Hello, take a look at my room, I am obsessed also. You should be! This was the biggest improvement I have done to my system. If you are really serious about good sound and hearing your components this it the final frontier. I would say though that if I had to do it over again I would have done the room first, before buying any equipment! I was never on the component merry-go-round which is perhaps even more telling. I have owned Acoustats for over twenty years and have heard them in my various houses and rooms with different equipment. I know what they sound like with and without room treatment and in different sounding rooms and different equipment. While the overall sonic signature of the speakers is a constant, the vast majority of improvement was from room treatment. It improved the bass reproduction, imaging, clarity and including high freq response. All of these improvement and others, are simply not obtainable through equipment changes. Bob
Obsessed with room acoustics
I've been involved in audio for perhaps twenty five years now, could be described as an audiophool for the last ten. In all these years I have never had an issue that has consumed me more than the room acoustics in my present dedicated listening room.
Specifically, a number of years ago I became aware of a channel inbalance, essentially more air and spaciousness in one channel vs. the other. I determined this channel inbalance was due to room asymetry after both trying different equipment and reversing channels.
Over the years I tried to adjust for this asymetry through endless experimentation with acoustic treatments (RPG, Echobusters), both diffusion and absorption. While there was definite improvement, I only became more frustrated and obsessed with the remaining inbalance, at least part of every listening session involved readjusting acoustic treatments.
Finally, the frustration drove me over the edge, I determined the only way to rid myself of the inbalance was to treat the source, in other words, redesign the room. I recently tore out all the walls that created the room aysmetry, I even went to the extreme of perfectly balancing out room furnishings. Of course, the acoustic treatments are perfectly balanced as well!
Finally, I have nearly perfectly balanced soundstaging and imaging. Nearly perfect I say, there still remains some asymetry on the rear wall :-)
I guess the point I'm trying to make is how amazed I am by this obession, no other parameter of sound (perhaps bass boom) has managed to obsess me so. I guess I'm jealous of those who can listen contendly in environments much less conducive to the perfect soundstaging and imaging I now require.
I too, listened contendly for years in much lesser rooms, it seems the psycholgical needs of a perfectionist audiophool displaced normal listening behavior. While I am now content with my listening, perhaps another issue may arise, any audiophile doctors in the house?
Now that I think of it, has anyone ever heard of psychologists that treat audiophilia :-)
Specifically, a number of years ago I became aware of a channel inbalance, essentially more air and spaciousness in one channel vs. the other. I determined this channel inbalance was due to room asymetry after both trying different equipment and reversing channels.
Over the years I tried to adjust for this asymetry through endless experimentation with acoustic treatments (RPG, Echobusters), both diffusion and absorption. While there was definite improvement, I only became more frustrated and obsessed with the remaining inbalance, at least part of every listening session involved readjusting acoustic treatments.
Finally, the frustration drove me over the edge, I determined the only way to rid myself of the inbalance was to treat the source, in other words, redesign the room. I recently tore out all the walls that created the room aysmetry, I even went to the extreme of perfectly balancing out room furnishings. Of course, the acoustic treatments are perfectly balanced as well!
Finally, I have nearly perfectly balanced soundstaging and imaging. Nearly perfect I say, there still remains some asymetry on the rear wall :-)
I guess the point I'm trying to make is how amazed I am by this obession, no other parameter of sound (perhaps bass boom) has managed to obsess me so. I guess I'm jealous of those who can listen contendly in environments much less conducive to the perfect soundstaging and imaging I now require.
I too, listened contendly for years in much lesser rooms, it seems the psycholgical needs of a perfectionist audiophool displaced normal listening behavior. While I am now content with my listening, perhaps another issue may arise, any audiophile doctors in the house?
Now that I think of it, has anyone ever heard of psychologists that treat audiophilia :-)