I just installed a set of the new Adapt products in my listening room yesterday and thought I'd make some initial comments...
Anyone who has visited my room knows its got some tough acoustic problems. The room opens up to larger rooms both on the left/back wall and the back/right wall. There are 3 "corners" (the left/back wall is flush with the back wall, so there is no corner there). So my room has the issue of maintaining sound pressure (there is major bass suckout). My setup is along the long wall of the room (16'x19'x8') with the listening seat against the back wall, so there are also significant slap echo issues.
Prior to the Adapt roompack, I had installed a combination of some Echo Busters Bass Busters and Corner Busters (along the front wall/corners) and 8th Nerve Response products (rear corner and seam, Echo product on the front and rear wall). In addition, I have 1" rigid fiberglass on the front wall for first-reflection points.
I installed the Adapt products in stages.
-First, I replaced all the Corner Busters and Response Corners with the Adapt Triangles. Without question, the Adapt Triangles are more effective than the old Response Corners and EB Corner Busters. Soundstage depth improved, imaging seemed noticeably better.
-Second, I replaced the EB Bass Busters and Response Seam with the Adapt Rectangles. This was interesting...as others have noted in this thread, there is no real expectation for the Adapt Rectangles to absorb very low frequencies (anything below 80hz). But in my room, there is a bass suckout problem, not an overload or modal problem. With that in mind, the Adapt Rectangles appear to be a significant improvement over the Bass Busters. I'm getting more bass in the room, but its accurate bass...not resonant at all. Mids and highs perform about the same, so no significant difference there. Also no real change in imaging.
-Third, I replaced the Response Echos on the front and back walls with Adapt Rectangles. The improvement was probably as big as changing the Corners. The Adapt Rectangle on the rear wall basically got rid of all distortion I was getting from back there. On the front wall, it improved the soundstage depth a little bit.
Installation is pretty easy. I've got some suggestions for Nathan on how to improve the installation guides, but they are minor.
So my initial conclusions are that the Adapt products are significantly better than the Response products (and much better looking, too!). How they compare with traditional bass traps and things like that is hard to conclude in my room...but in my room, they seem to do the right thing. There's never been a question in my mind that both the Adapt and Response products would be a big improvement over an untreated room...but I am most certainly interested to hear other peoples' experiences using the Adapt products to replace something else.
(disclaimer: I am an 8th Nerve dealer. But room acoustics and sound-quality in my demo room outweigh any need/desire to sell any specific acoustic treatment products. It has to work, or else it makes selling my main product lines tougher)
