Room Treatments, When are they required?


Hey Audiogoners!!!

I threw my first BBq in my new home this weekend. One of my guests who is also into audio gear came and we ended up talking a bit about audio gear.

My livingroom where the audiogear will be has 15ft vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, and opens up to the dining room and kitchen. All pretty much in one real big l-shaped room.

I was telling him about my future upgrqade plans, which are nothing too extraordary, im thinking of some Parasound Amps and some Vandersteen 2CEs or 3As. It iwll be run 100% seperate from my HT system, but in the same room.

Anyways, he told me that it was a waste of money and there is no point in upgrading what i have unless i have a Dedicated listening room.

Personally, i think the accoustics in my livingroom are fantastic. Yes, some echo busters along the back wall or something might help out, but sound there is rich and full of live. Snap your fingers you get a nice clean SNAP, it doesent echo or linger any longer than it should. I have 3 very plush couches that do wonders for echo absorption.

When did everyone else start getting into room treatments and dedicated listening rooms?

Personally, i disagree with him, vandersteen 2ce's powered by some Parasound Amps will sound better than some radioshack speakers powered by a Denon 3505. No doubt about it in my mind. I dont care if it is installed in a dedicated room or a subway tunnel. it will sound better and i plan to upgrade.

When do YOU feel it is time to work on the room instead of the system?
Is there a certain price tag on the system that you feel is useless to upgrade further without having a dedicate room or room treatments?

Just curious.

Oh yeah, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!
Woulda got that out earlier if i had been sober in the past few days.
slappy

Showing 1 response by rives

I think of any system being as good as it's weakest link in many respects. The room is like a component--possibly the most important one. If you have a good system, you need a good room. If you have a bose wave radio, well that will work fine in your bathroom. If you have state-of-art system you will likely need a dedicated room that is engineered and treated at the same level. There comes a point when upgrades are almost useless. They will change the sound, but not appreciably and certainly not at the $ per performance level of appropriate room engineering and treatment can do for you.

In a room like yours, that is not simple. I would try to have it acoustically measured. It might not be so bad. It might be terrible. There may be simple things that could be done to improve it, or it may need such radical modifications that you will need to move to a dedicated room at some point.