Open floor plans and room acoustics

[caesar]

Check out Robert Harley's latest room. Product manufacturers, liKe the pictured Vandersteen, trust him with some killer gear in that room, which can make or break their business.

http://www.avguide.com/sites/next-tech-guide/files/Vandersteen complete.JPG

http://www.avguide.com/sites/next-tech-guide/files/Vandersteen w-Nadel.JPG

Are open floor plans good , bad, or neutral ?

 

[steve williams]

The last I saw a picture of RH's room his house was listed for sale

 

[caesar]

Didn't he just move in the last year? I think this is from his new house, unless he moved again. He had a fancy media room in his old home.

 

[Bruce B]

Asymmetry... = NOT GOOD!

Open floor plans are not much of a problem... but... I wouldn't trust anything in that room.

 

[audioguy]

I wouldn't trust anything in that room.

+1

 

[caesar]

Asymmetry... = NOT GOOD!

Open floor plans are not much of a problem... but... I wouldn't trust anything in that room.

Bruce, thanks. I hear what you are saying, but how many homes with open floor plans are symmetrical? I do hope he can adjust the right/left volume with preamplifier.

 

[Bruce B]

Bruce, thanks. I hear what you are saying, but how many homes with open floor plans are symmetrical? I do hope he can adjust the right/left volume with preamplifier.

L/R right volume is the least of his worries. If you don't have symmetry, you are just guessing at any imaging/spatial information. Not to mention the bass deficiency on the Left side.

Most homes may not be symmetrical, but you can set your system up so that it is. Now if he set up the system on the Rt. side wall, with the open area behind him, I'm sure it would sound much better.

 

[AudioNMe]

A perfect example of what is wrong with high end. The room and speakers are 95% of the sound and he has most of the big bucks spent on the 5%. That is why I don't read mags anymore.

 

[JackD201]

Beautiful house, nasty listening room.

 

[garylkoh]

I can see the next reviews coming out now:

"Tympani and bass instruments soundstage right have a great weight and extension. The string instruments soundstage left soar with air and extension. In the orchestral piece, the triangle floats in the air. Solo vocals are solidly focussed with a slight sheen to female voices."

Sorry - I'm lousy at writing superlatives.....

 

[garylkoh]

Considering how critical loudspeaker placement is to good sound, I'm surprised that every audiophile doesn't own one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-DLR165K-Distance-Measuring-Device/dp/B000T7LISM

 

[rsbeck]

That room just looks like a sonic nightmare. I had to quit looking at it because it was starting to hurt my ears.

 

[microstrip]

Considering how critical loudspeaker placement is to good sound, I'm surprised that every audiophile doesn't own one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-DLR165K-Distance-Measuring-Device/dp/B000T7LISM

Gary,

When I saw Richard Vandersteen with the tape I thought the same. I have carried mine to some audio demos - usually the demonstrator gets really nervous when I check the speaker distance from my place.
BTW, although these devices can have a 1.5mm accuracy over 70m I do not use it to set the Forsell ...

 

[JackD201]

Considering how critical loudspeaker placement is to good sound, I'm surprised that every audiophile doesn't own one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-DLR165K-Distance-Measuring-Device/dp/B000T7LISM

Hahahahaaa. Yeah I got one of those.

 

[caesar]

L/R right volume is the least of his worries. If you don't have symmetry, you are just guessing at any imaging/spatial information. Not to mention the bass deficiency on the Left side.

Bruce, brilliant analysis! In his review, Harley barely mentions the bass, with the exception that Vandersteen helped set up the bass with at equalizer. Obviously, it is not quite right...But he goes on raving about the purity of the midrange and the highs.

http://www.avguide.com/review/vandersteen-audio-model-7-loudspeaker

In the Stereophile review, however, Fremmer can't get over the sound-stage. He continues..."When the novelty of spectacular spatial presentation had worn off, the Seven's tonal balance stepped forward. That first night of listening made clear that either Richard Vandersteen likes a lot of bass, or he thought I did—there was way too much of it with recordings that had a great deal of good, deep bass. My wife soon reinforced this perception by phoning me from upstairs: "Those speakers have way too much bass!" In my house, that's another way of saying "Turn that $#%&* music down!" ..." Of course, Fremmer also mentions the transparency, etc., that Harley mentions.



http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/vandersteen_model_seven_loudspeaker/index.html

 

[caesar]

Asymmetry... = NOT GOOD!

Open floor plans are not much of a problem... but... I wouldn't trust anything in that room.

Interesting you say that. I guess Richard Vandersteen trusted that his best performing speaker would be reviewed in that room. The other pictured gentleman is the Balaboo distributor, and I hear from industry insiders that one his goals in life is finding the BEST cost-no-object gear in the world. I wonder what they were really thinking setting up their "babies" in that room.

They must have known they were going to get great reviews. Harley even wrote an editorial how Balaboo is the first brand of gear he has heard that combines truth and beauty...