Acoustics are everything

hey everyone
I have a relatively well treated listening room. meaning that I have a free reflective zone (FRZ), aka all my early reflections points are treated with big panels. Its not pretty, but I have found that a FRZ room is a big improvement for SQ

Last week, my girlfriend for some reasons we wont delve into here, decided it would be a good idea to hang off my cloud (panel placed on the early reflection point of the ceiling). My cloud fixings of course couldnt hold my GF weight and now I have to live without a cloud for a while.

Well, having had a cloud in my listening room for many years now, I didnt realize how much Ive gotten used to low room colorations. Right now, listening to my speaker system without a cloud is really not as enjoyable. Removing the cloud is incredibly obvious. the imaging is now unpinned, inner details and resolution is obviously reduced, its as if the focus of the imaging and sound have been screwed.

Anyways, I thought it would be interesting for people here. If anyone here are unsure if its worth it or not to get acoustic treatment, dont worry and get panels asap. They really do help!

 

I agree. Just trying out my first acoustic panels, handed by my dealer to try out (I advise anyone looking into this to try out some real panels from a dealer and not some fleeces or blankets on a wall because these are not comparable at all to proper panels and might give you the wrong idea about acoustic treatments, it did to me initially).
I am sitting about 3ft. from my back wall so he suggested a panel combining absorption/diffusion and it works wonders. It gives me this nice 'balloon' soundstage where the sound fills the room, when I take it away it all falls a bit flat so it is definitely going to stay. Just have to pick a colour/size...

 

Absolutely agree with everything you said. But you shouldn't have mentioned your GF hanging off the cloud. Now I need to know, you kinky sod !

 

Dang! Now I need to get some clouds. I recently installed GIK panels (detailed in another room treatment thread).

Guide me with room treatment pls: Layout / Panels / Bass Traps

I couldn’t afford/get away with ceiling panels … then. Maybe I can sneak some in sometime …

Totally agree now about treatment being a good thing. Increased resolution, veils lifted, etc.. Soundscape seems more tangible, palpable … nice.

 

Yeah, the GF hanging from the ceiling comment really piqued my interest.

The thing about ceiling panels is, if they match the ceiling color, people don't notice them unless I point them out.

 

"last night I saw a naked cowgirl she was floating across the ceiling" You and zztop have something in common!

 

You're right! My dungeon, with all those metal chains n' all, doesn't sound near as nice as my living room.

 

Now i want a cloud panel! a good sturdy one....

 

Hey! you! get offah my cloud!

 

I can concur about the importance on treating the ceiling. I have just put these on first-reflection points on the ceiling in my listening room: Flat Panel PET - Vicoustic

They really made a positive difference. Much more than the panels on my walls (some more Vicoustic Flat Panels and four GIK Polyfusors), which frankly disappointed. I already had an inkling that the ceiling panels would be good bc I had tried to temporarily put polystyrene diffusors on first-reflection points on the floor, and that made a big positive difference.

I can highly recommend the Vicoustic Flat Panels for both wall and ceiling mounting. The come in different colors, and can be attached with velcro tape that's included in the box. Just don't put them right next to each other, as they are difficult to align flush.

I'm now looking for some kind of thicker rug(s) that doesn't look awful to put on the first-reflections points on the floor.

 

Agreed on importance of ceiling treatments.

I just added two GIK Alpha6 absorber/ diffusers to the wall behind my listening spot.

nice improvement over the 2” thick Owens and Corning 703 DIY absorbers I had there for years. better bass due to 6” material that is more effective than OC 703. better 3D imaging too.

I wish more enthusiasts would give it a try. Treating the acoustic space is as important as the components one picks... more important really. Doesn’t make any difference what one runs if the sound waves are scrambled up by hard reflections.

 

all im going to say is that my listening "chair" is a queen bed.

 

so yeah, I literally cannot enjoy my speaker system right now without a cloud. Removing the cloud makes the music relatively messy. its as if the sound is overly exciting, diffused, just distracting to know all the small details gone.
back to my cans

literally laugh out loud

 

RT60 time ClapIR app (free, made by college profs and presented as an AES paper).
Should be ~ 0.25 x (V/100)^0.333
V = room volume in Cu meters

mine

 

Is that for cellphones ? Can't find it on Playstore. Apple-only maybe ?

 

Yes
Not sure

it says play store at the bottom of the link?
Maybe not there anymore?
ClapIR · Prem Seetharaman

 

¨ClapIR is available in the Play store¨ But I just can't find it on my Playstore

 

The room and the speakers are about 90-95% of the soundquality.

 

No

Not sure about 90% but easily over 50%
Source media and playback is 25% imo
Amplification 25%
Everything else is moot

 

Let's remove the speakers from the equation. Id say the room/speaker interaction is 95% responsible of sq

Take a speaker system and put it in a well treated room, then take that same system and put it in a bad room.

Or take a orchestra, remove it from the concert hall, and listen to that same orchestra in a hockey arena.

 

you are preaching to the choir

I lucked out, my room using crude methods measures well, and sounds great.
Not fatiguing in the least.
Dead quiet, dBA SPL 30

 

I have a 10'x4'x6" custom ceiling cloud loaded with a triple layer of 2" OC703 and hung a few inches off the ceiling at the primary reflection point of my front LRC trio. I built and installed it as part of a major overhaul of my room treatments almost a decade ago.



Much more recently I added four Atmos overhead channels. Now my Atmos fronts also benefit from the same ceiling cloud.



In any event, I am in 100% agreement with the OP's observations about the efficacy of this sort of treatment. To me, every time i see an install of great (expensive) gear in an untreated listening space, I see a most unfortunate loss of potential.

 

If we are talking about CD or digital streaming, I would never say over 5% (mostly 1-2%). Amplifier, good solid state that is big enough, less than 5%.

 

awesome! some room are definitely better then others. My previous room measured equalled and perfect down to 35hz smoothly, not my new room.

nothing stops you from making you great room into a even better room with treament! BTW, do you have freq. response measurements of your speakers with the mic placed at the listening position area with no smoothing?

 

the only stuff I have is phone app measurements:
Spectrum FFT
pink noise from test CD
freq sweeps 44.1/16
ClapIR RT60
The only smoothing is the FFT limit of 4096

This is an iPhone X mic at my listening position, from what I can tell dang accurate 40-14,000, rolls off at the extremes.