I promised to update those following this thread with the next step of my experiential journey where I wanted to address the acoustics of the room. It’s taken a bit longer to get here than I’d expected, partly due to the fact that room acoustics is not an area I had any real experience in before now and partly due to extensive travel (which I also enjoy - even if it is work) over the past few months.

Where I have purchased something that I feel has helped, I've included the manufacturer's name not to advertise them, but try and give everyone a frame of reference as sound boards etc can vary drastically from one manufacturer to another.

For those of you wondering how I was getting on, here’s what I discovered along the way:

1) There were two related, but unexpected discoveries before I go into the room treatment itself:

a. The first was that buying an Eames replica chair (from Iconic Interiors) indirectly improved the sound dramatically, I suspect because its lower seating position suited the DSP7200’s better (it’s also extremely comfortable and I have been unable to find any difference between this and the US version of the original Eames chair now made under license by Herman Miller. I still wish it had a proper head rest, but as a piece of art that just happens to be extremely comfortable and I’m very happy);

I’m not sure whether the change in SQ was caused by moving the listening position in relation to the bookshelf (you’re about to discover later got given the axe), but it shows how much of a difference positioning makes (in this case, while it’s difficult to put an absolute number of what is something quite emotive, I’d say almost sitting on the floor gave a sold 20% improvement in the soundstage).

b. The second surprise was, having looked at £2k+ Hi-Fi stands, I felt that – while I’m open to be proven otherwise – the system was unlikely to benefit from this kind of investment over and above the IsoAcoustics feet I’m already using. So, for now, I’ve bought a heavy, solid wood coffee table with the intention of putting feet under it, which I haven’t done yet, but blow me, the sound improved hugely with a *much* better sense of depth. My best guess is that this has nothing to do with vibrations, but the height of the previous unit was allowing sound from the speakers to reflect at the listening position, creating an additional first reflection point. Moral: If your HiFi rack is higher than your mid-range cone, you may want to rethink this!


2) As for the room itself, possibly because I’m a little OCD and like to have all my books lined up, having a bookshelf to the left of the listening position and as a first reflection point turned out to be really quite bad.

I’ve learnt that the idea is to dampen internal reflections, so that they don’t overwhelm the reflections in the recorded music (making it possible to hear the acoustics of the recording and not those of your own room!). I also discovered you can easily over-dampen the room, however you can diffuse reflections to get around this, which a bookshelf is meant to do. In my case, it didn’t do a very good job of this.

Replacing the bookshelf with a vertical case, gave me less room for books, but means I can avoid it becoming a first reflection point. Replacing the (now empty space) along the wall with two stacked 1" thick sound boards from Soundsorba has made the soundstage a lot more stable and the positioning of instruments more accurate. Maybe an additional 15% improvement (over and above moving the listening position down), but definitely noticable and worthwhile.

[As an aside, I’m also using Soundsorba boards to cover the granite-like fireplace (possibly quartzite), as that does nothing for acoustics either! I also have a heavy-weight woollen acoustic curtain over the window on the right of the room].


3) I have a room resonance at just over 50Hz and a void a few Hz higher up. I tried to absorb the excess energy using the Acoustica Applicata Daad units.

What I discovered is that they don’t absorb energy so much, but instead spread the energy in in the time domain. It turns out that, for me, the Daad 3’s work well as diffusers (you can turn them in order to adjust their diffuser/time delay properties), but the Daad 4’s didn’t solve my problem of excess bass energy. It made for a richer sound, but one that felt slightly muffled. I suspect these are very room dependant, but I’ve retained the Daad 3’s as they work well to diffuse the sound reflecting on the front wall, without dampening the room too much. My wife and I both felt the Daad 4’s detracted from the sound in my room, whereas the Daad 3’s are staying! There are cheaper diffusers, though.

I’m going to revisit the topic of bass traps at some point in the future. For now, I’ve set the DSP7200SE’s to work in ‘Wall mode’.


4) The next two stages are going to be: dealing with first reflections from the ceiling. I’ve marked out where the boards need to go and the boards (from GIK Acoustics) are now here, I just need to attach them to the ceiling over the next couple of days; the second is dealing with rear reflections from the windows about 4m behind the listening position. I found some vertical blinds that absorb reflections, but they are currently not being made, if anyone knows where to obtain decent acoustic blinds, please let me know :-) Incidentally, I’ve gone with GIK this time, simply because they are less expensive, it remains to be seen whether they are as good, but while this might seem otherwise, this has never been a ‘money no object’ exercise. I‘ve just been lucky sourcing most items at a sensible price!

In all of this, I’ve tried to retain the aesthetics in the room, but it is a room I’ve been given free rein to do whatever I feel necessary. That said, I hope that some of what I’ve learnt helps others too.

Prolific music listener / Hi-Fi addict!