If you have a nice system why do you really need room treatments?


Yeah you may need an absorption panel if your room is completely open, ie. No rug or furniture, ie just lonely single chair. But if your system can't cut it in any room then it's a system problem and you should be able to discern a good system regardless of the room.  Unless you put it on the roof of your apartment building but the Beatles seemed to have survived that effort

I think people go nuts with all this absorption acoustical room treatment stuff and it looks kind of awful.  Once in a while you see a really cool looking diffuser panel and I would definitely want one. But to have a system that works really well without any of the acoustical panel distractions is a wonderful thing.

emergingsoul

@Emergingsoul, I am sorry to hear about your condition. That said, you could publish details of your system in a post on this thread. I’m sure it will require a word count less than many of your posts.

 

As regards the substance of your post, acoustic treatment can take many forms that do not require the use of dedicated treatment devices. But those devices, used appropriately do have an important role to play. I’ve come across many instances of people with expensive systems placed in bad sounding rooms, where their investment in equipment was effectively wasted and where a much more modest system combined with correct room treatment would have sounded better for less expenditure overall.

The room doesn‘t have to look awful.  Corner traps and diffusers come in some artistic looking designs.  Balance is the key.  Too much and the music will sound lifeless.  Furniture also makes for good absorbers.  And the room looks less lonely than a single chair in the center.

@emergingsoul 

 

Just when I think I've read the most ridiculous post yet, you go and prove me wrong again.

 

If you listen in the near field at low to moderate volume and your loudspeakers don't produce deep bass, then you don't really need room acoustic treatments.  Otherwise you probably would benefit from some form of acoustic treatment.  However, there is an alternative path where you get loudspeakers that are designed to interact minimally with a room.  The Swedish manufacturer Gradient did much work along these lines, but there are others.

@thecarpathian 

I dictate I could not possibly type all the words I share. But dictation is not a perfect science so it's very frustrating to use it