Acoustic Properties of different colour curtains.

‘Inky black’ is the only curtain colour of choice for the serious audiophile, surely.

G

Wow ! March flew by so quickly ! Time really flies. It's already 1st April.

And on the subject, I find that when I play 'Mull of Kintyre'  it sounds better using tartan curtains. It's the synergy I suppose.

I’d suggest that it’s not the colour of the curtains per se that is important, but how well they synergise with other components of your acoustic space. I believe there is a very real impact here - I switched my curtains to blue, and my ethernet cables to AudioQuest Vodka, which are also blue. With the curtains closed there is a much greater impact from the blue cable than when either the curtains or cable are red. It’s great that this issue has been brought to wider attention. 

Not just curtains. The tasseled curtain tie backs, cushions and of course the colour of your slippers/socks need to be considered.

Damn that's where I am going wrong. We have strippey curtain with the stripes in a different fabric to the main body. Need to convince the misses they need to go. 

It is one challenge I find with the new Uniti series. I have carefully synergised downstairs and my curtains and rug work well with the green lights of the Olive and black boxes. Upstairs I was assuminng that my white blinds would work well with the white light on the Nova, but I've realised that this synergy is destroyed by the colour screen on the front. Fortunately starting  every listening session with the White Album seems to get the synergy flowing and subsequent albums are OK, unless I make the mistake of playing Back in Black after which a complete reset is required.

I've just repainted the listening room with some nice Farrow and Ball paint. I'm not sure if it's the new colour, or the outrageous price of the stuff, but it makes the music sound much better. I'm hoping for an even bigger improvement when the new sofa arrives tomorrow.

This is all getting silly. I’ll avoid using the  audiophile or naim words with my friends now. 

Green represents growth, expansion, flexibility and the impulse for life. 

Red represents consciousness, intelligence, spirit and expression.

Yellow represents the centre, coming and going.

White represents contraction, maturation and harvest.

Black represents hidden potential, the material form that is the embodiment of expression.

Colour is everywhere in nature: the unique properties of foods are often defined by their colour. 

Different colours could possibly have different harmonics.

SJB, Good luck with your experiment. Minh

Excellent topic and much neglected on the Forum.

A lot of these designer houses you see on telly in programmes like grand Designs, are curtain free zones, naked in the window apparel area. How do they sound?

thebigfredc posted:

A lot of these designer houses you see on telly in programmes like grand Designs, are curtain free zones, naked in the window apparel area. How do they sound?

Terrible because usually (if anything) they have a Apple HomePod or Amazon Alexa thingy for music.

The difference between curtains can be night and day, and can really improve inky blackness (especially with blackout curtains).

After many years dedicated research into the subject I can confirm that red wine makes everything better. White is ok, but red = good.

Eloise posted:

thebigfredc posted:

A lot of these designer houses you see on telly in programmes like grand Designs, are curtain free zones, naked in the window apparel area. How do they sound?

Terrible because usually (if anything) they have a Apple HomePod or Amazon Alexa thingy for music.

You’ve sometimes only got to hear the people talk in the rooms to hear how very echoey they are, and must be very muddying playing recorded music in them. That said, it is very rare to see any evidence of a hifi system - although coincidentally a programme last night was an exception, with a pair of B&W 800s standing proudly in front of the single-pane glass wall, close to the concrete side walls ...and not a soft bit of furnishing or acoustic absorbent panel in sight. 

Innocent Bystander posted:

Eloise posted:

thebigfredc posted:

A lot of these designer houses you see on telly in programmes like grand Designs, are curtain free zones, naked in the window apparel area. How do they sound?

Terrible because usually (if anything) they have a Apple HomePod or Amazon Alexa thingy for music.

You’ve sometimes only got to hear the people talk in the rooms to hear how very echoey they are, and must be very muddying playing recorded music in them. That said, it is very rare to see any evidence of a hifi system - although coincidentally a programme last night was an exception, with a pair of B&W 800s standing proudly in front of the single-pane glass wall, close to the concrete side walls ...and not a soft bit of furnishing or acoustic absorbent panel in sight. 

