Why? Because acoustical treatments presented are in virtually empty rooms. Unrealistic.
my rooms have furniture and clutter. These rooms don’t really have a need for treatment. It’s snake oil, voodoo science. So why is accoustical panels gonna help? No one can answer this, most have no clue.
I think it matters a lot. In 2017, I reluctantly moved one piece of furniture and it made a big difference. I would say 100% difference. The system sounded twice as good. Moving my LP rack to the first reflection point on the left speaker was like finding the autofocus on a camera lens. And I simply rearranged the stuff that was already there.
That change alone made me chase optimum room configuration for 4 months. I didn't use specialized products. This is how powerful a room can be.
I just never thought it could make that much difference all these 30 or so years...I would move the speakers around a bit and adjust a few things and if it sounded good, I thought that it was set. Didn't think to try a little harder.
but seems that diffusers have great value, ie. They scatter and add clarity to sound waves, and make room seem bigger. It’s mystical, no one knows why but this seems good. A panel will do better than a bookcase, so I buy diffuser.
@jumia -- I think you misunderstand the general direction of this thread.
The subject of room acoustics is well understood by those who have studied it extensively. However, it is not an issue where an amateur can do a five minute Google search and have any assurance that they've come up with the correct answer for their particular situation.
There are lots of things like this in life. You want your airline pilot, doctor, structural engineer, and so on, to have specialized knowledge and training for their job. It is certainly easy enough to look up info about all of those subjects on the internet, but that hardly means that the person who does that is ready to fly a plane, operate on a person, calculate load bearing specifications, or do the many other things that people spend years training for.
Acoustics, and all those other things, still may be mysterious to you, but that doesn't mean that others out there don't have a good handle on things.
But, that's the nice thing about this hobby. You can experiment to your heart's content with no concerns about the plane crashing, the patient dying or the building collapsing. Who know, you may even end up improving the way your stereo sounds for you!
Jim Smith in his excellent book "Get Better Sound" talks about the room, and how spending lots of money on your hi-fi without treating the room (and setting up the speakers properly too), at least on a basic level, means you’ll never hear the full potential of your system. A modest system in a well set up room will often sound better than a more expensive system in a room that is untreated, especially if the room has inherent problems ( dimensions, ceiling height/shape, large/many windows, too live or too dead a floor etc).
Right on the spot and my amazing experience after 2 years of listening experiments...
The truth is most people has never take the journey themselves and they are completely unconscious of the poweful impact of acoustic in 2 way:
Passive balanced materials treatment....
Active controls of the zone pressure of the room....The room can be activated, it is not only a set of passive walls waiting for the waves to be absorbed, reflected or diffused...The room is like a set of strings in a very tight compressive mechanism, a violin for example; because the waves cross the room 80 times a second in my room for example.... Zone pressure play a great part if we use them to balance the natural frequencies response of our room to compensate and balance well with our specific speakers...Helmholtz science...
No gear can beat the room at ANY price....EVEN in near listening in a small room....Unbeknownst to most....
This is my experience.... Those who contradict have never experience by themselves how cutting few inches from a straw can improve or destroy a room... I did...
The more important asset of an audio system is not the gear it is a dedicated room.....Most people upgrade gear trying to compensate for a bad room without even knowing it...They called their choices "tastes".... But in music only exist natural timbre perception first OR last, not taste first AND last....
It’s snake oil, voodoo science. So why is accoustical panels gonna help?
It is not voodoo science at all... But we must read a little about acoustic science, comic book will not help here.... But the problem is that company sells costly ready made esthetical easy solutions... But it is not so simple , buying costly materials is not the solution at least nor for me.... And each room has specific problem because of his geometry, topology and content, which no company can take the time to solve in details at low cost...I made all my materials treatment with useless and discarded materials and i never bought anything costly at all.... It takes time and listening experiments tough... But it worked...
