Should Room Acoustics be an Audiogon ‘topic’?


The available topics on Audiogon do not include Room Acoustics. This area is as important as any other, and has a far greater impact on what we hear than amps, preamps, and cables put together, IMO. Does anyone know how to lobby to include it? Do I need to start a petition? ; )

tcutter

@tcutter, I have to laugh because you are 100% correct.  What I said could apply to virtually every aspect of this very subjective "hobby." I suppose that there is value in comparing components where the only variable is the component itself, so in the same system, swapping out X preamp for Y preamp gives some understanding of the differences that someone would hear, while I am not sure that the same is true for one bass trap vs another.

@tcutter I'm as surprised as you at some of the listening rooms i see with high end equipment and ignorance of the room itself--but in most instances it appears to me that WAF is the #1 consideration and will compromise everything, especially speaker location--i was amused at a fellow G'oner's comment above about putting wheels on your speakers so you could move them into position for listening and back to the corners for the spouse.  I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated listening room although it's small and not ideally dimensioned (but better than square) so i've set it up for nearfield listening and treated it as necessary with help from the late Jim Smith (RIP) who was the guru that first made me realize how important the room is.  Yes, novices need to understand the importance of the room but what happens next is usually "how can i make the best of the room i'm stuck with" and a partner whose priority is usually aesthetics over acoustics...

@moto_man 

Bass traps are not as diverse as electronics but there are different builds for different frequencies, some are more attractive than others, placement matters, etc.

You have a very nice system. Not knowing what bass traps you use, I imagine they do not do much below 100 Hz unless they are range-limited. While the one sub provides all the bass you may need or want, another sub or two would likely make a noticeable improvement in terms of reducing comb-filters and standing waves below your traps’ effective range.  If you can get one on loan, you might want to try it out. 

And then there are the active bass traps...

Emphatic yes! Dollar for dollar, it’s the best money I’ve spent on audio. I would, especially like to know more about using tools like REW to inform empirical decisions. My room was analyzed professionally, and I used REW to record the rooms properties at different stages of the installation. I learned a lot, but still not enough to do an installation from scratch.

@wyoboy 

I would have loved to have my speakers on wheels in my old set-up, except I couldn’t get past the notion that they would not provide a steady and immobile platform with all of the joints, so I went with gliders instead. I still had to move furniture so the speakers were the easy part. In an earlier post, I showed this set-up as before/after wife was home. It is what convinced me to go full-monty once I had a dedicated space. 

I am self-taught and have made mistakes and probably still have some in my future, but I can say it sounds far superior to doing nothing, even if some parts could be improved if I only knew how. I would have liked knowing there was a reference for advice and help besides from the vendors, who have an agenda ("GIK went wild"). I don’t think I have ever asked for thoughts on acoustics on this forum because it seems to be unimportant, which is reinforced by its absence as a topic. It does rise to the top in other forums, but many of them are downright nasty; you need to start with a graduate degree before they’ll deign to help.