I’m gonna order some more panels and do my ceiling !!
I treated my room !
So I finally did it. I’ll share what most here know already. There may be some on the fence. I admit I didn’t do a ton of research. I still can’t interpret REQ as well as I’d like. I bought 72 of the Auralex 12”x12” panels and glued 8 of them on eight plywood panels so I ended up with eight 2’x4’ panels. I hung these at the reflection points and on the back wall. I also added 20 auralex bass traps with 3 corners done and a row across the front ceiling. Good grief I could probably sell my subs now. I have a horn system and the mids tamed down. I used to be able to run my preamp at 35%, and can run it at 50% now with no perceived distortion. I probably spent 1200 bucks. I’m not advertising for Auralex because I’m sure there are many great brands, and many better than what I got but I wish I would have done this 8 years ago when I started building my system. I run an SVS pb16 ultra and a GSG devastator with a 21” driver and I had to turn the SVS to negative 20, and the Behringer 3000dsp that runs the GSG down to 50% and it’s probably still more bass than I need. If your on the fence about room treatment, go for it !!
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Good work! IME (in typical home environments) acoustic treatments always result in the most “bang for the buck” improvement in sound. As a generalization, I tend to look at the ceiling (and it’s height) first. Even if it’s not very low, it’s still where I first think to put some acoustic treatment. Too me it’s the first most unnatural boundary in a room (compared to outdoors). Even most studio builds start there…it’s often referred to as “lifting the ceiling”…
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Yes, like the OP mentioned, I too had a room treatment revelation that led me to shelve my subs. Nothing wring with subs...it’s just that bass gets so clean, clear and deep when acoustics are dialed in that you actually are no longer worried about bass so much. A sub would always add that extra bit...but you completely stop worrying about it when everything sounds so good. There are other things you start worrying about. The great thing is that I simply reconfigured furniture and my rack location. Then I got rid of all slick, shiny and glazed surfaces from the room. No specialized acoustic products were used. I had no clue how deep dual 5" woofers could go.
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I am very happy with the panels I bought from GIK a few years back. I bought four more to treat the ceiling and after trying every configuration I could come up with ended up with just one. It's centered halfway between the speakers and the listening position. The other four were added to the front wall. I hauled a few over to my brother's place to experiment with. He has Cornwalls.In his room there is obviously bass build up in one back corner which was smoothed out when we propped up the panels there.He didn't like how they looked though. I'm going back one of these days and show him some nicely treated rooms that I'll download. He (gasp!) has no wifi:-) |
@theaudiotweak do you have any photos of what you built ? |
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@steakster the coffee table is a subwoofer. It’s the GSG devastator. It was set up nearfield because I had lousy bass. Well no more lol. And to be honest it’s my wife’s laundry folding table so it’s usually covered in clothes minimizing reflections 😂 @jond the composit veneer was put on last year by a cabinet maker. It’s called Osage orange and it came from Italy. It’s a bit over the top but I wanted it, so here we are. It did take a little time living with it tbh
im wanting to post pics but apparently I don’t know what I’m doing |
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Over the last year I implemented laminar flow devices I have built and placed in strategic front locations of my 27/21/9 ft room . I also have for years now 3 Natural wool panels on the front wall 1 each at the side reflection points. The laminar devices are inexpensive to make and are the biggest acoustic improvement I have made over the last 49 years. They are a wow factor. As small as they are they comb bass frequencies making my dueling 12s enhance the mid frequencies The vocal clarity now coming out of the rear mounted ports is nearly as clear as what comes out of the front mounted drivers. They clarify the instrument location all along the watchtower. The sound stage is panoramic even more so when the active device is engaged. Pretty damn good.Tom |
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@adrianleewelch You sound like you're really proceeding in a sensitive and attentive way. All I can add is that there are phases where I thought I was "done" and then it took a while to just live with the sound for a while. That's really an important kind of patience that pays off. Once one lives with something for a while, they give themselves a chance to "wear the room" the way one "wears" a pair of shoes. Over time, you'll listen to a variety of music, and it may be that certain music points out to you where there might be a chance to improve things a little. Or not -- you'd get confirmation that you're "done." |
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In my room the whole back wall is rough textured brick and mortar with my album racks against the wall. I did not treat the areas directly behind me. I’m feeling like it has good diffusion. I’ve yet to measure decay time but it’s not completely dead. Prior to treatment though a hand clap lasted a long long time. I put up 18 curtain panels as well so I’m probably close to enough. I sure don’t want to overdo it because my system has a live venue sound and I don’t want to make it clinical |
Congrats, OP. Good work and you will probably have my experience, which was to slowly try moving things or even taking a few away. I definitely went in the direction of over-damping, and it was a subtle process to get the "air" back into my room. The key, for me, was to realize that diffusion and deflection help reduce unwanted harshness at the listening position but don't subtract important reflections from 12ms - 50ms which add a sense of space or "air" to the room. |