[MaxCast]

I see systems with many thousands of dollars spent on gear and not a whole lot on room treatments.  Have you tried room treatments?  Personally I have only used a fairly large fake plants (came with the house) behind my sm6.9's but I have ordered some pannels from Danny and hope to add them to the wall behind the speakers.

What treatments have you used/tried and which have made the most improvement?

[Ferdi]

I have recently added some paintings to my living room. Real oil on canvas. That tames the room a bit. It is still too live and I should have something absorbing behind my speakers. I think at some point I will follow Klaus Bunge's suggestion and get some plants.

[markC]

I have diy bass traps in the corners, (front and back), and a large heavy wool tapestry on the wall behind the speaks, (thanks to old auntie what's her name), and sonex panels on the side walls. Each addition provided a sutble, noticable improvement. Most prominant being the bass traps.

[MaxCast]

I have diy bass traps in the corners, (front and back), and a large heavy wool tapestry on the wall behind the speaks, (thanks to old auntie what's her name), and sonex panels on the side walls. Each addition provided a sutble, noticable improvement. Most prominant being the bass traps.

I figured those would be the most effective.  The harder to build ugly ones.

I don't know if you guys saw the Danny Richie/GR Researcdh post, but he is selling some room treatment stuff CHEAP!!

I have some coming too.  Maybe I didn't order enough   I have enough for the front but.......maybe a couple here and a couple there.....

[JohnR]

As I understand it, by themselves the foam squares won't absorb much bass, you would need to build a trap for that.

I'm a bit sceptical about the plant thing... Ferdi I will be interested to hear how you go.

Here's a link to the Jon Risch DIY room treatment recipes

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/a.htm

[Hantra]

I use a Michael Green Pressure Zone controller for each corner.  They do very well, although they are not ideal.  They are the best out there IMO, but I am going to be building my own.

I used to have close to 15 PZC's throughout my room, and they did good things, but they took more AWAY from the music than they gave me.  In a bad room, they will work wonders, but in a good room, they absorb too much music.  

Be careful with absorbent treatments, and remember. . . Just because it sounds DIFFERENT doesn't mean it's BETTER.

That's easy to forget in this game. .

B

[nathanm]

Having an expensive stereo in a bare, empty room is kinda like using the finest oil paints and natural hair brushes money can buy to make a painting on a piece of old newspaper!  

I think room treatment has an effect not only on the physics of the sound, but on your mood.  If the room isn't comfortable and inviting, why would anyone wanna sit and listen to music in it?

Room symmetry is equally as critical I've discovered.  This is probably the hardest thing to achieve unless you designed your own home that is.  Most living spaces are not condusive to hifi matters.  I know that my living room sounds worse than my spare bedroom, which I am in the process of redoing with foam treatments. (ran outta money!) The living room is very uneven and has three openings which I cannot control.  There's also more furniture in there for sound to bounce off of in bizarre ways.  The bedroom can be totally closed off though, and this makes a positive difference.  The speakers should be lined up as centered as possible within the space.

I don't have any bass problems yet, but there's plenty of ugly slap echoes in the untreated room.  I spent a fair amount of change on Auralex foam.  Visually the spikes are right up my alley, but I can see how many folks would not want it in their house, not to mention spousal issues.  Absorbing all that "ambient noise" really made the room feel cozier even though there's hardly anything in it.  You could probably do this cheaper by using some kind of fabric curtains or similar.  

My next step is to try diffusion elements.  I like the look of RPG skyline whatchamacallits, but those nutty things are like 400 bucks a crack.  Give me a break.  I'm thinking a nice hot wire cutting jig and a few sheets of styrofoam oughtta do the trick.  Ahh yes, another unfinished project to add to my list!  Auralex has a great number of cool items, but like I said they are a bit spendy.  The "Metro" stuff is a bit more conservatively styled.

[Jay S]

Good point, Maxcast.

I had zero room treatment for a long while.  About 2 months ago I got 2 Echobuster panels to go behind the main speakers and 4 Cornerbusters.  They really helped to tame an echo that I had in the room (slap echo) and made the overall sound more relaxed.  Have also just hung a 3 ft wide soap stone sculpture on the wall behiind my listening position - I imagine it will help a bit with diffusion.  Boomy bass is not a problem in my room/system, so the Echobusters (which are foam and don't absorb low bass) are fine.  Actually, my system was boomy at one point but switching preamps, amp and putting in better cables (and now a dac) have fixed that.

[tmd]

I started with a bare basement which had the sonic qualities of a tin can. I first put two layers of heavy carpet underlay on the concrete which was a massive improvement (1.5" thick too)
I then covered all the metal ducting with old quilts which helped some. The single biggest improvement was probably building a pair of Decware CWALS. These really cleaned up the bass which I didn't think was all that bad until I heard the room with them in it.
Back to square one now in a new place with little hope of doing much for a while.

[Ferdi]

I won't be adding the plants for a while. My company has asked me to move. Still debating but not the time to acquire some large plants.

I now have put a rolled up carpet behind one of my speakers (in the corner) and will add another behind the other speaker. It somehow seems to make the sound more relaxed and bass a bit better defined.

It makes quite a subtle difference. I am sure that to non-audionuts, it would not make any difference.