RobinKidderminster said:
Thanks sheggs. In a different (bachelor) life I would have become your number one customer. I do think WHF should do an article on this to highlight the enormous potential benefits.
Couldn't agree more Rob, room acoustics seem to be the great elephant in the room - audiophiles seems to spend huge amounts of time and money on their kit and tweaking their systems with isolation supports, and cables and the like, and never once seem to place any consideration to the room its all kept in - which is arguably one of the most important and strongest influences on the sound quality they will hear. Until about 6 months ago, when I started researching this subject, I could probably include myself in that category also!
You frequently see on forums, pictures of people's set-ups with a rack load of high end kit, and top quality speakers, all housed in a plain room with wood floor and leather sofas, not a single absorptive surface in sight, but they insist on changing this speaker cable or that power lead to try and improve the sound they are clearly not content with, without a single thought for the room which is no doubt dramatically limiting the potential of their system.
It is really good to see someone having a go, and I'm really keen to hear more on your experiences with them, subjective or not.
My personal exploration on room treatments will begin next year when I finally get to have a dedicated HC room (courtesy of a new extension). I have read and researched just about every resource I can find on the subject, including several pretty heavy going text books - but still its often difficult to find guidance on the optimum acoustic designs - so a definitive guide on room treatment from the guys at WhatHifi would be benefincial all round I think.
Please do post some pics of your new wall panel, it would be great to see what you've done. DO you plan to add any more - first reflection points maybe?
If you ever fell like having a go at taking some room measurements, they would be interesting to see also - with and without the traps. All you need is a laptop/PC with the right sound card inputs (or external soundcard), a mircophone (or Radioshack SPL meter) and the REW software (which is a free download). That will give you frequency response graphs and waterfall plots to tell you exactly what is happening in your room with regards to frequency response (particularly specific peaks and nulls in the bass range at your various listening positions), and sound decay times. It can also help you identify if your listening positions are still recieving secondary reflections too - Sheggs may be able to offer more guidance on this.
(You'll see what I mean)
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