This is a review of the new Adapts Version 2's. After reading so much of how important it is to use room treatments, I decided to take the plunge. Man am I ever glad I did! As Hantra said before why would anyone that loves listening to music be without room treatments. It really does make a difference.. I looked at all the offerings out there and finally decided on the Eighth Nerve products mainly because they appeared to be unobstrusive. I also thought that these treatments had to be somewhat better than no treatments at all. I emailed Nathan and sent him pictures of my listening room which is 18 ft X 12ft. He responded back stating that I needed 4 triangles for the corners and 7 rectangles for both the horizontal and vertical walls. I ordered them and waited for the treatments to arrive. They showed up via Fed Ex and I anxiously took them out and proceded to install them. A word to the wise you will need one other person to help with the rectangles to hold them up so you can install them properly. As a fellow AC member Hantra has stated adjustment is crucial to the whole room treatments. Prior to installing the Adapts I listened to some Patricia Barber and Steely Dan as my reference to get an idea of comparision of having no treatments in the room I remember before installing the treatments I had decent sound but lots of echos. I knew that my music system could sound better especially the recent addition of adding a tube preamp. I had been used to the sound for so long I guess I didn't know any better. Was I in for a rude awakening! I even did the clap test (clapping my hands together) After the install of the Adapts I noticed BETTER defined tighter bass, soaring highs, decay of piano and vocals and deep , high, and wide soundstage (which I was blown away by the great soundstage because I have an enormous armoire that sits in the middle against my back wall and is flanked by my two speakers) I was in total disbelief at the difference in having these treatments in my room. The subtle nuances and more defined microdynamics was uncanny, I now can hear every vocal in the crucial parts of Pink Floyd's DSOTM. On Eric Clapton's Unplugged you can hear the audience shiffting in there seats ! The spot on imaging the deep tight bass that I knew my speakers were capable of was now there in spades. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture.. Oh yeah now when I did the clap test there is no echo whatsoever. I do not know how these things work and frankly I do not care, all I know these are not coming down and they are a permanent fixture in my listening room. Nathan did say I would get a total sound improvement.I would have been happy with a 25% improvement. It is in my opinion a 100% improvement. I would have to agree with Nathan's suggestions on the placements and the corrections it made in my room. Want further proof, A few days ago a local AC member F100 wanted to come by and hear my speakers and I told him about my Adapts, he also brought over his Blue Circle preamp to compare to my Modwright. We listened for a few hours and we swapped out the preamps, etc. Doing listening tests, etc. He was intrigued on what the treatments were made of and how could these small unobtrusive treatments help the room. Now all along we are listening to music and we decided to take off just one of the horizontal rectangles, the second we removed the rectangle there was an immediate pronounced boomy bass and muffled midrange in the Patricia Barber cd we were listening to, the minute we reinstalled the rectangle the music was back in order. F100 just stood there dumbfounded and said "These really do work and hearing is believing" he also said " Now I know what my system is missing" I just sat there and grinned.. One last thing I have the luxury of working out of my home I use my speakerphone to make calls to my clients. In the past my clients would complain that I sounded like I was talking in an echo chamber or tunnel. I thought it was the phone so I would purchase another phone same problem. I got frustrated and resorted to using a headset. After I installed the Adapts I decided to try again the speakerphone. Now when my clients call me and I speak THERE IS NO ECHO OR TUNNEL SOUND just clear, precise sound. Simply amazing!! Not only am I pleased with listening to music but also it is good for my loan business!!
To summarize because it is getting late... You will not be disapointed with these room treatments, you do not know what you are missing until you try them, it is by far the best money I could have spent to upgrade my music system I know now what my music system can be capable of producing.. I now am in sonic heaven!!
My Associated equipment:
Odyssey Mono Extreme amps
Modwright SWL 9.0 SE
Symphonic Line CDP
Odyssey Loreleis
Groneberg TS premium speaker cables
Groneberg ICs and PCs
