After lurking on AC for a good long time, seeking wisdom on non-oversampling DACs, I bought myself a roompack. I had no concept of room treatments when I started out and would have laughed at the thought. I mean, I have a wife, for crying out loud. But I read witchdoctor's raves about the 8th Nerve response controllers and was intrigued. After all, it makes sense. The perfect sound leaving your speakers goes into your room before it enters your ears.
So I bought a roompack. For the money I figured the experiment could be a complete loss and I still wouldn't feel too bad after unloading the stuff on Audiogon, should it come to that. So I installed the roompack that I picked up from PhilNYC of
http://www.sonicspirits.com, who is a very mellow dude with excellent ears. I put in the corners, echoes and seams in the obvious places and settled into my chair to listen. I had played a series of favorite cuts before putting everything up so I could pick up on subtleties. It wasn't necessary.
No sooner did I crank up the stereo at my usual listening volume than I leaped up to turn it down for fear of enraging my wife. (She has been very understanding about my new installation, by the way. Nary a complaint.) It sounded MUCH louder. She was sitting in the next room though and didn't notice a difference. Yowza! I sat down to listen again. I had expected that the imaging would sharpen up and hoped that the soundstage would deepen. I didn't get that. Instead, the images of individual musicians were more substantial, weighty, particularly at lower frequencies. Bass was clearly boosted but remained quick and nicely textured. Very cool. No doubt I could work more magic with a couple of floor standers and a frame but, hey, I'm married. Now for a better front end....
