Just wanted to share my impressions of treating my room with 7 bass traps. No reflection treatment to speak of. The results are not at all what I expected, which I've noticed others have stated before. Assuming that no reflection points are being treated with my setup, then I guess it is fair to say all of what I notice is based on smoothing out the frequency response.
Bass is obviously more defined but so are all frequencies. So the frequency response sounds more natural. Midrange? Listening to spoken voice is a great way to listen to midrange and I can tell you it's not an exaggeration to say that it seems as if someone is in the room with me, even better than actually having someone in the room actually. Real people don't speak as good as what I'm hearing. I know there still frequency response peaks and valleys but compared to my untreated room, FR is obviously improved.
There is a very noticeable improvement in transparency. By that I mean I hear more detail in the recordings. As if the recording details were masked before and now they are not. What more can be said? How about to what degree? How about more than twice as good?
I'd group imaging and soundstage together and both are very much improved too. I wasn't expecting a wider and deeper soundstage from bass trapping, but that's what I noticed. I suppose this might be related to the increased transparency too.
I'm saving the best of what I hear to last. Dynamics. I was not expecting this at all. But now that I think about it, it does make sense. The leading edge of a big dynamic is startling, fast, explosive. And micro dynamics, because there is less smearing, is so delicate and sweet goes on forever. Maybe the flatter response highlights the leading edge and decay in such a way that I perceive such an improvement with dynamics.
One more thing on the sonics. I did tell my wife that I would listen at quieter levels if I was able to get room treatments. I suppose that is true in a sense, but I really want to listen louder now. It is now easier on the ears when listening louder. Less breakup at higher SPLs.
One more comment on the sonics before I hit the post button. My son was practicing piano today and it sounded quite different to me from another room, one level down. I went in to the room, and I know it sounded better. I asked him if he noticed any changes. And he said yes, Dad, it sounds more spacious. I think he's starting to develop his first understanding of a soundstage!
The products I am using are:
4 GIK Tri Traps. I have one located in each front wall corner. And I have two stacked in the back left corner. There isn't a back right corner because of an opening to the front foyer of the house.
3 Real Trap Minis. I have two installed up on the right side wall/ceiling boundary closer to the front wall. I had a third one up there close to the foyer but after I measured bass build up in that location I noticed there wasn't much there, so I removed it. And I put it on the front wall, in the center, between the speakers. It stands up when listening and will go down on the floor out of sight when not, so the wife isn't bothered with the looks as much.
I'm quite pleased with the products I chose. Performance wise, I can't say much about what is better because i have no clue. I just know the net result is great. I'm also very pleased with how I was able to do this by putting them in locations that aren't that obtrusive. The front wall is out of the way and the corner traps don't show much, and I'll hide them more with some creeping potted plants on top or something. The two panels on the ceiling actually look good, probably because it works with the vaulted open beam ceiling look. The two traps in the back right corner needs some work. My camo job with the big plant doesn't really work. But all in all, I'm very pleased I could get the acoustic improvements I did by treating the perimeter of the two ends of the room. I don't know if I'll ever treat the side walls because of furniture, art, piano and my understanding but not a push over wife. Besides, my speakers don't disperses to the side. I might do the ceiling reflection points one day. Maybe my next area of focus will be the front wall behind each speaker (dipole midrange driver) with HF absorbers or perhaps diffusers.
Service? What can I say about working with both companies. I had fantastic service over several months of planning, plotting, budgeting. They do have some products that are similar but they also have products that are different enough that it was inevitable that I ended up with some from each company. These guys are also so very complimentary of each other. They play very, very well together, but still look after their own business. Its refreshing to see, after putting up with a lot of other audio industry people who can be nasty to each other.
First pic is from the rear wall facing the front wall, trying to show the panels up by the ceiling, corner traps and the one panel in the middle. Second picture is the back left corner with the stacked Tri Traps.
Bryan
