Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Lets plan a theater space

Ok so things got "real" today. I'll explain.

It's been an exciting morning. A "wow" audio moment that rarely happens happened today. Diffusers are a game changer. I had to call in a witness to verify I wasn't imagining things. "Thats Fucking Amazing" was the witnesses input.....

The day started out with me trying to figure out how to get the QRD to fit down the stairs in one piece. I had to trim back the back rails a bit before I drug it in the house. It was around 80" long including the back rails. It made the stairs in the end. Phew!

The first stop was the 2ch listening room. Afterall, I would likely never have the opportunity to do a test like this again, and I wanted to see if the QRD was all it was cracked up to be. I was hopeful but realistic. I set it between my 2 speakers and aligned with the centerline of the room and my listening chair.




Ok, so, it's huge it turns out. I sat and listened to a few tracks I've heard too many times with testing and I thought something was amiss. I moved the QRD back out of the way, an awkward bastard with some chunk to it, and sat for another listen. Holy shit! The QRD makes the front wall sound like a single huge speaker in some ways. The front soundstage became huge, deep, seamless, enveloping, razor sharp and reach out and touch it right there. I thought I was imagining things. I mean this thing was a huge battleship of an eyesore, yet it produced an emotional response I have not had since I can't remember when from music. I was choked up. Crazy!

I had to measure. I had to figure out why. Here is the measurement with the QRD in place from the listening position.



Here is the same measurement with the QRD removed from the room completely.



The frequency response showed no obvious clues of the euphonic soundfield created in the room. I thought for sure some peak would have been produced right in the presence region from what I was hearing. Strange.

I was forbidden from trying to lug this thing down the stairs by myself (thank goodness I didn't try) so I made a call to the father in law, a proud owner of some Axiom speakers, to come and help out. I busied myself taking apart the screen wall downstairs and getting speakers out of the way while marking speaker positions with tape carefully.

He arrived just as I had obliterated the basement. I played it cool and said "Hey, tell me what you think of this." This was "garbage" he got me afterall, so he was a key shareholder. I sat him down with the QRD in place and played a song he was familiar with. The song played through and he thought it sounded great. His usual "Yep, it sounds great, Trev." Then I had him stay put and drug the QRD back out of the room with my wife. Same volume, same position same everything, just no QRD. We replayed the song.....

I had resisted the urge to say anything at all. He was feeling me out for what was going to happen. I told him I didn't want to bias his opinion and let him finish listening to the track again. He didn't make it all the way through the second time. "Oh my god, that's fucking amazing. Fucking incredible." It was a success.

The difference between a recording and live event had seemed to be blurred. It was frankly astounding and beautiful.

He was super pumped to get it lugged down the stairs and chucked behind the screen. I had to slow up the process to get a gameplan going. It was going to be a snug fit afterall....

With the room apart we got started and made it down the stairs. We went in through the left side of the screen and I only had to remove one speaker. Speaker setup is a pain in the butt for me (HT neurotic perfectionist) so I only wanted to touch one channel.



Anyone who's moved a sofa around a tight corner can see what we were up against. A tilt, hook and push and we were in place. Gently threading the lunker behind the center channel. How is it you get 25% stronger while you hold your breath? lol. There's a lot less room back there now!



We sat and listened to the same track downstairs and agreed we had stumbled upon something quite special. With only 2 channels playing the entire front wall was a massive floor to ceiling, wall to wall, soundstage.

I had to try out the center channel and threw in Pink Floyd's SACD of the DSOTM. It has a pristine Stereo and 5.1Ch mix so it was great to do a quick A/B test in tracks. The center channel has came alive in a way that's hard to describe. I'm not sure if its proximity to the diffuser has something to do with it, but it was like no sound I've ever heard it produce.

I know it sounds stupid. It reads stupid. It is stupid. Stupid good somehow. It sounds like a "real" voice is behind there.

After the high fiving stopped (jk) I settled in to take some new measurements of the basement with 2ch and subs. This time I wanted to see how the sweet spot improved off axis and how frequency response was affected across several listening positions. Again, like absorbers, diffusion can be magic. Here's a rough roadmap of the measured positions followed with their individual responses at each seat.



Position 1. Sweet spot.



Position 2. Chaise lounge off axis left.



Position 3. Snuggle Seat beside sweet spot.



Position 4. Mother in law chair. Waay off axis!