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Single most effective electronic room treatment?

I have a listening room bordering between small and medium size, measuring 16'x 13'x 7'2" high.

Construction is 18th century timber frame, plaster over lath, with crown moldings and square corner beams exposed. One wall is paneled (with two paneled doors) flanking a recessed brick fireplace and tile hearth. Two walls are exterior, each with one window which is covered with a lightweight, translucent scrim curtain. Rug and 1/2" padding cover 90% of the floor. There are a couple of bureaus, a large palm plant and a U- shaped melamine work table, necessitated by combining office and listening room.

Until recently components have been in a Michael Green-type clamp rack made of 2 1/8" laminated MDF which I will reconfigure as an isolation stand for my TT.

The arrival of a top loading CD player will render the clamp rack redundant.

I've experimented a bit with physical first reflection treatments on the walls and ceiling.

What *electronic* device have you found --and kept in your own listening roon-- that would make the greatest difference in the room's *MUSICALITY*?

Is placement an issue? What has your experience been?

I'm considering Acoustic Revive options, particularly the RR-77 (anyone have one for sale?) and its siblings, but am open to the experience pool of the GoN.

Thank you
128x128cdk84
egoss
124 posts
 
Two recommendations are to turn off your computer and refrigerator for serious listening. They are both free, and will make a huge difference. If you still have room problems, experiment seriously with speaker placement, or replacement. To buy an electronic device to cure your system's shortcomings is just plain wasting money. You don't mention what you have for equipment, but I suspect you're trying to make the Silk Purse out of the proverbial sow's ear. Just my opinion of course, but I'd rather buy music than another pice of equipment to get in the way of the original signal. But I'm just an old-school guy who enjoys his system without tone controls of any kind.
Best of luck in your search for more enjoyment from your Hi-fi.
samujohn's avatar
samujohn
291 posts
 
I don't usually do a follow up posting, but Egoss, like most folks, does not appear to understand active digital room correction. I admit, it requires a little thought, and there are other room corrections options besides the one I suggest, but active equalization for this purpose has nothing to do with tone controls, or the quality of the "other" equipment used or the modification of the "original" signal. It is more analogous to using an RIAA correction curve when playing a phonograph record. The exact point is to reproduce the recording as intended.
danlib1
819 posts
 
I owned the TacT unit, worked with it for months. While it made a difference in all the expected ways, it did slightly inhibit transparency. Some will claim that I must not have set the unit up correctly, or tried to settle for simple setup. In reality, I worked hard with the unit, and I am no idiot.

When the dust all settled, an expensive analog room treatment approach using 16 inch ASC tube traps and diffraction and absorption devices made the difference I was looking for. Sold the TacT, never looked back.
rodman99999
6,008 posts
 
I'd been an active bi-amping, straight-wire-with-gain guy for over 30 years, and was about nothing, if not transparency(I listen to live acoustic music every week, at least twice per). Colorations iritate me, no end. I'm now a devout TacT RCS 2.2X user, and can't consider looking back. The MauiMods power supply and unfiltered IEC assembly made a major improvement in the unit's transparency and dynamic potential. If you've not tried them: you've not heard of what a TacT RCS is capable. I've had Aurlex treatment in my listening rooms for years, and there's no comparison to what the TacT RCS can do. The Auralex DOES make the job easier for the TacT. The better the room to start with: The better the end result w/correction. The Tact will tweak your first arrival times and response to a "T". I use a DEQ-2496's 6th octave RTA, and the TacT's pink noise generator, to test the steady state response of the room. That combo gives all the flexiblity one could ever require for accurate musical reproduction(given a reasonable room/well resolving system to start with). Of course- your results are very dependent on proper speaker placement/choice, the ambience recovery/sound staging potential of the rest of the system, etc.
dgaylin
255 posts
 
Very interesting and informative thread. One question -- rather than modding the TACT units, have any of you tried to use a very nice external DAC instead and then go to an analog pre-amp?

A special thank you to Jeffb28451 for one of the most thoughtful discussions on this issue. I've been trying to learn about -- and decide whether to take the plunge on -- a TACT unit for some time now, and this really helped.
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