He is speaking with 'all the confidence of ignorance'..if you have ever heard a good room ..evaluated and treated by a professional room guru he would change his mind in a heartbeat.Of course room treatments help...if, they are properly positioned and the rest of the room is, likewise, addressed..
That is indeed my room. I have been happy with the GIK products and the improvements they provide me. Just be careful that if you make changes to speakers or speaker placements you need to adjust them. I learned that a bit late after I changed my speakers. The new speakers sounded good. But after getting the panels in the correct spots "opened" up the soundscape. The speakers no longer seem to cast the music. All music seems to come from around and behind them. I think I have the panels in the correct spot now :-)
I have a small listening space that also doubles as a computer work station. The room is quite "lively" with no soft furnishings. I lived with it that way for years before deciding that something had to be done. Found that several large glass-covered pictures were mucking up the sound, so I removed them. I then experimented with sound absorption using beach towels taped to the walls. Once I determined what was needed, acoustical panels were ordered and installed. Best money I ever spent for sound improvement.
mahgister your Helmholtz devices, you are using them for bass EQ primarily? or ALL frequencies,
Helmholtz devices rightfully understood and designed works on ALL frequencies...
Yes we can use them for bass tightening purpose, but teaching that this is their main purpose like in some acoustical marketting advice is erroneous...They are a room tuner not only a potential bass device....
My Helmholtz tubes and pipes, distributed in series, i chose set of three with a ratio 1,6 between each three pipes with a straw of variable lenght determined by listenings experiments work on ALL frequencies scale directly or indirectly... i called that a " silent organ"....Someone more crafty than me like you are could make them beautiful by the way.... I use ordinary straw but someone could use anything less cheap and more esthetic...I use old plumber copper pipes or PVC tubes with a sheet of plastic for cover....It is homemade to say the least...But nevermind it work powerfully.... My goal was not esthetical anyway but Hi- Fi experience for the poor... 😁😊
I have 18 tubes and pipes with tube one 8 feet high.... My main set is 2 sets of three....Cutting only 1/2 inch or adding 1/2 inch from 6 straws will change the sound of your room MORE than changing an amplifier or on par with changing bad speakers set for a good one or the opposite...I guess someone could do a good job with 3 set of three the longer tube around 8 feet and the shorter one of the nine pipes for example around 6 inch with the ratio 1,6 between them ....
Only one straw can destruct the room acoustic or transform it like the tightening of a string on a violin....
Acoustic is an empirical science and art because nothing could replace ears.... This summer i will use a mic. to optimize the speakers/room response tough... But advising peeople to use equalization to replace room acoustic is pure ignorance....Equalization work only for a precise test frequency in relation with a very precise spot it is a complementary tool not the main tool for tuning the room to MY ears and his particular structural properties... Nobody want to listen to a "perfect" sound but to the sound which will be pleasing for his ears specific abilities ....I apologize for my digression from your question.... I have many defects and i speak too much.... 😊
My best to you and best wishes for your health.....
Always wanted to be on a build team of a HUGE pipe organ, I’ve seen 3 of the BIG ones. I was a kid and saw the first two overseas.
The organ uses its set of pipes and there are tuning tubes and pipes for the chapels room tuning. Same principal. Perfect solution actually..
Some of the tubes are pretty long 5 stories, start in the basement (bellow room) and finish off at 64 feet. 10,000 tubes, of course there are only two at 64 feet in the world.. US and I think Down under. AU?
The organ uses its set of pipes and there are tuning tubes and pipes for the chapels
The important words are "tuning tubes and pipes for the chapels"
It is why i called my Helmholtz-Fibonacci room tuner a "silent organ"...
More powerful than most electronic upgrade.... Acoustic is key audiophile asset, not electronic design.... Any good electronic design will sound good in a controlled room... The differences between pieces of gear will exist even in this room but will be way less impactful than acoustical change...
My second maxin in audio is now:
ONE straw kill or ressuscitate a room....
