What Comes First Sound Quality or Room Aesthetics?

Hi Bob,

For me, both sound quality and aesthetics of the room are equally important. Personally I don't think black boxes on an equipment rack and physical media destroy the aesthetics of the room. It's the opposite for me as I think they make the room look nicer and classier (particularly Naim equipment).

To me, It's the room treatment products such as acoustic panels and bass traps that ruin the aesthetics of the room. I have used artificial potted plants, thick curtains, rugs and other forms of furniture as as substitute instead.  Although they may not be as effective as aftermarket room treatment products they still manage to improve the sound of the system in the room, almost every time I've tried.

ryder. posted:

To me, It's the room treatment products such as acoustic panels and bass traps that ruin the aesthetics of the room.

Absolutely. Most of these products look horrible. First, people follow a minimalistic approach and remove everything from their room so that it looks like a large prison cell with a GBP 8000 designer chair, after that they add these panels. I'm sure it sounds better, but for me:

Room Aestetics first (America second).

SQ must be important for all of us here I would have thought. However, it needs to be as discrete as possible. I happen to like the look of my system. Boundary speakers certainly help in this regard.

Stu

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you look at the system pics thread, most who have posted there are happy with their room. But some have taken adherence to SQ to an extreme that for others (including myself), the room is so distracting that it would be very hard to spend time in there, let alone concentrate on music.

I think that given enough forward planning, especially when building a new home or renovating a property, a room can be designed to facilitate the desired key points of a listening room without appearing to do so.

Bob the Builder posted:

????would you compromise on SQ to keep your room more aesthetically pleasing?

 

???? Bob the Builder,...Short answer,..NEVER.!!

I use the term "room-tunning",it involves a combination of installing,optimizing the music system along with adjustments of furniture, carpets,paintings,curtains,large flowers etc,etc in relation to the loudspeakers and the music system.

◾Example: After making a "tunning" of the speakers,you make a "tunning" of different parts of the furniture.
Then after that,you go back to making a "tunning" of the speakers,....then back to the furniture etc...

Yes,you understand what I mean,..This takes time,perhaps one year before everything is optimally ????????????.
But I,..AND we who have done this,have never had to use "acoustic aids".

Yes,..I have tried such aids,even listened in completely Acoustics adapted rooms,rebuilt by professionals in the field of acoustics.
It may sound good,but something is always missing,...for example..The nerve,the liveliness, the natural dynamics.
◾Factors that I think are very important in the musical presentation.

/Peder ????

To me, sound quality very much comes first, not visual aesthetics. Of course some things simply don’t fit physically, whether absolute size-wise, or requirements for placement, while I have to take into account the fact that I am not the only user of the room, so some things that my wife, in particular, may regard as absolutely hideous, or far too intrusive, may be excluded - and here the consideration is primarily speakers, being physically the largest components by far, and being the ones with critical positioning and therefore inability to place in a less prominent position. With the exception of anything needing to be controlled by an IR remote, other kit could be secreted away if necessary, so appearance is not a deciding factor.

Aesthetics of course are very much a mattr of personal taste - what looks beautiful to one person can look hideous to another. That is as true in home furnishing as it is in visual art ...and hifi appearance. E.g. one speaker that interests me is the Ferguson-Hill FH001 (No idea what it sounds like, and needs a sub, but the concept appeals to me.) Quite large horn speakers ...but transparent so, if photos are to be believed, no-where near as obtrusive as their size might suggest. But my better half took one look at the same picture and declared that they look ugly and overbearing -  so if I was to discover that they sound good, I’d have a hard struggle trying to persuade!

Having family members staying a while and then moving the speakers so they could hear it clearer from the dining area is particularly troublesome to come back home to !

TOBYJUG posted:

Having family members staying a while and then moving the speakers so they could hear it clearer from the dining area is particularly troublesome to come back home to !

???? Tobyjug,....???????????? You Must Be Jokeing.!!

/Peder???? 

ryder. posted:

To me, It's the room treatment products such as acoustic panels and bass traps that ruin the aesthetics of the room. I have used artificial potted plants, thick curtains, rugs and other forms of furniture as as substitute instead.  Although they may not be as effective as aftermarket room treatment products they still manage to improve the sound of the system in the room, almost every time I've tried.

These days you can get panels printed with artwork of your choice, so although you can’t get away from the fact that the hanging picture is, 2, 4 or 6 inches thisk, or whatever, it need not be ugly. Bass traps are more difficult, particularly when needed in multiple corners including wall-ceiling - but with choice of materials they could be blended to look like part of the room itself. Of course, making them visually attractive or invisible may add significantly to cost - but then, if you have a system costing maybe several 10s of £1000s, and consider cables costing £1000s, spending a few £1000 on getting the room to not have a detrimental effect on sound quality doesn't seem inappropriate - and in some cases it can completely transform the sound.

For my living room things have to be aesthetically pleasing and harmonious to the surroundings. One Fraim stack neatly placed and a pair of Oak Shahinian Compass speakers that look and sound great. For my office system i'm slightly less bothered, but a pair of wall placed Linn Kabers and a UQ2 is hardly poor on the visual front. I've had plenty of ugly speakers pass through my room, but even if they improved on the sonics of the Shahinian, they'd never get to stay. Part of the whole relaxation, musical experience for me depends on a calm environment with which to enjoy it.

