Why there is little focus on acoustics

[Hari Iyer]

At least my comments are coming for personal experience for many years, mostly from WIP listening rooms in exploration stages at friend's homes and once at my home as well.

That does not make it conclusive unless you have also considered others perspective as well. If you wish to listen and judge the other perspective as well then you should consider listening them as well - imo.

 

[square_wave]

That does not make it conclusive unless you have also considered others perspective as well. If you wish to listen and judge the other perspective as well then you should consider listening them as well - imo.

"Exploration stages" in my previous post meant that I have considered and listened "with" and "without" varying degrees of acoustic treatment in various rooms and have acquired some wisdom in that area as it applies to my taste and preferences. Did you mean something else when you said "other perspective"?

I also admit that some audiophiles experiment and completely dislike any form of acoustic treatment in their rooms. I totally respect that perspective as well.

 

[Hari Iyer]

@square_wave Have you listened a completely dead room and a completely live room?

I am not against any room treatment. But saying that room treatment is the only way to achieve sonic bliss - which I disagree.

As per my previous post, doing a diagonal room placement for speakers and listening position (like mine) you can completely avoid the first reflection reaching your ears. Also the speakers are facing both the front and rear wall in an angle, so any standing waves in mid and high frequency is reduced. Reflections if used Judicously helps in spatial resolution and spaciousness. Managing the late rare reflections by careful placement of objects in the room helps in even dispersion of HF giving concert hall like expansive open sound. All these can be done without any purchase of any absorbant or diffuse materials. It just requires a proper review and approach to room treatment and not blindly following what others are doing.

If you wish to discover more, then PM me.

 

[square_wave]

Have you listened a completely dead room and a completely live room?

I am not against any room treatment. But saying that room treatment is the only way to achieve sonic bliss - which I disagree.

As per my previous post, doing a diagonal room placement for speakers and listening position (like mine) you can completely avoid the first reflection reaching your ears. Also the speakers are facing both the front and rear wall in an angle, so any standing waves in mid and high frequency is reduced. Reflections if used Judicously helps in spatial resolution and spaciousness. Managing the late rare reflections by careful placement of objects in the room helps in even dispersion of HF giving concert hall like expansive open sound. All these can be done without any purchase of any absorbant or diffuse materials. It just requires a proper review and approach to room treatment and not blindly following what others are doing.

If you wish to discover more, then PM me.

It is all science and totally agree with you that with experiments like diagonal placement and also judicious use of reflections helps with tweaking sound to one's preferences.

My views were all in the context of typical rectangular rooms where there is a side wall present in near vicinity and the usual way of placement of speakers firing into the room.

Placement science solves a lot of problems. The best way to approach acoustics treatment (if any) is to get your placement right as the first step. In some of my experiments, we had arrived at the best possible placement in the room possible. Once we achieved that, we tried various forms of judicious and careful placement of various types of panels on the wall. I preferred a certain type of panels on the wall in such a room / speaker configuration. It gave me the best balance of image focus and ability to hear into the soundstage with directional cues intact. Removal smeared all of it to a certain extent. I am sure a diagonal placement might yield a different result.

I really hate the sound when "excessive" first and second reflections reflect on blank hard surface side walls and reach my ears in a conventional room. Apart from the smearing, it affects the tonality of the speaker as well.

Looks like you have a different way of solving the issue. so, I admit we don't have a diverse opinion about the result after all.