The first maxim was:
Dont upgrade before embedding everything right
Deep salutations and thanks for the observation....
Read Helmholtz before writing stupidity without explanation in audio thread....It is no more advanced science now it is simple experiment for children....What is you age?
The good news if you are young, writing your graffitis on the walls of audio thread, are you could always learn something in the future....The bad news if you are old is: it is too late, go on with your graffitis.... You perhaps will be lucky and some will call that "art" or "thinking".... Not me....
I agree 100% with calloway. I thought I had a "good room". I have the SR Wide angle HFTs, HFTs on my loudspeakers, and the SR Black Box. I have a dedicated (15’ x 22’) room with 9’ ceilings but it has an open back wall to the kitchen and eating area. I sit 8.5’ from my speakers. When I installed two Stillpoints Apertures near the side wall reflection points, I couldn’t believe the improvement. Adding two additional Stillpoints Apertures on the front wall was equally effective. I’ve had friends over that have heard my system before the changes and they can confirm all of this. Believe me, almost all untreated rooms sound terrible.
Believe me, almost all untreated rooms sound terrible.
Right on the spot....
But even if i dont doubt that all HFT are very good, we can do it ourself at no cost with basic acoustic science... I know, i did it myself.... I say that for those who cannot afford to bought them, not to denigrate good engineering....
Having the money i would have probably bought them... But i did not need them now....
This post should be called “most people don’t use room treatments but they should”. The room is the most important piece of the puzzle on putting together a great sounding room. Book, furniture, etc... are not replacements for a true absorption panel or an actual diffuser. If you have a dedicated room you must treat it correctly to get the best out of your equipment. If you have cheap stuff then it won’t matter much
Yes, and no. Past a certain point, the nuance any given system may behold can be more achievable with focused attention on surfaces and corners where treatment could be of considerable benefit.
Not only ALL rooms need treatment. but audio experience could be 75 % acoustical, 25 % basic good electronic design...
This % is variable, but NEVER in favor of the electronic design like 49% acoustical, 51 % electronic design...
This is pure science....
The sound you listen to come from the room /speakers, NEVER from the speakers alone in a small room especially...
It takes audio magazine market to make us believe that "upgrading" a10,000 dollars amplifier to a 100,000 dollars one, will be the key to audiophile experience.... Helmholtz has known much about sound perception one century ago than consumers magazine now...
I know some smart people who think that this acoustic stuff is nonsense. Much of what we see influences our perceptions. 'I can see the stereo equipment...that I spent all this money on...so yeah, it sounds better...it looks expensive...it must sound good'. But you can't see sound so that's a little tougher.
A lot of people defer their other senses to sight. I see therefore I believe.
Buy a good book on getting good sound out of a room. Try the principles. They will help you hear the room. But you won't change your room until you move. The room makes the most difference. So it makes it tougher to appreciate.
People often hear only subtle improvements because they make changes WITHIN the room. They don't have the option of moving rooms so easily. So that reinforces the feeling that acoustic treatments are silly.
The room is an instrument..and a big player in the sound game. But changing/adding a few minor things and expecting a miracle is futile. But if you can reorient a few critical things, the things that matter most. It would seem like a small miracle occured.
But people really aren't open to putting the rack on the side wall...or having zero equipment between the speakers. That sounds extreme.
I did this for a short while right before I moved. It was the best thing I ever did. Can't do it now in the current smaller house...but man, you guys (some of you) really have no clue...I mean NO CLUE what you're missing. You also have no clue what you're talking about (again some of you).
Try it. Please try something...before you go off 'dropping your knowledge' on us.
I have never needed acoustical room treatments over 50yrs of audio. All rooms had furnature, drapes, to dissipate sound reflections to acceptable levels. What has helped incredibly is all DIY speakers I have built have infinately variable control over the mid and tweet so room adjustment is simple for room brightness.
