need opinions on argent roomlens


hello, i have read rave reviews about the argent roomlens and am contemplating using them. several individuals have told me that they work best in closed rooms where the sound pressure is not leaking out. my room opens up to a stairway, hallway and bar. i would appreciate any feedback positive or negative on the effect of the roomlens system. please describe your listening room as well. i would buy asc or other similar treatment but.......my wife can't stand the thought of all of those cylinders in the room. the cost of the asc would be substantially more as well. thanks. tim
tkmetz
The room lenses are damped Helmholtz resonators. The set up a resonating column of air, absorbing some of the sound energy in the low/mid-bass region, and diffusing the rest of it. If you homebrew your own, don't forget to stuff some acoustic fiberglass material down the tube, but keep it near the top. Without it, the lens is tuned to a very narrow frequency range; with the fiberglas, the resonance is damped and the tube becomes effective over a broader range of frequencies. Poke around at http://230nsc1.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/waves/opecol.html#c1 to get some clues as to how the Room Lens works.
I have been very pleased with mine and have a 16x24 room with an open archway at one end.
I agree with tswhitsel at every point. I don't exactly have Argent Room Lenses, instead I have homemade copies--easy if you can drill 2 3/8" round holes and make a base for PVC tubes. They look positively nice, according to my wife, who manages to regard them as a form of modern sculpture. I put them in my listening room long before I added all the acoustic treatment I have now, and they made a nonsubtle difference, as Tswhitsel said. I wish I knew HOW they work.
My room is 13 feet wide by 22 feet long with double french doors on one end and an open window on the same wall that goes into the next room, so the room is quite open (I leave the doors open). Although skeptical I decided to try them because of the great reviews. The difference they made is not subtle and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They do look quite nice with my black Aerial 10t's, and even my wife thinks they look very good. They will do more for your sound than any cable will! Enjoy.