I know they say source first but how about room acoustics?

Having previously had eye opening success with a few GIK panels , when I had my new listening room built it was planned with full treatment in mind.

Both my dealer and GIK were very helpful in the process.

When finished I have ended up with 20 panels , the final pair at the first reflection point on the ceiling , often overlooked.

A couple of points I discovered along the way .

Its often been said its easy to overdue treatment and kill the sound.  Yes that is true , but if you treat it in stages, then its easy to hear when to stop.

Also with a treated room you end up with a nicer room , very calm and quiet , even when not playing music. Much nicer for relaxing in.

Using mainly GIK panels it would cost about £4k to do what needs doing with my room, less if I did some DIY panels, however the biggest problem is lack of sufficient space where some of the key ones are needed. Given that I plan to move home in 3 or 4 years’ time and then stay put indefinitely, I decided to leave it for now - though I am aware that the room is very much the limiting factor in my system.

I have also treated my room with GIK panels. 4 soffit bass traps stacked 2 high in the front corners, a monster bass trap in each rear corner, and 7 other panel absorbers at the first reflection points, and on the rear wall behind my listening position. 

I’m lucky to have a dedicated room, so I could match colours and coordinate with other furnishing. My taste is fairly contemporary / minimalistic, so blocks of texture and colour against a neutral painted background work well.  The corner soffit traps are on raised plinths, matching the skirting and in a very similar colour to the walls, so they blend in well. The wall panels are in a mix of burgundy and purple, which complement some scatter cushions on the sofa.

I’m very pleased with the result. Excellent well controlled bass, and much cleaner in the mids than my previous room.

David.

whsturm posted:

No quarter posted:

whsturm posted:

I also found that good isolation under speakers, the equipment rack and my turntable (in a room with a hard wooden floor) considerably tightened bass and removed the 'bloom' which I previously had. I used a combination of Isoacoustics Gaia, Netpoint SSC and Soundcare Superspikes. There are many others too including Townshend (apologies moderator if mentioning brands is inappropriate - I have offered a fair spectrum and I'm not attempting to advertise any one specifically!).

Funny you mention the Isoacoustics GAIAs.i Just received my GAIA 111s yesterday,and will be installing them under my Dynaudio XD 600s this weekend.I am hoping that they deliver as promised,a fairly cheap tweak,all things considered.I also use Viscoustics wavewood panels in my room(9),and I have their diffuser panels(6),and a bunch of their flexiwall absorbers placed behind my speakers,and at first reflection points.These panels really helped my room,which has hardwood floors,my next step is going to be a nice thick throw rug.The diffusers are all on the rear wall,behind my listening chair.

 

 

 

 

I'm sure you know this but the GAIAs are directional and need the logo either facing forward or backwards. They have interesting 'puck' bottoms that stick to my wooden floors adding a bit of motion stability against being slid by accident which is useful. I found that they tightened the bass so effectively that I needed to move my speaker position to rebalance the sound in light of room acoustics (but, irrespective, the bass bloom has disappeared).  One of my better upgrades I believe.

I have the GAIA 111s installed under my XD 600s...Wow!,incredible upgrade for under 500 bucks.Bass is now incredibly tight,more focused,the speakers completely dissapeared.Highly recommended upgrade if you have floorstand speakers.

I will add that I had previously gone down the DIY route, with 8 inch deep corner traps, 1200 x 600mm, made per the bbc R&D specs, and covering with GIK acoustic cloth. Having spent several hundred pounds on numerous panels it did make a difference to the room. However, I eventually took room readings both with and without the panels in the room as part of the data submitted to GIK. Shockingly, the feedback was that they were having minimal impact (demonstrated through analysis that GIK did).

On receiving my 1st order of soffit panels, just having 2 of the soffit traps in the room, had by far significant more  impact than all of my DIY panels put together (so these were taken apart for wood for the log burner). Hence, by the time I had all 4 in the room, this led me to rethink and invest in further panels.  I can honestly say that the professionally built panels are superior in every way, and do as described with the frequency ranges, very effectively.

It is true that you don’t want to kill the acoustics in the room, so room treatment should be carried out in stages, ensuring the appropriate type of treatment along the way. Highly recommended, made all the easier obtaining wife approval by having a dedicated listening room. Not sure I would have got away with it so easily if it was for the main living room.