As someone always looking to optimize the sound of their system, I had been reading about the virtues of acoustic treatments and the mention of GIK acoustics several times on the 'gon.
A fellow member friend got some treatments from them that were acceptable to his fiancee and he said it improved the sound some. He said he wanted to do more, but wasn't allowed.
I followed suit and spoke with a very nice, honest guy from GIK, sent him pictures of my room and he told me what it would take to optimize the acoustics of the room given the large open, multi purpose, multi listening positions, unique layout with all the openings. I am not having problems, just always looking to improve when it is worth it.
Net net, I was willing to get a few things and he told me that unless I wanted to get a much more significant number of bass traps that would heavily change the look of the room (and my marital status) it wasn't worth it for me to make the couple additions I was planning on.
I appreciated his refreshing honesty, and if you have the commitment, I would recommend using them. I think any room can benefit from them. Whether the improvement is worth it is up to you. They are a proven science, but I think more appropriate for a recording studio, theater, concert hall or dedicated listening room. And especially for stereo stores or special setups at audio trade shows. That's what their web site focuses on. They are pros.
Not snake oil, but many people buy stuff that they may not need, blind and expect miracles.
The only way to really assess a listening room is to have someone with the gear and software they need come and test the room, preferably with all the furniture in it that you want already.
I lucked out - I had an arched false ceiling already, which solved some of the issues I might have had, and a live wall (glass doors) that we solved with some heavy acoustic curtains.
I could easily have spent many times as much on supposed 'improvements' if I hadn't actually had the room tested
My advice is to pay the money for testing and see whether you have any issues - many can be addressed relatively cheaply. There is probably a home theatre business near you that can do it, (though they'd rarely be called out for pure audio).
jumia...Suspect this a "plant" to rile up the Forum. :)
Recently, in my little studio, I’ve upgraded monitor loudspeakers which sit atop a pair of sealed subwoofers, a well-known, proven tube amplifier, and a pro-gear DAC, serving double-duty as an active crossover. Twenty years of disciplined attention has been given to dedicated power sources, outlets, plugs, wire, isolation (surfaces and under the hood,) placement and room tuning to this studio.
This from Dynaudio's website (oh, btw, my monitors are not Dyns): "The acoustician knows the problem but can’t imagine the solution, so he doesn’t ask the DSP engineer.” My Tech is BOTH a 40+ year acoustician AND DSP engineer. Conversations after recent DSP work following upgrades to monitors and tube amplification:
“I'm listening to lots of tunes, attempting to find new verbiage to describe this new presentation and experience. Late last night, I scratched a note to myself, "gradations of dynamic nuance." Now, how do I convey its meaning? This is forcing me to redefine the same language with new insights. I have told chums that I have found some systems TOO dynamic for my liking, often powerful amps with horns, for example. As in zero to 110 decibels in a nanosecond.
This newer discovery certainly has to do with speed, however, more the timing of isolated events within the presentation...arrival times differing on the fly. Imagine an old-fashioned view master slide image enabling you to see the velocity of sounds individually radiating out from specific instruments in time and space as in real life, in all directions. Outdoors, for example, on a busy city street...the ability to identify the source creating the sound, its location, distance, and finally, whether it is still or moving. I don't know of ANY testing instruments that can possibly quantify the experience compared to our ability to listen. Our musical truth. The speed of the dynamics allows individual instrumental and vocal sounds to splay horizontally and vertically in a continuum, as in real life.” And, another:
“This is quite a trip. Last night I pulled out some old audio war-horse favorites such as the self-titled, ‘Joan Armatrading.’ I flat wore that vinyl album out, however, new stuff is being extracted by the DSP red book on TIDAL. I'm guessing room nodes and obstructions swallow up certain frequencies, obscuring or at least reducing the emphasis of sounds and overall portrayal in the mix. It is almost dizzying to now hear the entirety with a system this capable of stage, depth and imaging. Your extensive work done in the bass region has really adjusted the perception from listening to monitors with subs to a more full-range presentation from row 5 or 6, and more appropriate size. People talk about hearing stuff they hadn't heard before. I'm thinking it's more the changes of emphasis on specific frequencies that draws out a conductor's treatment, for example, with a full orchestra, exposing the intent.”
