Chronicle of room treatments to equip room with the ability to play HT at reference levels

[liverpool_for_life]

I'll say one one thing though that is a definite downside to fixing the bass decay time in my room. It's that whatever ringing is still left sounds so offensive! Rather this problem though than what I had before

 

[liverpool_for_life]

3 bass traps at the front of the room on the floor just doesn't work from a practical standpoint. Also, I finally got rid of the mental block that stopped me from placing a couple of the bass traps at the rear corners (this effectively means that I can't do treatment around the rear overheads). Moving 2 of the bass traps to the rear corners, to go with 2 at the front corners, has had a profound impact.

Except for a place or two, audible ringing has virtually gone away with the lessening of decay times in the bass and mid-bass. More details, especially in the highs in songs that I'm pretty familiar with in my setup. No measurements yet, but vocals for stereo are much more open (didn't realize how constricted they had been before, much more front and center now) and dialogue intelligibility for the center has seen a significant improvement. So much so that one of my girls, who cannot watch a movie without subtitles, went through almost an entire movie (Sonic The Hedgehog 2) without even realizing they weren't on. That's the kind of perceived subjective change, virtually bordering on the objective, that's a real win!

My room has needed a lot of treatment, but these bass traps are right up there in terms of impact on SQ. Highly recommended!

p.s. Don't waste time like I did. Put them in the corners first up and enjoy better sound from the get go.

 

[sud98]

My room has needed a lot of treatment, but these bass traps are right up there in terms of impact on SQ. Highly recommended!

Truly speaking these are broadband absorbers than bass traps. If you see the specs they really start working from 250 Hz as they are only 6inches in depth. However, they will help you in ringing sound but not truly as bass traps.

For bass traps you need to have atleast 1 to 2 feet deep depth and all 4 corners covered from floor to ceiling and possibly more bass traps in other places if you can manage.

 

[liverpool_for_life]

Truly speaking these are broadband absorbers than bass traps. If you see the specs they really start working from 250 Hz

The specs actually say from 40 - 250 Hz. These are range-limited, not broadband. And while 40 Hz is extremely generous, these are pretty effective 80 Hz and above as I showed here.

However, they will help you in ringing sound but not truly as bass traps.

I care far more about the effects to the sound than nomenclature, TBH. Multiple subs and their integration (EQ and delay) is pretty much all I have for 80 Hz and below in my room. For the range above that till around 300 Hz, these have improved things significantly, even if it is only in the time domain. The difference in the sound once 4 of these was installed in the corners is pretty dramatic, regardless of the name attached to them.

My "Highly recommended!" was intended to get folks to be interested enough to take a serious look at these and see if it makes sense for them in their setup. I can't imagine an untreated room (or even one with broadband absorption) that wouldn't likely benefit, but to each his own.