Yes of course there is a balance because of the people we live with and luckily like others have said above we do not find that a three shelf Hutter Rack and an LP12 on a wall shelf offensive nor the thousand or so records stored in plain site amongst the cubed storage shelves but I have to say if it all offended me then I would just put up with it as SQ is paramount.

I'm not putting the money and love into my music replay system that I do to then change it because fashion dictates it does not look good, all of us 20 years ago had multiple boxes and physical media on show and where happy to do so.

For us, aesthetics come first.  This has left me with a rather boomy listening room unfortunately.  Zero interest in fabric curtains (wooden blinds), and our art is mostly ceramics.  And our furniture tastes run to mid-century Danish modern.

A rug on the hard wooden floors would help, but our dog protests.  He will "use" a rug in that room (he gets mad when we leave him alone) and so that just hasn't worked out for us.

Curious isn’t it, people’s different tastes in homes! For a living room I can’t stand the echoey nature of a room that is all hard surfaces, much preferring the gentle hush from thickly carpeted floor, soft upholstery etc. I prefer curtains for the same reason but  in my listening room I have blinds instead of curtains, one doubling as a projector screen in front of a large window, the others blackout plastic-based fabric blinds, which aren’t absorbing as curtains but are more so than the windows behind. 

Has to meet minimum aesthetic standard* and from there it’s all about the sound.

*e.g. No mix of olive and black boxes, all l.e.d’s green or covered, single style of support etc. Big rack of vinyl in the lounge is fine..!

Room aesthetics not relevant in my book provided you can physically accommodate your chosen boxes, I’ve a stack of 5 in the corner and a NAPSC on the lower shelf of a small table in the centre of the speaker stands, works great but would struggle with any more boxes. Wooden floors. The thought of having to consider pets in all this seems crazy 

Calum Ferguson posted:

Room aesthetics not relevant in my book provided you can physically accommodate your chosen boxes, I’ve a stack of 5 in the corner and a NAPSC on the lower shelf of a small table in the centre of the speaker stands, works great but would struggle with any more boxes. Wooden floors. The thought of having to consider pets in all this seems crazy 

Goldfish?

I would think that an ideally acoustic room would provide a HUGE improvement over the compromised room that most of us have to live/work with. Never mind whether a room is live/dead sounding. I have no idea whether the den I use is acoustically ideal or not (it isn't) but it is the best room I have, and my (admittedly hodge-podge) treatments do the best that I can reasonably expect amid all the compromises that are involved. At the end of the day,I can listen and enjoy.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Calum Ferguson posted:

Room aesthetics not relevant in my book provided you can physically accommodate your chosen boxes, I’ve a stack of 5 in the corner and a NAPSC on the lower shelf of a small table in the centre of the speaker stands, works great but would struggle with any more boxes. Wooden floors. The thought of having to consider pets in all this seems crazy 

Goldfish?

They don’t have moods, don’t protest where you put them and most importantly no risk of making a god awful mess near your gear so goldfish: Approved

As in many things in life, a well thought out compromise unless you have a dedicated listening room. Rich 

Considering the amount of £s many have spent on the hifi, a few trips to a nice Art gallery and putting up some canvas paintings without frame and glass up on the walls would help.   This making the room both visually and acoustically better.

TOBYJUG posted:

Considering the amount of £s many have spent on the hifi, a few trips to a nice Art gallery and putting up some canvas paintings without frame and glass up on the walls would help.   This making the room both visually and acoustically better.

What ?! Unless you have Statement you are going to upgrade the hifi further not fritter the cash on bloody paintings

Somebody once said to me in relation to cars “if it looks good then it is good”.   

Calum Ferguson posted:

TOBYJUG posted:

Considering the amount of £s many have spent on the hifi, a few trips to a nice Art gallery and putting up some canvas paintings without frame and glass up on the walls would help.   This making the room both visually and acoustically better.

What ?! Unless you have Statement you are going to upgrade the hifi further not fritter the cash on bloody paintings

We all have different views on how to decorate our houses, but for me, if hanging a painting on the wall works for the room decor, I’ll do it. Even in a room that is more or less a dedicated listening room, the last thing I want is to make it feel like a dealer demo room. 

SWMBO agreed to me purchasing my hi-fi provided it would fit in an alcove that is 1.05m wide.

The only way this would work was for two custom size Hi-fi Racks Podium Reference racks, one just wide enough for full size equipment and one just wide enough for a Hi-Cap.

A single rack would have been too tall as it sits on a suspended wooden floor.

So, although my system is compromised to some extent by not using a better rack, it still sound excellent to my ears.

Also, "acoustic treatments" in the room are just a sheepskin rug, a large dog bed, vertical blackout blinds, two upholstered sofas and a large original painting. There's no room for anything like bass traps.

If you are married and your wife is happy with racks and black boxes, I have to wonder if you are the one who's tired of the look.