In closing, in my opinion, here lies the future of audio. DSP needs to be done with great expertise. 1/100dB changes are possible. DSP supplements great systems, challenging our older mindsets of anything added to the sound chain, a negative.
Star Trek Holodec next! More Peace, Pin (2nd Pfizer tomorrow, wife's 1st..onwards, Audio Soldiers!)
Yeah, nothing really matters except just keeping on buying newer, more expensive gear to impress your friends. Don’t worry about cables or the AC mains either. And don’t be confused because some of the greatest studios and music halls in history utilized scientific processes together with some very brilliant craftsmanship to create a believable soundstage. It’s all an illusion. Well, that’s unless you care about your listening space reproducing beautiful realistic music. :)
For 41 years, I lived in a 2000 sq ft loft in lower Manhattan. The 1200 square ft open area was the listening space, it had an irregular shape with tin ceilings, 60% of the eastern wall covered with huge windows, a brick wall behind the system, and hardwood for the floors. It was a lively listening room.
Three years ago I moved to a townhouse in Newburgh NY that we gutted and restored. My 500 sq ft office in the attic doubles as a listening area. Dormers on one side, a gable on the other. After 15” of rock wool insulation was put in the ceiling, and 6” in the walls, I covered it up with burlap instead of sheetrock.
Books and LPs line almost every wall. The sound in my Newburgh home is dramatically improved from my NYC home. Almost like buying a new stereo. And I got this improvement without hiring professionals (although our architect did have a background in acoustical science), just by using basic common sense with regard to what most of us know about how sound works.
Is it perfect? No. But it’s way more than good enough. I’d rather listen to music than worry and tinker.
and he told me that unless I wanted to get a much more significant number of bass traps that would heavily change the look of the room (and my marital status)
You could use Helmholtz tubes and pipes to transform the acoustic decresasing the bass traps to only a minimum level.... But it is all up to your wife acepting a set of 3 groups of tubes in the living room... 😊
For sure the biggest asset in audio is not the gear at all it is using a room ONLY for audio...
"The acoustician knows the problem but can’t imagine the solution, so he doesn’t ask the DSP engineer.”
Helmholtz did never own a dsp system but he created room acoustic with bottles...
I imitated him and my room with a 500 bucks system trash all my 7 headphones and rival any systen i had listen to...
You are right in your post about the great tool DSP integrated will be .... I just want to make a "nuance" that primitive methods using helmholtz tubes and pipes to set the room/speakers together using EARS could work... I did it at no cost...
The orchestra fill my room with each instruments in his tonal sphere...
The state of the audiophile world is easily summed up in two threads. This one, with barely 2 pages, and the schumann resonator thread pushing 6 pages. One of these will make a difference. One will convince you that you made a difference, for a little while till you find something else wrong. Most audiophiles are lazy, this is the real problem.
What great character! Only insults to a complete group of unknown people mixed together for the self pleasure of insulting...
No facts, only half truth about timbre and imaging.... Have you read the article by the 3 japanese? No?
I was always under that assumption until I heard the difference a good well place sound diffuser made to the sound stage and presentation. I had a demonstration done to me and an audiophile group in a private home. The person that did the demonstration had no diffuser in the beginning and every one thought that it sounded great. All of a sudden, he mentions, "you guys want to hear something?" and he adds the diffuser on the front wall as the music was playing. The difference was knight and day. The depth, with, definition and stereo imaging was transformed for the better in a huge way. The minute he removed it, the stage fell back to it's former small self. Could be the way he made the diffuser that created all the difference. Materiel, design ext. I have some in my home but could not afford his asking price so I bought from a competitor. Because of that, I get just about 10% of the effect.
