Silicon Valley way. It is my style and my room and I like it.And so do the boys.
Not quite as bad but my brother lived in a trailer while going to college and had several thousand worth of stereo equipment, and this was not a nice trailer.
I currently have a ten grand system squished into a basement bedroom while waiting to complete the HT room, 5.1 system in 12x14' furnished bedroom is interesting to say the least.
True, it is apparent that many people have allocated all of their money for a stereo or they just don't give a hoot about how the room looks. I have noticed this though, why spend a fortune for good looking equipment only to put it in a room that looks like the set from Roseanne. Also, I love when people have a $40,000 stereo in a tiny cheapo looking apartment.
OK so who do members think has the best looking room?
My vote off hand would go to Grr6001, or Mikelavigne in that order, these are truely beautiful rooms and of the ones members post both these rooms are for the most part a universe ahead of the rest.
Ryder, You can get great sound in a small room, I have done so myself in about the size of yours. The small room does not dictate that good sound can't be achieved and you are correct in your statements in my mind as well.
It is the 10 foot wide room with the 30" wide speakers angled in running two 12-15" woofers, etc. . . that confuses me. These rooms must become overpressurized well before properly driving these huge speakers.
CWlondon: Yes, I am in the "looks matter" camp. HST, if it came down to either/or . . I would take the equipment. I am fortunate to have both the room and the equipment.
And, yes Shadorne, I agree with you also.
I am fussy and as any fussy person knows - it is a personality defect that is insurmountable.
04-23-08: Ckoffend I think more than the appearance of the room, which for some in a dedicated room is not as important, is the number of systems in these tiny little rooms. I have seen some systems with upwards of $25,000 - $50,000 worth of equipment in rooms that don't appear to be more than 8-10 feet wide. Some of these systems are running large, very large speakers that appear to be about 1 foot from the side walls and about 4 feet apart.
Personally I think speakers with 1 foot clear distance from side walls are not a good thing even with some serious acoustical treatments. My room is 11' wide and although I have treatments at both side walls, my speakers performed better with a clear distance of 2' from side walls as opposed to 1.5'.
I do agree that we all have compromises of some degree on room shapes and sizes, and some do ignore the match between the system(speakers) and the room. Room treatments can only help to a certain level and for optimum results it is really important to choose the right size of equipment particularly the speakers for the available space.
I pose the question; how many of us, were it not for the females/partners/significant politically correct other, would not be living in a dinky cottage with a 6 digit stereo, awesome listening room and a kitchen/bathroom from the 50's?
I can remember connecting a set of 1600.00 dollar mini-monitors to a pricey amp/pre/phono...equal in value to a VERY nice car of the time.
It was in a 12X14 bedroom, with carpeting stapled to the walls, (hole cut for one of the windows) padlock on the door...and a real live milk crate/bailing wire and plywood rack. I slept in a custom built loft, which had the couch underneath it.
In the living room, there was always a keg tap ready for action and the common area frequently smelled of beer and !sweet! smoke was known to waft through the air frequently.
Funny, rent was 160.00 per month including utilities and other than having to sleep with earplugs, once the 5 other roommates knew you would literally shoot them if they let anyone break into your room...it was pretty good.
I have such fond memories of that crummy room.
I could take off and follow a band in my van anytime I wanted to.
I would agree that a system should match the room it is in, after all, why spend all the money and not get the most out of it.
However, sometimes we move to a new house or for some reason or another move our system to a room that is less then ideal and hope that things will improve. One doesn't always sell a whole system just because one needs to move it to a less the ideal room.
I like the idea of listening in the dark since there are no distractions, so why care about what the room looks like.
By the way, have any of you guys ever seen your lady in a cluttered garage and all you noticed in that room was her???? Even over the wondeful system that lives in that room ;)
Oops, sorry chaps got the name mixed up I meant to say Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. He is for those interested a top British Interior Designer who is rather flamboyant, bit like pastor jeremiah wright albeit in a different line of work.
Yioryos: Great point you bring up that needs some clarification. And yes, I'm still laughing! 1) The girlfriends are mutual friends of ours. It's a long story.....my wife is 13 yrs. my senior. 2) I haven't had her take the pix for uploading here because a key piece of my system is in the shop getting pumped full of antibiotics. I should have it back next week, at which time i'll put the wifey to work.
Jorgeparrapuppy,one observation,early on this thread you mentioned that you can't show your system because you simply don't know how to use your wife's digital camera,later on the thread you tell us that many of your girlfriends come over your listening room for the obvious reasons and they like to light up your candles. I guess you must have a lot of "MAF" in your mancave.Come on give us the recipe how do you achieve this? George
I think art work whether it be paintings or sculptures improves the looks of a room and gives the mind/eye another avenue of occupation. Real or artificial plants are always a plus viusally and sonically. Also the room will look better with more furniture than two speakers, a rack of equipment, and one chair. Book cases, record racks, storage/display niches and of course some artful lighting. Some of the photos of rooms I've seen make me glad I don't listen to music in that room. They are just so bland and boring.
Lest there be no confusion here - it is first and foremost about the music but when it is possible to enhance the music with "designer surroundings" (whatever that conjures up in your mind) it is a double whammy benefit. Can't afford the fancy room? - nobody cares - it's your excursion. If I sounded snobby a few posts ago - my apologies. Not intended at all. Just making the point that when the room is pleasing it just adds to the pleasure of the experience.