 

Yes I saw that. The previous week, one of the places had a pair of large Wilson Audio speakers fully surrounded by glass. Still makes a change to see some decent audio kit - most of these places seem to have a TV but music seems to be absent apart from a lifestyle satellite / sub system. 

Give me a cosy room with a nice system anyday, but I'd be happy with the view past those B&W's (and the fully stocked garage !) ...

This risks opening up a whole new debate on wallpaper and the paint on skirting boards too. I find Dulux lowers the noise floor way more convincingly than Crown. And if you get the colour mixed up specially (and preferably colour matched to "Naim Olive") it's night and day. Wow!

Sloop John B posted:

 

We have gleaned that PB has grey curtains. These are not ones I have heard personally but one of the more astonishing revelations in this strange hobby was when I changed an insipid green pair of curtains for a rich burgundy set. Well jaw drop, night and day, old curtains sounded broken, black box upgrade - take your pick, the difference was astounding. And of course the beauty is that the effect is evident through many other upgrades. I’ve gone from 282/250 at the time to a 552/300 now and at each step of the ladder the curtains certainly held their own bringing previously unheard aspects of the sound to the fore. 

 

We did an awful lot of testing before we decided on the grey curtains, my old red ones were well past the date for re-capping and servicing so we thought it was time for a change.

When I was still living in Turin I knew a guy, several degrees beyond basic OCD, who had a small foyer communicating with the living room in which he kept the system. In this foyer there was a closet to hang coats and keep umbrellas, and the like. One evening he wanted me attentive while he changed type, weight, number of coats in the closet with its doors shut, to show me how tiny difference in sound appeared in the adjacent room. One evening I was there with my wife and he asked her please not to seat on that pouf, strategically placed in free space in the room, because of sonic balance... All this in a monotone, deadly serious, matter-of-factly voice tone. 

You think you're joking, but audiphilia is quite simply a pastime for weird people.

.... Or you were not joking..?

Man, its been a slow day for me, it only registered as a joke by the time I got to the forth reply, thinking the entire time this community has really gone bat shiz crazy.

Polarbear posted:

Sloop John B posted:

 

We have gleaned that PB has grey curtains. These are not ones I have heard personally but one of the more astonishing revelations in this strange hobby was when I changed an insipid green pair of curtains for a rich burgundy set. Well jaw drop, night and day, old curtains sounded broken, black box upgrade - take your pick, the difference was astounding. And of course the beauty is that the effect is evident through many other upgrades. I’ve gone from 282/250 at the time to a 552/300 now and at each step of the ladder the curtains certainly held their own bringing previously unheard aspects of the sound to the fore. 

 

We did an awful lot of testing before we decided on the grey curtains, my old red ones were well past the date for re-capping and servicing so we thought it was time for a change.

Hi Polarbear, I thought that you preferred greenish kind of curtains:

1

ChrisSU posted:

I've just repainted the listening room with some nice Farrow and Ball paint. I'm not sure if it's the new colour, or the outrageous price of the stuff, but it makes the music sound much better. I'm hoping for an even bigger improvement when the new sofa arrives tomorrow.

We just did our room in F&B ‘Skimming Stone’...I hope I haven’t messed up the acoustics!

G

Dan.S posted:

 this community has really gone bat shiz crazy.

If want to see that then you want this thread ...  https://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/comrade-corbyn

GraemeH posted:

ChrisSU posted:

I've just repainted the listening room with some nice Farrow and Ball paint. I'm not sure if it's the new colour, or the outrageous price of the stuff, but it makes the music sound much better. I'm hoping for an even bigger improvement when the new sofa arrives tomorrow.

We just did our room in F&B ‘Skimming Stone’...I hope I haven’t messed up the acoustics!

G

If you don't like it, try their Churlish Green - but if you don't like the result, keep it to yourself!

I can confirm that colour doesn’t make a blind (or curtain) bit of difference. What really matters is material type, density, ratio of width of curtain to window aperture, length and most of all whether they’re open or drawn closed. 

With so many variables there’s at least a PhD thesis worth of testing, analysis and academic research here. 

I wonder what colour curtains were favoured by the late Peter Belt?