Graeme Is that a token absorption panel (in blue ). Or a paint test ,or some expensive artwork .
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I use the GIK Acoustic Art panels which you can put custom prints on - my girlfriend did some graphic design work for a while and I have a done a bit of photography so I put our own designs on the panels to address the WAF.
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Itâs a painting I did about 20 years ago!j
G
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Thinking more on your comments about non-equidistant (to the side-walls) 'speaker placement, this sounds (no pun intended) potty when several manuâs shape their cabinets and driver housings for time alignment â or is that simply marketing hype?!
This is one of the (many) contradictions about domestic music production, in that in live arenas, even treated ones, you will hear echoes and other sound artifacts, which our hearing/brain will filter and compensate for.
Leaving aside the fact that sound quality is often pretty poor in such places (which people ignore/accept because they are there for the seeing/atmosphere/experience), it is early reflections that are the problem, from walls a tiny fraction of the distance of those in live venues. Received wisdom says that they arrive so soon that the human brain canât separate out and ignore, causing smearing/muddying of the sound, even if people accustomed to it donât recognise (until or unless they fix).
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For those curious about the look for the Townshend Support bars I just realised I did take a pretty decent pic of them floating my racks. It does give you an idea of the look of them⌠I hope itâs helpful.
JonathanG
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thanks jonathan
I love it, thatâs the avenue I am going to take.
You see folks here differ on what they prioritise, which is completely fine, but my consistent take is when starts to spend over ÂŁ10000 up to stratifying levels up to a couple years salary, there is a huge issue to address and that is the room.
One goes down a rabbit hole like I have, and I am learning in an expensive way. Using a room modelling kit will be my next step - I now have heard:
Music for Airports 2/2
Bruce Brubaker
Best of 2023 Neoclassical
The bass resonates at a frequency that makes my door vibrate. Itâs well recorded, but voila an issue to resolve!
For those who have not treated your rooms, listen to these tracks - which I may add to this tread as I optimise.
Jon
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Hi @JonP ,
Thanks for the reply to my posting. Apologies to a few others as I am going to link in other forum members approaches to getting the sound they like by dealing with the room. A few of us are using streaming products from Linn that have something called Space Optimisation. This technology is capable of suppressing room resonances without using any bass traps. The idea sounds impossible - but it does work. @jlewis and @DiggyGun are members who use this (as well as me) and others. I use it in addition to base traps because I was aiming for complete control for an acoustically dry environment - meeting some explicit audio standards. Not something that is really achievable in a domestic living space.
Space Optimisation is unique in that it achieves its correction without using microphone measurements. It does this by using computational fluid dynamics to model the customerâs room. However Linn SO only applies corrections below 100Hz. That is the intent. Everything above that frequency âruns freeâ in the room.
Other systems are available that correct the whole audio bandwidth. Things using DiracLive, Lyngdorf RoomPerfect, Anthem ARC Genesis, Audyssey Multi EQ-X and Trinnov. All of these room correction systems use microphone measurements to achieve correction of room acoustics.
If you are totally committed to Naim (and it looks like you are already heavily invested in Naim), then room treatment is the way to go (unless you switch to Naim CI streaming amplifier range). There are some stunning examples of domestically sympathetic room treatment on the Naim forum - and I am NOT including mine as an example.
Some of them have been posted on this thread and others already, examples to look at might be the rooms of @Cohen1263 and @frenchrooster for inspiration. Apologies for linking/bothering all the members, but I though it might give encouragement to others when tying to figure out how âdeepâ (
) one want to go with room treatment.
PS: It also helps to get yourself a microphone and measurement software such as REW.
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Linn SO, and other DSP approaches including Roonâs add-on, are likely to be far better than nothing, though that may vary with individual setups. However, whilst they can reduce output to level out peaks, whether due to room nodes or speaker response, and within limits possibly slightly reduce dips, they are only a partial approach as they cannot do anything about room cancellations, nor early reflections, nor room decay time, all of which judicious acoustic treatment can.
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Slight correction needed to your ânor room decayâ statement. Linn SO absolutely does claim to do that and actually does do that but obviously limited to less than 100Hz.
PS: I have the measurements confirming this performance 
.
How can SO reduce the decay time of the room? That is a function of the room, not the speaker output. Of course, if the speaker output is reduced at a given frequency, e.g. from an unwanted room peak, the sound will decay to below a threshold level, and if reduced below a level where a resonance is stimulated then the decay would be quicker - perhaps it is one of these you have observed? In the case of resonance, it would still occur if you turned the volume high enough.
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i donât know why we donât see more room treatment but i wish iâd never seen this one
stylinâ speakers
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I think some of the implementations in this thread look nice. Especially the ones with natural unpainted plywood panels. Gives a very 1970s LA recording studio vibe. Something I find quite comforting to look at, though I went a different direction.
Hi @Innocent_Bystander , it will take a while to explain, but thank you for seeking clarification. FYI I have a PhD in digital signal processing, I hesitate to start explaining the concept but it does work.
In summary one needs to think of the impulse response of the loudspeaker into an untreated room and then understand the fluid mechanics of the air in the room and then add on top of that the psychoacoustic perception of human hearing.
In signal processing there is a direct translation between the time and frequency domains. Mathematical techniques allow the prediction of the impulse response from the (complex - I.e including phase information) frequency response and visa versa.
Linn SO predicts the fluid mechanics part of the problem, chooses to limit the effects it introduces to less than 100Hz because of the psychoacoustic perception of human hearing and creates an additional filter (impulse response that is convolved with the music signal) the net effect of which is to create a cancelling (inverted) resonance(s) into the room by amending the signal played through the loudspeakers.
I hope the text explanation above is sufficient, as I do not have any graphs immediately to hand to post in aid of explanation.
All the best,
E of E.
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In fact, the slider which determines the final degree to which the SO determined for your your room is implemented is a balance between flat frequency response and decay. I donât know how it works, but it does work.
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The slider is effectively a control to the amount of phase linearisation (as perceived at the listening position) being applied below 100 Hz.
If you slide it to the max left position (flat frequency) you get the SO system trying to get the closest to linear phase vs frequency at the listening position. The impact though is the compensating filters impulse response extends further out in the time domain, which may be perceived as a deterioration in overall sound. Hence the slider for user/ dealers to control.
There is actually a scientific optimum position for the slider - which involves first confirming the accuracy of the room model, then trying to achieve âcritical dampingâ of the resonances in the room.
Phil Budd at Linn has a presentation that I sent him on how to do this. Unfortunately it (the method) does involve using a microphone and measurement in combination with the Linn Space Optimisation guidelines.
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âŚand, originally at least, Linn did not like microphones! My experience would indicate to me that SO gets ânear enoughâ in dealing with bass artefacts. Of course, SO âseesâ any room as being undamped by carpets, curtains and furnishings, but seems to me to do an excellent job.
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It does indeed do an excellent job.