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Room Treatments added, with negative effects..

Hi Folks:
I purchased a set of foam acoustic room treatments and set them up in my listening room. It now seems that the soundstage has collapsed somewhat, and the sound is less ambient, filling the room less. I'm wondering have I overdone the treatments, or placed them incorrectly or maybe I really just didn't need them to begin with. Can anyone offer any advice or thoughts?

I purchased 12 24inch by 24inch panels of ProFoam treatments from Audioadvisor.com which were pretty reasonable at about $150 for the set. I set up four panels behind the speaker position going from left to right at about 20 inches above the floor, and seven panels behind the listening position (three from left to right about 10 inches above the floor and the other four above those from left to right). Side positioning wasn't really possible because I have glass doors on one side and a corridor on the other.

My system is Audio Physic Virgo, Supratek Syrah pre, Blue Circle BC2 monos, Teres 135/OL Silver/Shelter 501mk2 vinyl rig.

I'm keen to hear any comments or advice on how I can improve my use of the room treatments, or whether I just need to scrap them. Thanks!
Outlier.
128x128outlier
pbb
1,140 posts
 
The first thing that came to my mind was to remove the foam from behind the listening position and move it behind the speakers in order to enhance the LEDE aspect. The suggestion of trying to reduce the sidewall reflections by placing them there is also quite valid. Trial and error is the order of the day. The room is the most important factor in proper sound reproduction. Quite ordinary equipment can produce quite extraordinary results in a good environment, the converse, unfortunately is also quite true and often found. A variety of surfaces
sean
6,231 posts
 
You don't want to absorb the sound behind the listening position i.e. diffraction is much better there.

As far as the type of "room treatment devices" that you are working with, these do more harm than good due to their non-linear absorption characteristics. I would send them back to Audio Advisor and read up on the subject before wasting any more time and money. Sean
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PS... i think that there was a thread here on Agon regarding "biggest rip-off in audio" and i cast my vote for "Pro-Foam" type "room treatment devices". $5 ( at the very most ) for materials that they sell you for $100+ dollars and all it does is whack up your listening room. J-U-N-K !!!
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
From what I understand, AP speakers tend to be balanced for listening in the nearfield. How close is your sitting position to the speakers? If you are in the farfield with speakers balanced for the nearfield and then damp the room as well, the result could be overly-dead sound. Just a thought...but you should go into much more detail about your entire physical set-up than you have so far...
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Chairs with foam padding - a good example is the Ikea Puoang chair, otherwise an attractive & inexpensive chair - can have the same deleterious effect on sound in the room as Sonex & similar foam type wall treatments.
pbb
1,140 posts
 
... and of density in the materials used is required. Trial and error is called for. Diffraction on the wall behind the listening position is way better than absorption. (seems this portion was missing from my initial post, not that it matters, but)
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