Millercarbon- What does “As soon as we move from the hypothetical home of the scoundrel to the particular home of the individual then acoustic treatment can suddenly matter a lot.”
On what planet do you exist? Why was it important to include the word “scoundrel”? Are you trying to come off as some kind of “Audio Sage”
You hit the nail on the head with this one. MC does think he is an "Audio Sage". As a matter of fact he’s a blowhard know-it-all.He relishes putting people down with sarcasm. And, if you watch, almost every new thread he is one of the first responders. So full of it. He doesn’t have a life or really listen to music, he just spends all of his time posting here.
Helmholtz resonators aren’t something you can just add to a room willy billy, they are very hard to get right even with proper measurements.
FIRST, i never "add willy,billy" it is a process in the course of many weeks of listenings and adjusting volumes and neck...
SECOND Throwing the baby with the bath waters is not a very good idea, nor a valid argument...
What are the polluted waters?
It is the fact which is right that my tuning of my 21 Helmholtz tubes and pipes cannot be "mathematically perfect" and corresponding perfectly to the geometry, topology and content of the room, being set by my ears...
But the tubes and pipes are set also to correspond to the specific structure of my ears by feed back successive refinements....This is an advantage that compensate the imperfect mathematical tuning of the Helmholtz tubes and pipes by ears and listenings experiments instead of a complex processed mathematical tuning only with the room parameters and some tested frequencies corresponding to a very precise location each time only...
This is one thing....But what is the baby?
The HUGE improvement, in imaging, soundstage, and timbre perception, in spite of the absence of perfection, is the BABY.... why do you recommend me to throw it with the waters? I will replace it with what ? An equalizer?
Read about the limit of electronic equalization, about the cost of a good equalizer, and after that think again and put in your pipe the important fact that my homemade Helmholtz tubes and pipes COST ME NOTHING.... They are made with discarded tubes, pipes, or straws of various volumes and diameters... Add to this fact that Helmholtz tubes can correct bass in the room on a level which equalization cannot do because equalization work on the gear electronics not directly on the room pressures zones....
Then when you put an argument think about the premises you will use...
«Your result is imperfect, only perfection is aceptable, then your result are bulshitt....»
Guess what is wrong with your reasoning any logician could call a "sophism" ?
Your relative mathematical perfection in relation simultaneously to some specfic ears and to some specific room dont exist to begins with, then it is stupid to reject my relatively imperfect reasult on this basis....
Then, try to think with all factors in balance and without vicious circle....
Thinking like walking or tuning a room is something we must learn...Opinions dont replace thinking except in the "sunday skeptic boy club" and many others clubs....
I whole heartedly disagree. Unless your room has no parallel walls and the floor is not parallel with the floor, most rooms do need a certain amount of acoustical treatment. First point reflection absorbers, as well as diffusion will greatly improve your sound. Each to their own.
But those who could beat my 2 listening positions in my room on some count like Stax Omega, or RAAL SR1 for example or some others,are way too costly for me...
And at the end a good room has the advantage to be without anything around my head limiting my movement for sure....more practical and easy....
I begin with headphones, 7 years ago, thinking it was the best solution if someone dont have the money for a very good speakers gear...
I was wrong, acoustic among other things is the key, not money itself necessarily...
You may be able to get away without acoustical treatment in a living room where there is unorganized clutter, but in a dedicated room where you're dealing with parallel walls, sharp corners, flutter echos, bass bump, etc. room treatment is a must. It's likely that most living room will sound better than an untreated dedicated room but once you have the dedicated room treated properly, the sound is beyond anything you've achieved in the past.
I once saw the DIY PVC pipes in a room and thought there's no way it does anything, I guess it's time to look into what it does. You don't know what you don't know until you know.
And, if you watch, almost every new thread he is one of the first responders. So full of it. He doesn’t have a life or really listen to music, he just spends all of his time posting here.
