So, is the room the most important component of your HiFi Set up?
- Thread starter Analogous
- Start date
like a queens collar maybe 
Yelamanchili manohar
Well-Known Member
I don't want to sound like iam screaming from the roof tops. And I do understand that most of us, don't have the liberty to add room treatments to our domestic spaces. After all they all look utterly disgusting. I just managed to juggle my rooms here and there. And got my wife's grace points for a year of good behaviour, ( Thanks to covid, no late night parties with my chaddi dosts's of 28 years
) So finally got this room to myselves ( And i usually end up sleeping on the carpet for atleast 4 days a week, it is a different story why ) Sounded horrible to start with, an echo chamber if you may. Immense bass boom to add to the cacophoney.So I started with room treatment,. Everything you see in the pics, is done by myself. And with absolutely no wood working skills. I bought the tools off amazon and got to work.i spent about 80k in materials, and a month of elbow grease intermittently. There is about 550 kgs of bass absorption in the room now ( dont ever believe in those 4 inch thick bass panels. They dont have enough mass to really address bass and decay times ). And with just 4 normal absorbers at first reflection points on the side walls. And after all the hard work, when I first switched on my system. I was utterly blown. I would call it a 60% improvement in sound.
I've tried a few bits of kit in my room, speakers, dacs, cables...I think they made a 5% difference in the end sound. But costed a ton lot more. But my room treatment has been an eye opener. My room treatment is not done yet, and I will be at it , for a full year more. So anyone who has a dedicated room should certainly attempt this cost effective path to nirvana.
Last edited:
liverpool_for_life
Well-Known Member
So, it was you then? I thought I heard another voice that wasn't mine...
@Yelamanchili manohar
No woodworking skills?? Surely you jest
And what an amazing setup! Surely worth all the time and effort you’ve put into the room, to get the best out of them.
Do share some details of the system, perhaps here or in a dedicated thread. Some of us enjoy listening vicariously
No woodworking skills?? Surely you jest
And what an amazing setup! Surely worth all the time and effort you’ve put into the room, to get the best out of them.
Do share some details of the system, perhaps here or in a dedicated thread. Some of us enjoy listening vicariously
@coaltrain shared this in another thread.
It starts slow but persist for a very interesting technique that is free.
It starts slow but persist for a very interesting technique that is free.
deeps007
Member
It's also bcoz there are not too many people who have acoustically treated rooms. Majority of us don't/can't have fully acousticaly treated rooms.
I haven’t yet heard a properly treated room, so cannot really say whether a good room helps. But I know for a fact that some rooms can just destroy the sound quality.
Last week I shifted my QA 3030i from living room to my bedroom. Was shocked to hear them as the bass had all disappeared and the mids and highs were no fun at all. Same setup sounds really great in my living room.
I’m going to take some time out on weekends and fire up rew to check what’s happening in my bedroom.
Last week I shifted my QA 3030i from living room to my bedroom. Was shocked to hear them as the bass had all disappeared and the mids and highs were no fun at all. Same setup sounds really great in my living room.
I’m going to take some time out on weekends and fire up rew to check what’s happening in my bedroom.
Yelamanchili manohar
Well-Known Member
A system can only be as resolving, as the room will allow it to be. I have stopped upgrading components. And as I improve my room, iam unlocking massive hidden gains, which were being masked by the room. These gains are bigger than any speaker or component change. It is almost like a completely new improved system in the room. I will be starting my phase 2 room treatment with absorption and diffusion during these summer vacations. Will continue posting in my old thread "So I start treating my room tomorrow".
Yelamanchili manohar
Well-Known Member
What a coincidence
... Ive been using that very track for my speaker placement. I saw that video a few years back. And it works for imaging. But nothing else, as there is no sound stage width or bass in the track. Only helps to get a solid center image in my opinion.
Somehow room treatment never worked for me. Maybe because I have EQ my speakers to not require them. The moment I add anything to damp the sound, it gets compressed too much. My room is 60% reflective and 20% absorbing and may be 20% diffusing. I am cool with this SQ wise.
While room treatment is good and necessary, without a proper idea or help of an acoustician, it's a lot of trial and error. I had plenty room treatment but not necessarily better sound as a result. Had to remove quite a bit of it and/or change up and place it strategically(again, the strategy was as a result of trial and error) before it sounded right.
Yelamanchili manohar
Well-Known Member
Fully agree with that. After experimenting with some absorption panels in 2021, I abandoned the endeavour as I needed to read and learn more on the subject, rather than just experiment on a trial and error basis. But the more I read, the more confusing it got. But within all the mumbo jumbo and half veiled disclosures, there were some rules of thumbs and do's & don't ive managed to decipher. And now feel I can experiment with some degree of expectation, though it will still largely be a trial and error
Buy from India's official online dealer!
Similar threads
