Revisiting room treatments

[Gordon Gray]

HI all,

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial weekend.

For background purposes, I've been listening for the past several months with ATS Acoustic panels on my windows and on the side walls (floor location). Also have three GIK 244 bass panels on the floor in back of the speakers.

Although I really liked what I was hearing, I had a sense that the music was a bit over damped.

Decided to pull one GIK and a couple of the ATS panels, decreasing the overall panel area by some 30%.

Immediate impression was a more open, quicker, dynamic, engaging sound without any substantial negative impact on the overall musicality of the presentation.

Has anyone here "uninstalled" some panels with long term positive results?

GG

 

[sleepysurf]

Yep! I found that absorption panels directly behind my Summits pretty much killed the "liveliness" or "presence." I ended up building "acoustic bookshelves" which provide a mix of diffusion and absorption. Depending upon one's room size, furnishings, and speaker placement, etc, when it comes to acoustic treatments, sometimes less is more. However, every room is different (as are the listener's preferences). At least it's fairly easy to "test" the effects of acoustic treatments, and decide what works best for you.

 

[amey01]

Yes, absolutely! Room treatments make such a huge difference, so the common audiophile mistake holds true - just because something sounds different, doesn't mean it sounds better!

 

[FOUNTAIN]

Same experience here too. Over the past year or so I have slowly removed panels from my walls, and have found that you can indeed have too many acoustic panels in a room. I started off adding treatment over a period of time until I had a total of 15 wall panels (ATS Acoustics), 4 bass absorbers (GIK and ATS), and 5 corner traps (forgot who made these). Now I have 4 acoustic panels (GIK), 3 bass traps (GIK), along with the same corner treatment. I switched over to GIK as I felt that the absorption was more even throughout its range. After going through this process I feel the music now has more involvement and a more consistent wall of sound. As panels were removed however there were now blank spaces on the wall. I went shopping and bought varying items that went with the theme of a music room and strategically placed them with the help and approval of the wife. Hobby Lobby can be a good source to find some of these things along with Pier One. Now the sound and aesthetics have been improved.

Glen

 

[zaphod]

years back i followed the LEDE (live-end dead-end) philosophy with curtains across the wall behind the speakers and on the side walls to the CLS position. the wall behind the CLS sloped from 8' to 3' and the curtains followed the slope. the imaging was great, best front back i've ever had.

when i moved out west i put the curtains on the wall behind and not the side walls. but this room had wall-to-wall and a pile of overstuffed furniture. it had to be the most dead sounding room i've ever owned. no life at all.

replaced the curtains with shelving and the carpet with laminate and a surface rug. much much better.

 

[JordanD]

You never want to over dampen. There is such thing as too much dampening.

When sound is played off the speaker the sound reflections are converted (in the brain) to an ambient sound and adds to the sounds stage and emotion. It has something to do with the brain's binural response. I am trying to regurgitate what I have been taught. I am pretty sure I butchered everything but it is something along these lines.

 

[Len44]

years back i followed the LEDE (live-end dead-end) philosophy with curtains across the wall behind the speakers and on the side walls to the CLS position. the wall behind the CLS sloped from 8' to 3' and the curtains followed the slope. the imaging was great, best front back i've ever had.

If I may, what was behind the listening position?