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On the importance of room treatments...
#90891 04/17/05 03:07 AM
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axiomite
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axiomite
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Had some friends over last night, ended up listening to the M60s for a while. All liked the sound but I had to agree the imaging wasn't all it could be. I suspected the problem was reflections of the (very bare) rear wall so tried the obvious solution... grab a couple of small pillows and hold one behind each ear to block out the effect of the rear wall reflections.

You can guess your friends age when one of them looks at you holding a triangular pillow behind each ear and says "you look like Peter Gabriel". You can guess your own age when you know what they are talking about (the batwing headpiece Gabriel wore when performing Watcher of the Skies back in the early Genesis days).

But back to the sound... the difference in imaging quality was nothing short of incredible. With any kind of heavy damping material behind my head the imaging went from so-so to fantastic, better than I had heard with any system to date.

Haven't figured out what to do about it yet (I'll need something larger than a pillow if I want to mount it on the wall rather than the back of my head, thinking about a big wall hanging I saw of a moose drinking from the edge of a Northern Ontario lake.

Anyways, if you have a reflective back wall and you aren't happy with your imaging, shoo everyone out of the house and hold a pillow up behind your head centered on ear level. If it makes a difference... you know what to do.

Note that this won't do anything for reflective side walls... I think you have to treat them at the wall not your head ... but if the back wall is the problem this will tell you very quickly.



Image of Peter Gabriel linked from "The Musical Box"s web site at www.themusicalbox.net.

Last edited by bridgman; 04/17/05 03:12 AM.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
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Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90892 04/17/05 03:30 AM
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John, I'm disappointed; you seek the ultimate in imaging, yet you hesitate to mount a pillow on the back of your head just because of what others might say.


-----------------------------------

Enjoy the music, not the equipment.


Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90893 04/17/05 03:58 AM
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axiomite
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It's a guy thing, you know, like refusing to ask for directions...

Last edited by bridgman; 04/17/05 04:07 AM.

M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8
Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90894 04/17/05 04:53 PM
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Oh Great!
Now I have to move the moose from the fireplace to the back wall!!


Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90895 04/17/05 05:45 PM
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I'm convinved that room treatments would benefit most rooms...especially mine. For me, the real issues are the aesthetics and price.

I deal all week with people that think video "production" is silly because anyone can just get a camcorder and some $99 software and produce great (!!) results, so I'm especially sensitive to being arrogant-sounding here, but:

I don't understand what's involved in producing most of the sound treatment products I see out there to justify their price. I researched acoustic treatments fairly heavily (both isolation and diffusion) when building my soundbooth in the studio and I just don't see how some of these panels sell for $200~$400 each. I've also been to the websites with instructions for building your own. Often, in those cases the aesthetics and end results are not as good as commercially-available products.

I would love to treat my room, but if I'm looking at $600~ $1,000 worth of products that don't look good in my room, I guess I just have to learn to love what I've got. Seems like there just isn't a realistic, happy solution, save building a room from scratch.


::::::: No disrespect to Axiom, but my favorite woofer is my yellow lab :::::::
Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90896 04/17/05 09:04 PM
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axiomite
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Well then you should also be considering the pillows behind the head...

I think the "secret weapon" for room treatments is those wall hangings (sort of a blanket that made it big) you see with either native art, wildlife scenes or Elvis. They hang 1/2" to 1" off the wall so you get some really effective dampening, and if you let your wife pick the wall hangings the WAF is almost guaranteed.

I don't have another 3 days to load the MOAP and look at your room decor again but I imagine you could put something on the back wall. Right side wall wasn't a problem (seems to be an opening at the first reflection point) and I don't remember about the left wall.

A BFD should be able to bulldoze some of your response peaks although as you correctly observe that will only give you flat response in one or two spots. Then again, as long as you are sitting in that spot nobody else is gonna care


M60ti, VP180, QS8, M2ti, EP500, PC-Plus 20-39
M5HP, M40ti, Sierra-1
LFR1100 active, ADA1500-4 and -8
Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90897 04/17/05 11:53 PM
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I remember reading something recently where folks have put "acoustic fabric" on their walls rather than paint them. You use LOTS of staples (and two sided tape) to install the farbic.

There is company in Maine that maakes the stuff and it is apparently good quality and effective.

Re: On the importance of room treatments...
#90898 04/18/05 03:12 AM
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I don't know if either the WAF or the HAF on that would be very good in this house...


I am the Doctor, and THIS... is my SPOON!

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