I am curious on people who have the hifi in dedicated rooms as opposed to a living room or lounge. Do you go all out to optimise the room solely on aspects of sound quality? This will mean incorporating diffusion or absorption panels to all walls or perhaps go for full monty by addressing the ceiling as well.
Or people are more inclined to have normal furnishing in the dedicated room with some pictures or artwork hung on the wall to make the listening environment more pleasant? Or maybe add a retractable projector screen in the room for movies?
Iāll add a poll to see peopleās preferences. Iāve had a dedicated room with treatments on the walls before (bare ceiling though) and currently have the system in the living room. I prefer the room to have normal furnishing.
Thatās my thought as well as everyone is different. I used to have a room like that in my old house about 15 years ago although itās not as full-fledged as this. The reason Iām asking is I may have a dedicated room for the hifi (again) in the future. Iāll surely be more inclined to just have normal furnishing in the dedicated room.
Iām not finished yet. Our room is nearly complete and has a lovely wall scratch render finish. I have the impression it needs to be a bit of both whereby you try to āsubtractā the room as much as possible. Still early days here and firstly need to see how it works with furnishings that I want.
There is a difference between treating a room and deadening it to the point some people seem to want to.
Equally, like @anon70766008 I see no pleasure or relaxation to be had from a room treated in the manner of some of the images we see. I want to live and socialise in my living space. That includes, conversation, TV, music and decent light for reading.
Music should not be an isolationist sport. If you want to listen to music alone in a fully treated room then your money might be equally well spent on some form of talking therapy.
I kind of agree, music appreciation has a lot to do with frame of mindā¦ and for me being in a comfortable relaxing environment helps with thatā¦ so for me my listening room which is shared with other family activities is a one with windows/natural light , itās light, pictures on the walls, but yes carpeted, soft furnished chairs and sofas, and traditionally plastered ceiling. There are a couple of relatively discrete sound absorption panels on the walls behind the speakers.
I would find it oppressive to listen in a room that felt and looked like a sound booth with no or few windowsā¦and no regular furnishingsā¦ there is no way I could feel comfortable in such an environment, let alone enjoy one of my favourite musical works.
There has to be a balance IMO. I have a 14ft x 12ft dedicated listening room but still keep treatment down to limited amounts of diffusion at first and second reflection points, absorption behind my seating position (which is very close to the back wall) and bass traps in corners. Less is more aesthetically and certainly absorption wise. Too much of that just drains the life out of the sound.
If I was going to have a dedicated listening room, which I never would, then I would probably design it in the style of a concert venue with appropriate lighting. At least that would enhance the illusion of listening to live music.
But for me I want listening to music and watching video material to be part of the many comforts of home. That means, to me, comfortable and relaxing surroundings that make me feel nice. A million miles away from a typical concert venue or specially treated room like the one pictured.
My home is where I spend nearly all of my time now and I donāt want to live in a recording studio.
There is of course a third major option, which is partial treatment, e.g. I identify critical things like near reflection points and treating those, and maybe bass traps to deal with measured worst effects.
As for reference to professional products, I know some people build their own absorbers (which need to be no less effective).
Quick question, is the poll just for people with dedicated listening rooms?
There are 40 responses so far, meaning 40 folks have dedicated listening rooms? If thatās the case itās way more common than Iād have expected. Though not sure how Iād have put a number on it if asked!
I think that is a completely incorrect assessment. It means 12% of those who responded have treated rooms. They may ir may not all be dedicated listening rooms (I also have the impression the poll is aimed at people with at least more-or-less dedicated listening rooms). The question might be how exclusive has to be dedication to count as dedicated? Without anything saying otherwise I would assume any degree of dedication even if the room does sometimes have other functions.
I think there will be a large proportion of people who do not have not have dedicated rooms, also being living roons/lounges with other functions. Of those a proportion are likely to have done some treatment, however minimal, but not full treatment - though based on the āshow us your systemā type threads I have the impression the proportion with treated is small.
