Room treatment success story


A couple of months ago I asked the forum for advice about what may make the best upgrade for my system (e.g., better amp, sub woofer, etc.) One of the responses was to focus on room treatment/room acoustics. While I had seen mention of the importance of room treatment, this was not originally on my list of possible upgrades. However, it got me thinking and doing more research.

A few days ago I took delivery of 5 GIK Acoustic 244 bass trap panels. WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I knew my room had a little too much slap echo (e.g., clap of hands echoed a little too long than it should), but I was not prepared for the dramatic change that the bass trap panels made. They not only took care of the slap echo problem, but the bass in the Magnepans have completely come to life.

A few of the very noticable differences:

-- Bass lines are much more prominent and it is much easier to distinguish individual notes (rather than low notes that sound more the same).

-- Vocals are clearer and more focused. For example, Mark Knopfler's vocals on the Get Lucky CD are now much more easily understandable and clearer.

-- Listening to Keb Mo's Slow Down CD, I realized that there were certain guitar notes that without the traps would seem to disappear or have such a lower volume as to almost not there, but now I am hearing notes that I simply could not hear before.

-- Some of my rock CDs that I thought were simply very poorly recorded (and perhaps are) are now much more listenable and actually sound pretty decent.

Before getting the bass trap panels, I had borrowed a REL sub from a friend for a couple of weeks. It sounded great. However, the roughly $400 spend on these bass trap panels made a MUCH more significant difference in the bass in my room than this $1,500 REL subwoofer. (Again, the REL sounded great, but I now realize that I was not able to hear what it or the Magnepans were truly capable of.)

GIK Acoustics was great to deal and was very patient in answering my questions. I am in no way affiliated with them, just a satisfied customer.

So thanks to Lenny_zwik for pushing me in the direction of improving my room acoustics!

By the way, I would still like to get a better amp and a sub woofer, but I plan on my next purchase to be a rug for hard wood floors and a few more bass trap panels (I have a large room).
edge22
i'm a believer now too. no doubt it was best 600-700 i've ever spent on hi-fi. i went all in. ceiling, floor and walls along with some corner and window treatments. couldn't be happier with the results.

great advise from some smart veterans of hi-fi. thank you!
Inpieces, Closing your eyes helps you to concentrate on the sound without visual distractions. Eventually you will learn to concentrate as well with your eyes opened.

This is also why many audiophiles like listening in the dark.
Can anyone share experiences with ceiling diffusers. My room is odd-shape; therefore, to overcome this i have had to put theater curtains that pull out on both sides of the walls (open loft so one side was open while the other side was brick and windows). this creates a ton of absorption basically canceling out the open portion. ultimately it might be too much absorption but that is a matter i have to live with. now, i am looking at ceiling diffusors for first reflection (note: my celing slants from 9.5 feet to 11 feet). i was wondering what thought people have on this, what experience and what products, i am looking at an auralex product but open to other ideas. aesthetics is a concern but not number 1.
One thing is for sure with room treatment, you cannot just ad room treatment the way someone else did because all rooms are different.
Edge22 - congrats on your GIK transaction and its impact on your room. You're well on your way to improving your room/system sound! I would HIGHLY recommend you buy and read Dr Floyd Toole's latest book (http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reproduction-Acoustics-Psychoacoustics-Loudspeakers/dp/0240520092/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269601512&sr=1-1) before you spend anymore money so that you (1)buy and/or make the right kinds of products, and (2)better understand where to place treatments and why they work the way they do.

A member above recommended the LEDE (live-end, dead-end) style of treating a room -- I'd stay away from that and here's why: The LEDE concept is something that came out of the 1970's from Don/Chip Davis/Syn Aud Con for recording control rooms. It's based on mostly ill-conceived ideas that stem from a misunderstanding of the Haas effect, which describes the level at which a delayed reflection sounds equally loud to the direct sound. The Hass effect has nothing to do with the audibility of a reflection which is 30-40 dB lower in level than the Hass effect. I would not recommend an LEDE room since they sound very strange, they do not achieve what they claim, and to work well you need to add tons of absorption.

Toole's philosophy with acoustical treatment is to diffuse or absorb reflections that do harm at the listening area, and leave alone the ones that do potential good. Everything else can be ignored since they never arrive at the listeners' ears or if they do, they are well below the threshold of harm.

Also mentioned by Schipo above - who's obviously read Toole's book - is that the lateral side wall reflections are beneficial, particularly in stereo, since they can produce greater apparent source width and spaciouness, while the front/rear reflections can decrease these attributes since they come from the same direction as the direct sound, increasing the Interaural Cross Correlation Coefficient (IACC). This is why the back wall is often treated first and also because you're sitting closer to it so the audible affects will he heard more than front wall treatment due to larger atttenuation caused by signal propogation loss and the repeated surface impacts on the sound's way to the front wall. If you want to have more focussed imaging you can always choose to absorb the first side-wall reflections, personal preferences prevail.

Moreover, diffusion and absorption should be wide-band to ensure that you are attenuating the entire spectrum of the reflection rather than simply applying a low pass filter to the reflection, which causes timbral colouration. So you need 3-4 inches of high density fibreglass to work down to 200 Hz and 2-4 ft wide-band diffusers.

Edge22, you may wish to explore the DIY route as an effective yet economical way of pursuing further treatments. For example, I've got 8 GIK Tri-Traps in a single back wall corner making a 7' high rectangle shaped bass trap that's 24" wide by 24" deep with an air space of 6-7" behind it which cost $$$. For the same money I could have built way more traps AND diffusion . . .

If you want to know how to build a Skyline or Hemi-Cylindrical diffuser - both of which are excellent at preventing a 'dead' sounding room - then email me.

Good luck!