We're all nuts

[bpape]

Yes - dealing with room, speaker, listener interactions will drive you crazy - but well work the effort!  You have to be a psycho to do it day in and day out.

Couldn't resist being the first one to post in this forum

Bryan \/

[mca]

Brian,

Just curious, have not heard anything from Glenn on the forums for a while. Is he still around? Where do you fit in with the GIK team?

[bpape]

Glenn was in Germany for a while over the holidays.  He's on some of the forums but is so busy it's hard for him to get on all of them all the time - that's a good thing I guess.  We've been doing some new product testing and development so that adds to the load.

I work for Glenn doing consulting for customers who don't know what they want/need in their rooms.  I also work with him on the new product development.

Bryan

[miklorsmith]

Room acoustics can be so tough.  The thing is once an enthusiast gets to the point where room issues are identifiable, there's already a comfort level around the gear.  Getting into room acoustics is a humbling experience like when you have to ask the difference between a preamp and integrated amp.

It's surely worthwhile and a nice, incremental upgrade path.  Just getting a couple of panels at the first reflection points is a nice starting place and that can be encouraging.  Oooo!  Bass traps!  I'll have to get one.  Hey, that's nice, where can I fit some more?  Next thing you know your room is covered with fiberglass, burlap, and textured foam from one end to the other.

[bpape]

Yup.  That's the trick.  Getting the RIGHT amount of the right things in your room.  More isn't always better.  Rooms where you're trying to do 2 channel and multi-channel present even more issues as the design goals are very different.  

Bryan

[Carlman]

Thanks for leading the way, Bryan... Great start to this 'ward'/forum area.

I've taken all the conventional wisdom on room correction.. and some non-conventional wisdom as well to produce what I think is a pretty good set of compromises in a very challenging room.

However, in the end I think I need to buy a new house for a sound room.  I think that's going to be the next 'big' upgrade.   I think I have enough sound treatment to treat a 16x22 room stuffed into my 11x13 now so I won't have much to buy.

We'll see what happens...

-C

[shep]

Just want to keep the ball rolling...My only experience with room treatment was a silly disaster! Way back when, I had maggies and someone suggested eggs cartons (you know, the cardboard type). I don't even remember what I was trying to correct. Anyway I glued about 100 of them to the cieling of a rented house/room (it was doomed to demolition anyway). Looked awful, did nothing for the sound and they kept falling off. One day one landed on my turntable and destroyed a rather pricey cart. Needless to say they all came down instantly. Other than that I've been lucky having acoustically friendly rooms. I'm pretty good at dialing in my speakers wherever I live. My present space is a medium size one in a 18th cent. cottage: stone walls 2foot thick, rough rendering (inside) no parallel surfaces, concrete/tiles floor poured on bedrock, heavy wood board flooring on big oak beams. Nothing moves, nothing resonates and there are no audible nodes to worry about. If and when I move I may have to learn some tricks (egg cartons not being one of them).

[bpape]

There are certainly rooms that are more 'friendly' to getting a good setup, good listening postion, good imaging, and good bass extension.  I've yet to be in one though that can't sound better with the appropriate treatment.  

It's one of those things that you don't know until you have it and then take it away.  I've had more than one person who treated their room and wasn't immediately happy.  I get them to live with it for a few days because it is a BIG difference in sound and general experience.  After a few days, I have them remove some things - especially the bass treatments.  Almost to a fault they all turn their nose up when they're gone.  "Wow - I didn't know what all was getting masked and how lumpy my bass was" is a very common paraphrase of the response.

On the other hand, you'll have people do things that don't work, do too much just very thin absorbtion, or way too much of any one thing for what a room really needs.  They don't like the results (and shouldn't) so they get turned off to the idea.

I generally tell people to start with a little bit of bass absorbtion and a couple reflection point panels on the side walls to get a feel for things.  Sometimes that's all that's needed or wanted.  Sometimes more is required.  

Rooms and people are like your systems.  There's a synergy thing going on.  Every room and every person's taste is different.  The combination of the 2 provides an infinite number of combinations.

Bryan