Awful room

IGR

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Advice required for a truly awful room. I am looking for an integrated amplifier and speakers for a kitchen dining room 10m x 4m rectangle. 7mx2m glass door running down one side, stone floors and no soft furnishings (only dining table/chairs and kitchen units). My better half insists on no room treatments (to be fair I already have my own theatre room), we mainly listen to rock or pop music. Speakers would be on 4m wall and could be pulled out to a maximum of 1m into the room. My budget is £7-8k but I am beginning to wonder if it is worth the effort. Any system ideas would be very welcome. Thank you
 

insider9

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Hi, lots of ideas. We can rule them out one by one :ROFLMAO: First I would see if your better half would be willing to do treatment if it was "pretty." GIK Acoustics make Art panels that can be customised. Check it out (link). Don't suppose she/he would mind a painting on the wall. That's how you can sell it :D

With that budget and in a room you describe I'd be spending around 3k for room treatment and the rest on a system. Main reason as you could then improve your hifi as knowing you'd be getting 100% of your investment. At this point it looks like you have a lovely echo chamber.

Spending 8k on traditional gear in these circumstances sounds like setting yourself up for disappointment. What do you think?
 

IGR

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Hi, lots of ideas. We can rule them out one by one :ROFLMAO: First I would see if your better half would be willing to do treatment if it was "pretty." GIK Acoustics make Art panels that can be customised. Check it out (link). Don't suppose she/he would mind a painting on the wall. That's how you can sell it :D

With that budget and in a room you describe I'd be spending around 3k for room treatment and the rest on a system. Main reason as you could then improve your hifi as knowing you'd be getting 100% of your investment. At this point it looks like you have a lovely echo chamber.

Spending 8k on traditional gear in these circumstances sounds like setting yourself up for disappointment. What do you think?
Advice required for a truly awful room. I am looking for an integrated amplifier and speakers for a kitchen dining room 10m x 4m rectangle. 7mx2m glass door running down one side, stone floors and no soft furnishings (only dining table/chairs and kitchen units). My better half insists on no room treatments (to be fair I already have my own theatre room), we mainly listen to rock or pop music. Speakers would be on 4m wall and could be pulled out to a maximum of 1m into the room. My budget is £7-8k but I am beginning to wonder if it is worth the effort. Any system ideas would be very welcome. Thank you
Room treatments are a non starter 😩. Lots of GIK stuff in my cinema and it works really well, but main living space it is not negotiable. The echo chamber was exactly my thought and why I was wondering if it was worth the time and money. Thank you for the reply, I think we are at the same conclusion that it might be disappointing. I wonder if you have any suggestions for a cheaper system that might make the best of a bad situation
 

insider9

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Room treatments are a non starter 😩. Lots of GIK stuff in my cinema and it works really well, but main living space it is not negotiable. The echo chamber was exactly my thought and why I was wondering if it was worth the time and money. Thank you for the reply, I think we are at the same conclusion that it might be disappointing. I wonder if you have any suggestions for a cheaper system that might make the best of a bad situation
In that case I'd point you away from ordinary hifi solutions. I'd look at low level listening setup as it can sound glorious even in a room that's reverberant.

Have you considered full range speakers. As a general rule they won't produce extremes of the spectrum well. As there's only so much one driver can do. However the midrange coherence, imaging and low level performance will be difficult to reproduce by anything else.

Alternatively stick a Sonos or similar system just so you have music playing and invest in your cinema room.
 

tinkeringjay

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I would suggest a speaker that uses a ribbon or planar midrange and tweeter since they cut off dispersion top and bottom so that would greatly reduce floor and ceiling reflections and allow you more directivity. Any sort of blinds, shades or curtains could help the sliding glass and look 'normal' as to reducing reflections. Upholstered high back chairs. A table cloth on the dining table. Heavy textured wall paper works miracles. Decorative hanging rug or velvet painting of Elvis. =:>) Also lots of visiting friends with thick clothing. I would give it a try, music is a priority to a happy soul.
 

insider9

Well-known member
I would suggest a speaker that uses a ribbon or planar midrange and tweeter since they cut off dispersion top and bottom so that would greatly reduce floor and ceiling reflections and allow you more directivity. Any sort of blinds, shades or curtains could help the sliding glass and look 'normal' as to reducing reflections. Upholstered high back chairs. A table cloth on the dining table. Heavy textured wall paper works miracles. Decorative hanging rug or velvet painting of Elvis. =:>) Also lots of visiting friends with thick clothing. I would give it a try, music is a priority to a happy soul.
I love ribbons but directivity is a massive issue in this scenario. For a dining room/kitchen where there wouldn't be one listening position ribbons probably wouldn't work that great. I agree with the rest.
 
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IGR

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I love ribbons but directivity is a massive issue in this scenario. For a dining room/kitchen where there wouldn't be one listening position ribbons probably wouldn't work that great. I agree with the rest.
Thanks for the help guys/girls, I was starting to give up on the idea, but lots to think about here. Much appreciated
 
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Hi. Weather you have a budget of 8k or not and as you already have a music room of sorts I’d say it’s not worth the effort. IMO it’s the perfect place for Sonos speakers. Thy have some eq capabilities and would save you some pennies.

If you’re still feel rather flush and want to spend some cash I’d say look at some Buchart audio a series line or some Kii threes or some Dutch and Dutch actives and go from there
 
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muljao

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Not sure if you have physical sources or streaming but if you've a dedicated spot maybe it might be an idea to settle for "very good" in your awful room rather than superb. I'd scrap the 8k budget and if just streaming settle for a pair of sonos 5s and set it up with the apple app for room correction.

If plugged in source is necessary I'd likely but an arcam sr250 or similar with dsp and maybe a pair of neat iotas or a similar non fussy about placement speaker.
(Disclaimer- only heard the sonos, the arcam and neat are just similar to what my thinking would be in your situation)
 

IGR

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Thanks for taking the time to reply guys/girls. Lots of interesting ideas. Still working on the room treatment ideas 🤞
 

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