Our remodel is going towards that direction with most of what we called a "public space", areas where the family hang out most of the time, i.e. kitchen, living room, and work area. However, the dedicated listening room will basically be a dark box, no windows, just an entrance into the room. We are taking out a major loan to do this, which pushes us further into debt. That means no retirement for me and my wife until we reach 85! But architecture is also a passion of mine. I went through six years of schooling (which I enjoyed thoroughly). So this is also a life-long dream for me.
But I think everyone's vision of what is aesthetically pleasing is different. And as you can see in this thread, aesthetics could also be low on many people's priorities as well. So, to each his own.
There are many home built these days with "open" floorplans - which sometimes translates into one huge room in the back of the house, two stories high, with the kitchen, dining, and 'family-room' area all in one. Add that to a design style that insists on marble and wood floors, and hard walls and ceilings . . . you get a house that's so reverberant that it's fatiguing to be inside it . . . and I'm not talking about hi-fi. The mere clanking of dinner plates makes one want hearing protection.
I think this type of acoustical blunder is unacceptable, and most here would agree. So why is it okay when we do the same aesthetically, in the name of acoustics? It isn't actually very difficult to arrange a hi-fi system so it's at least okay to look at . . . but it does take some imagination.
i may have forgotten something in my original post: my room isn't a crytal cathedral with ornate bronze thingamajiggs or anything fancy. It's 13x17 with 8'ceilings with a soft and plush sectional near the middle. But it loooks good and the system sounds great. And though the walls aren't pink, the chicks that come over (for obvious reasons) love lighting my candles for me.
I love my man-cave ... It's not pretty and I have stuffed it with audio and computer gear. It's dimly lit with neon lights and the acoustics are third rate.
Sure I would love a 20' X 30' room with lofty ceilings to spread out in but thats for all you rich guys. The rest of us have to live with the "third bedroom" or the converted garage. So to you Feng Shui lovin, flower vasein, chandelier hangin, pink walled pretty boys out there : I'd take a signed Led Zeppelin album cover tacked to the wall next to a Greatful Dead poster and my old comfy futon chair if it means I dont have to sell my Mac 275. For me it comes down to choices : I'd rather spend the cash on equipment. As for acoustic treatments - I'm all for that, but when I look at some of the "systems" posted, I cant help but wonder if Tammy Fay Baker isnt alive and well. My significant other can have the living room ... but stay the hell out of my man cave.
A very good friend of mine and fellow music lover/audiophile coined the phrase (at least as far as I am concerned) as his being married to a "reference wife". Well I have one as well.I have recently designed and built a dedicated room for music in our home. It also serves as a beautiful room for entertaining which we both enjoy doing as often as we can. While the room was designed for optimum 2 channel listening, it also employs as full theater complete with a concealed screen, pocket doors to cover the French doors out to the deck as well as automatic window shades.
While I know that we both fortunate to have the luxury of such an near ideal situation for me to enjoy music and friends, I understand that not all others are. So to those that are more WAF and or environmentally challenged I applaud you. It is all about the enjoyment of the music and all that goes with it.
Saw this one pic of G200's for sale, inches away from the back corners. Wanted to get on a plane and slap some sense into the guy. Hopefully, they went to a better home.
Why are you guys picking on my room?, its all I can afford!
I see two sides of this, I like the "Fine wine through a straw" comment but I also see another side to this...... This is almost universally a solitary hobby so whats the point? Who are we trying to impress? isnt it about the music? While I appreciate and wish for a beautiful room for me it aint gonna happen, its just a matter of funds. While I sorta cringe at some super near field pint sized rooms or other things I see I dont really care for we all do what we can, its not about who has what and how it looks...we should all appluad or atleast champion and support those who participate and try to grow or hobby. When we cant even applaud our own we become the snobs too many think we are.
Well, I went with what I could afford....a garage turned into a dedicated room (and I even had to do my own labor, at that). I will say...my Apogees sound very good in this room, and thats all I needed.
Great topic. My wife and I are starting our major remodeling project. By the time we finished, my neighbors will not be able to recognize the old house (typical ranch style home here in the Silicon Valley). We will be adding a dedicated listening room as well, from the ground up. So the sky (and, of course, the wallet) is the limit. Both the architect and I came out of fairly progressive design schools, so the design of the house will be kind of out there, at least in comparison to the fairly conservative American standard.
I've started envisioning what the listening room might look like, and contemplated about enlisting Rives Audio to assist in the design. Afer looking at examples on their websites, I'm leaning towards figuring out the design myself while using Rives Audio to provide advice on acoustics. Not that there's anything wrong with their designs, but you could tell they were designed by engineers. I've started rading a few books on acoustics to learn the basics of acoustics so I have some concepts of what to avoid. I'm also doing some researches on designs of concert halls to get some design ideas as well. So, we'll see how this project turn out in late fall 2009.
I agree with those that see the room and the equipment as a total package!! I love my equipment but I also love the ambience of the room. Since my wife was in on the room design, everybody has something to cheer about. Late at night, with the lights dimmed and the equipment doing its' thing - I can close my eyes and enjoy the music or open my eyes and enjoy the room AND the music. In case you are wondering (I knew you were) the room is acoustically well done and 19' (on average) by 35'. Plenty of room for those big 20.1 Maggies and all the optimal furniture placement that is required.
You don't drink fine wine through a straw - neither should you listen to good music in a closet - If you can help it! Having said that (it sounds aloof!) I have been guilty of the equivalent of drinking fine wine through a straw.
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