I had professionals treating my room rendering it dead and bass heavy . . .
Why did they do this?
I had professionals treating my room rendering it dead and bass heavy . . .
When I "hatch" my future stereo I will start with no room treatment at all (except for carpet on the rear two-thirds of the room). I will not automatically absorb the points of first reflections, or fill the corners with ASC Tube Traps.
The first experiment will be the points of first reflections.
Let’s do a little thought experiment... If you were to replace your stereo in your untreated room with live musicians what do you think you would hear?
In my opinion, how the loudspeaker interacts with your room (in particular what the speaker is doing off-axis) is a significant piece of the puzzle. In other words "room treatment" is NOT a one-size-fits-all thing! I like your methodical approach, and I like your starting point(s).
Imo this is an extremely useful thought experiment. An environment which sounds good with live instruments would also sound good with speakers that do a good job of reproducing live instruments. The net result would be a very enjoyable "they are here" presentation. (And peering through the other end of the telescope, one might argue that the speakers should sound good in a room where live instruments would sound good.)
Imo there is a more elusive goal which might be worth pursuing, which is a "you are there" presentation. Achieving a "you are there" presentation implies that the venue ambience/envelopment/immersion cues which are on the recording DOMINATE over the playback room's "small room signature" cues. Imo thoughtful room treatment can play a role in that.
My own view is that if your listening room would sound good with live musicians in it, then it is actually likely a bad room for the pursuit of ultimate audio replay. Most acoustics for acoustic musicians (particularly classical) tend to be much more live with enough natural reverb. This acoustic merely camouflages and hides any recording acoustic / ambience.
What Duke said !The earliest reflections are the ones which most strongly present the playback room's undesirable "small room signature" cues, and are also the ones which degrade clarity the most.
The later reflections are the ones which most effectively present the reverberation tails on the recording, which convey the recording venue's acoustic space (whether said "acoustic space" be real or engineered or both). As long as they aren't TOO loud clarity is preserved.
Do you think that treating your room will make the sound in that room sound more real?
I don’t know about others but i am pretty close to having Rush in my room. Playing something like “Tom Sawyer” at realistic levels is a memorex moment.It is very hard to generalize in this area.
On live music I am pretty sure no one is envisioning Led Zeppelin in their room - more like a string quartet or folk singer
I was referring to the points made in previous posts about actual musicians in the room vs your stereo and what that meant re acoustics - I see from your previous posts you are into all of this so no surprise you get a good result !I don’t know about others but i am pretty close to having Rush in my room. Playing something like “Tom Sawyer” at realistic levels is a memorex moment.
much harder to believe a full symphony is in your room. Although once i set my sysyem up to sound like i was on the mezzanine at the Meyerson. Great for symphonic music but other genre’s suffered..
Yeah, i can see Neil back there beating the crap out of that drum kit with his laser precision. He was an awesome drummer.Sbnx, I'm impressed if Neil Peart is channeling into your room from The Great Unknown.
Yes, i live in a suburb of Dallas. The acoustics in the Meyerson are very good. I used to be a season ticket holder for the Dallas Wind Symphony.I was referring to the points made in previous posts about actual musicians in the room vs your stereo and what that meant re acoustics - I see from your previous posts you are into all of this so no surprise you get a good result !
I have always wanted to attend the Meyerson hall - as I recall they have large chambers around the perimeter of the hall that they can open up and change the hall volume therefore extend reverb time - that is a next level approach !
Presume you are a local ?
Phil
Good advice for much of life.it's a matter of minimizing the bad ones while encouraging and cultivating the good ones.
Hi Duke, you sidestepped a bit from my original point, which was that treating the room will not make a stereo system sound more real. It is still easy to distinguish live from reproduced both before and after treating a room. No gain in that perspective has been made with room treatment. It can, possibly if done right, make music (and speech for that matter) more enjoyable and so for that reason I am not anti-treatment...use as needed for max enjoyment of music. However, I think you are right that a room that is sonically good for live will also be sonically good for a stereo system.In my opinion, how the loudspeaker interacts with your room (in particular what the speaker is doing off-axis) is a significant piece of the puzzle. In other words "room treatment" is NOT a one-size-fits-all thing! I like your methodical approach, and I like your starting point(s).
Imo this is an extremely useful thought experiment. An environment which sounds good with live instruments would also sound good with speakers that do a good job of reproducing live instruments. The net result would be a very enjoyable "they are here" presentation. (And peering through the other end of the telescope, one might argue that the speakers should sound good in a room where live instruments would sound good.)
Imo there is a more elusive goal which might be worth pursuing, which is a "you are there" presentation. Achieving a "you are there" presentation implies that the venue ambience/envelopment/immersion cues which are on the recording DOMINATE over the playback room's "small room signature" cues. Imo thoughtful room treatment can play a role in that.
You can think of the in-room reflections as the CARRIERS for the venue cues on the recording, in particular the reverberation tails, as these should be presented from all around rather than from only two discrete locations (the left and right loudspeakers, as would be the case in an overdamped room). So the in-room reflections do good things as well as bad things! But not all in-room reflections are equally beneficial, nor equally detrimental.
The KEY lies in the ARRIVAL TIME of the reflections (assuming they are spectrally correct, or nearly so, to begin with).
The earliest reflections are the ones which most strongly present the playback room's undesirable "small room signature" cues, and are also the ones which degrade clarity the most.
The later reflections are the ones which most effectively present the reverberation tails on the recording, which convey the recording venue's acoustic space (whether said "acoustic space" be real or engineered or both). As long as they aren't TOO loud clarity is preserved.
So imo it's not a matter of reflections being good or bad - it's a matter of minimizing the bad ones while encouraging and cultivating the good ones. Imo the loudspeaker design itself can play a significant role here... you ever try horns???
;^)
Wood is good... my ceiling is all wood and sloped at around a 30 degree angle from 3 meters at the speaker end to around 7 meters high at the opposite end.To me, room treatment includes materials of wall, floor and ceiling. For two rooms which one has wooden floor, wooden wall and the other room has marble floor and concrete wall will sound very different even if they are the same size. Just like guitars made of different hardwoods will also sound different. If my room has too much window, I try to cover them with wooden blind. Adding a sofa in the room is also room treatment. So everything in your room is room treatment.
Roof conical bass horn is being requested by the horn gods, Brad. Make it happen they sayWood is good... my ceiling is all wood and sloped at around a 30 degree angle from 3 meters at the speaker end to around 7 meters high at the opposite end.
I can just take imagine my wife’s expression when a huge bass horn magically appears on the ceilingRoof conical bass horn is being requested by the horn gods, Brad. Make it happen they say