[toocool4]

Slow progress with the house and room.

I bought some DIY plans from Acoustic Fields. I now have quadratic diffusers for the front and back wall. The front ones are 9½ inches deep and the back ones are 4½ inches deep. I could have gone deeper in the front to get lower wavelengths, but the units would have been deeper than the mantelpiece that would not look good.
I could not go deeper with the diffusers on the back as they are too close to me and the sound waves would not be fully formed by the time it hits my listening position.

Regarding diffusers on the front and back wall, I have covered as much surface area as I could. I still want the living room to look like a living room, and the middle of the front wall is the most important for the imaging as far as I am concerned. Yes, it would be nicer to cover the whole front wall, but that is not practical in this case.

I will need to do the cloud cover and replace the first reflection points with new panels from Acoustic Fields, that is something for a later date need to do other things in the house first.

So, what do I hear from just doing the front and rear wall diffusion.
First thing I noticed is centre image focus much sharper, image thrown much wider than the speakers. I now get the height information back, greater image depth. I also get greater clarity.

I will probably have to play with the speaker placement again, to take more advantage of the new diffusers.
I am now hearing more of what the speakers can do, baby steps but getting there. 

[toocool4]

After installing the quadratic diffusers, I did not really get much time to listen to music as I’ve had to go away for work.

Today is the first day I have had to really listen to some music, it’s amazing what I am hearing. I know it’s a cliché, but I am hearing new things in tracks I have listen to many times before. It’s funny some of the delicate quieter little sounds, which in the past had been masked by other sounds are more noticeable now. It’s amazing how much more I am hearing into the music, with the room more optimised.

I was never a gear chaser, and I will not be changing anything else in my system in the near future as I still have not heard the full potential of what my system can do. I have to admit, doing the room bit by bit is the biggest upgrade I have had in terms of money spent. Room treatment is not cheap, but compared to price of kit the room has been a better value for the money spent. I can’t wait to find out, how much more I will get out of the system when I have done more to the room.

[JLM]

I'm a speaker first, room second guy.  Most audiophiles way over invest in electronics or sources and neglect the room.  The room is the "outside" speaker cabinet.  I had a near perfect listening room, Fibonacci ratios (8ft x 13ft x 21ft), insulated, no windows, insulated door and ductwork (could barely hear the furnace), dedicated electrical circuits and grounding.  Also had ten GIK absorption panels but in that room did little good as did a variety of room EQ's.  Then we moved.  This place has a tiny room (8ft x 10ft x 12.7ft) no interior insulation/door/ductwork, no dedicated wiring.  My desk chair and listening chair touched and my toes nearly touched the speakers.

So I converted back to headphones (had Seinheiser 424 in college).  Got Apple Maxx (wireless/noise cancelling) to go along with my Apple laptop and Tidal.  It's a simple, lightweight, compact "system" and kept my listening chair.  And it fits my slipping technical prowess and need for hearing aids as I approach age 70.  No longer depressed. 

[toocool4]

Having time off over Christmas meant I had time to work on my room some more.

Before getting any more room treatments installed, I thought I’ll experiment a bit more with what I already have.
I removed the first reflection points absorbers, the first thing I noticed was the music had a bit more life to it. Hearing a bit more of the room, gave the sound a more liveliness feel to it. So those absorbers, sucked a bit of life out of the music. The speakers being over a meter from the side walls, meant I can get away with not having anything at the first reflection points. I also gained almost a 1db rise in the sound pressure level.

I also removed the Symposium Rollerblock Jr’s from under the speakers, to replace them back to the original feet. By placing the original feet back on, I am now able to adjust the rake angle to give me more height in the soundstage. I rake the speakers up by 1.4 degrees, that helped with the image height.

Before I do anything else to my room, I will need to make some measurements of the room to understand what else is going on. No point in addressing a problem that’s not there.
Now I just need to find a friend with a measurement microphone to borrow one from.

[vanillasoap]

Added a couple of plants to my room, but they are looking a bit lonely. I may have to add more.

These sound diffusing boxes (wild guess) look awesome.

[toocool4]

vanillasoap they are adsorbers / diffusers, the front part of the panels are scatter plates. The front part scatters high frequencies and thicker part at the back absorbs mid frequencies.

They don’t really work for me now since I have moved to this new house, if you look at the image just before your post you can see what I use now which are quadratic diffusers.
I use the quadratic diffusers on the front and back of my room.

[toocool4]

After replacing the main light in the room and seeing the mess with the ceiling, I have decided to hold off on the cloud cover in the listening room. As it’s going to be a big messy job.
What I have done for now is to get some really thick underlay to put under the rug, to help a bit more with the floor bounce. I think that is good enough to help and minimise the floor to ceiling bounce, I’ll have to get some friends in to listen and see if they agree with me.

I thought my one plant looked a bit lonely, so I got another Ficus to balance the symmetry in the room.

I think I am done for now, with the living room regarding making the Hi-Fi sound better.
I need to do other things in the house, I think I will start with the glass door into the living room, I need to replace it with something better.

[toocool4]

Time on my hands during the bank holiday weekend, while my neighbours were out watching the RAF flyby I was being boring  and moving the speakers around for a better soundstage / image. I did get out at the last minute just to see the Red Arrows fly past.