2. amps-preamps
  3. 189493-150037

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
tony1954's avatar
tony1954
1,036 posts
 

Sorry, but that is an incredibly ignorant view of how sound works.

A room isn't some benign bystander. Just because it doesn't have bare walls and no furniture it doesn't mean it has no impact. The dimensions of the room itself can ruin even the best music equipment by creating nulls and standing waves.

 

squared80's avatar
squared80
111 posts
 

Is the OP trolling us? Or does he earnestly know that little about sound and acoustics. Either way, I'm dumber for having read that post.

 

bishop148
42 posts
 

 The problem is that homes are built with the worst possible acoustics. Walls and ceiling/floor all parallel to each other causing standing waves and their harmonics - all bad. That is the cause, breaking up those resonances is the only solution.

unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
979 posts
 

As this is allegedly a settled topic I will wade in only briefly:

- audio truism #1: the room is half your system.

- when my wife and I renovated our 1865 4.5 story brick townhouse based on a Calvert Vaux #5 design from his Villas and Cottages, I turned the 390 sq ft .5 story gable-ceilinged (no right angles) attic into my dedicated listening room. I did not cover the 5”-13” of rock wool insulation in the walls and ceilings with sheet rock. I instead covered it with fire resistant burlap. So: no acoustic panels: the entire ceiling and wall is an acoustic panel. Moroccan rugs cover the floor. The room is semi-anechoic: people immediately hear the difference in the sound quality of the room as they climb the stairs and enter the room.

See

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com

limomangus's avatar
limomangus
1,426 posts
 

My room has catheral ceiling with a balcony. My system sound great to me.If having acoustically treated room would make my system sound like ,listening with headphones. That's interesting to me .I haven't used headphones in about 50 years.Using them would have killed my hearing.As we get older pur hearing disintegrates. I grew up in NYC with loud traffic,loud subways,seating up close to the stage and getting my ears blown out.Listing to my stereo loud.If i did use headphones for those 50 years now,I would certainly be deaf and not having the pleasure of listening to my music.If you use headphones while listening to music,Beware.

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