This could be said of several members of this forum.
In the Motorcycle, Sportbike and Road Racing we call these people Posers. They are easy to spot, they have the latest gear and the expensive motorcycle but have no idea how to ride. The like to pull up to the mall and their 2 wheeled extension of their manhood and say “look at me”. As you look closer you see a bake with a 2 inch chicken stripe on there rear tire (afraid to lean into a corner) and when they ride away they never rev is over 3500 RPM.
We have a lot of Posers here. Then there are the Squids the guys who buy cheap bikes, make them loud and ride like idiots in traffic.They are screaming for attention like the Poser but put others at risk in the way they ride.
I have a saying “If you want to know how slow you are on the street, go spend a day on a race track”
Wow there are a lot of Posers and Squids here on this forum.
Then there are the Squids the guys who buy cheap bikes, make them loud and ride like idiots in traffic.They are screaming for attention like the Poser but put others at risk in the way they ride.
All metaphors has the limit intended or unintended by their user...
For example myself, i bought cheap audio, i make listening experiment , with conventional scientific datas, for example Helmholtz acoustic, and sometimes taking my own way, for exemple investigating the effect of shungite on my electrical grid at low cost...
What do you call riding like idiot in the traffic? and putting others at risk in my case?
Communicating cheap way to experiment and improve the system is not putting others at risk, but limiting the illusion of consumerism and contesting with some fact the linear relation between price and S.Q.
Your metaphor is right for part, in any group, there exist poser, and squid and true pro....But also the solitary out of the crowd persona....The stranger...And you miss it... Why?
Anyway your metaphor is only a tool to simplify human relations in a group and classify very different humans in three categories FOR YOUR OWN PURPOSE AND AGENDA...I add here the category that was missing...The most important category for Hollywood...The stranger to any group....
I dont work with simplistic metaphors in my life simply because in your group i am the man who take his motorcycle solitary and i dont speak to group members but to human on a one to one basis always....
I hate groups and crowds...The group mentality, motorcycles or of any other mass mentality... I never had a boss in all my life... I go my way....I worked all my life without anyone beside me.... But understand me right i like people on a one to one basis...Any herd mentality will make me quit the game....I am a sorcerer not a sheep classified in your limited 3 categories list...
In a virtual audio thread we must take the risk to speak to many and be simplisticly categorized...
This post was just to correct for the more important missing category.... The most important one by the way....The stranger....Who is in any list you will make for your use but is truely in none....
The fact that precisely this category was lacking from your list indicate much about yourself no ?
Provocative premise? He could have said "Mono always beats stereo!" Or 2+2=5. Regardless, I'd guess most who care about their sound would agree the premise is incorrect generally speaking.
Let's say most rooms will benefit from acoustic treatment. Not treating a room that sounds 'fine to me' will still probably always make it sound better. And big bass spikes are hard to dispel without treatment of some sort.
There are plenty of sneaky ways to treat a 'living room' system that don't wreck the esthetics. Or you live with a bit less; life does not end. With over 150 sq ft of window glass in a 21x17 room, and art on the walls, by necessity I use DSP room correction. With speakers on long wall and tweeters out 50" my 8ft triangle is somewhat near-field with a large opening behind the listening chair.
The DSP removes all bass spikes (room and speaker created). I use just a single EQ curve, only to reduce brightness due to reflection (although far off in arrival ms). The difference is more than noticeable; gone are the bass booms and louder treble. That and the untreated room give me near flat frequency response from 30-16k. Removing the correction makes one cringe. I like the sound of music with a flat system; others do not.
I have no doubt additional acoustical treatments would improve the room. Mahgister is dragging me into his camp mentally (thanks, I guess). If I was using a cave-like 12x20x8 basement room I could go wild experimenting but I'm totally unwilling to blow off my daytime rky mtn views since I'm retired.
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