Mostly for Bridgman so he can decide if a qrd is right for his preferences.

Ok, initial impressions of QRD after a few hours of music listening and The Hobbit Five Armies. The QRD didnt exist in place for very long without the front wall absorbers added, so they are part of this impression as well. Remember the sidewalls and front corners were treated but the front wall was bare.

Two major things happened with addition of the QRD/Bass traps. They both made a positive benefit in their own way -But the QRD is still far and away the most dramatic improvement to listening experience (built on the foundation of proper placement and sidewall control.)

The general response of the room didn't change in the mlp as far as measurements go, but the system's off axis response is now very smooth and consistent. I will say as a net result I turned the sub level down for stereo sources, as the soundfield is seemingly more dynamic and impactful with the corner traps I think.

First Major Change:
The center image doesn't fall apart when you move your head, in fact the center phantom is not really the same at all. It is more fleshed out and robust. Instead of a tight ball of sound fixed in place it's more like you're seated a few rows back from center stage. Vocals sound like they are coming from a person and not laser tight. The phantom now has dimension and depth, texture and even height somehow. Mono recordings from Louis Armstrong sound like he is singing through his trumpet. Really. You can hear his gravelly breath in each note. There really isn't a clearly defined ball of sound in the middle at all. Each individual element that used to be smashed into that ball is decompressed and clearly formed in its own space.

It seems the phantom is now created as much by the re-direction of sound from the diffuser as much as it's created by my ear/brain. This would explain in part why it seems there is a giant wall wide speaker in the room. It is re-emitting sound at a slight delay and phase shifted from the input sound. One of my books calls this a "passive surround" effect.

Second Major Change:

The ENTIRE width of the front wall is now part of the sounstage. In Jazz recordings where players are set into sections (right left center back etc.) the furthest right/left player appear to be coming from the corner where the screenwall meets the wall. The back sounds like its in back. I used John Coltrane's Love Supreme (which I actually have never been able to sit through) for testing. Super wide. I messed with a bunch of material with complex drum tracks. LCD Soundsystem/Barenaked Ladies/Phil Collins/Vampire Weekend/Tears for Fears/etc. Lots of synthy fast beats mixed with hand percussion and the occasional cowbell. Each little transient was a seperate and detailed with robust body and texture, especially bongos I noticed. There was now space and shape associated with each impulse. Cool.

The increased level of texture and space really benefits every aspect of the music I have tested. The detail is incredible. Eg. The Raconteurs "Consolers of the lonely" has very low level talking in the lead track through the song. At 0:30 you can clearly hear someone say "double track that."

I will admit, it is not really fair to compare it head to head with absorbers so far as overall audio impact, they are different tools- but I don't think it would be as pleasant of an effect in a room without somewhat "controlled" decay behaviour. Diffusers should be mated with absorbers. Absorbers still should come first. I think you can get the same clean, textured and seperated sound with absorbtion only, but you need a lot and spaciousness suffers. The QRD puts space back in spades.

I like it. A lot.

Last edited by Serenity_Now; 10/21/15 11:13 PM.