It’s seems very common to hear that a room has been over treated.
That’s why I did my room in stages. Do one stage and live with it for a while then try the next stage.
I did the corner bass traps first , then side wall first reflection points, then side wall bass traps , then front and rear bass traps , and finally ceiling reflection points. After that I found adding more panels initially seemed to improve things but soon found the sound to be too dead and analytical.
This is very good advice. I have currently carried out steps 1 and 2 with the corner treatment having the most impact. I plan to live with this for a while to get used to the ‘new’ sound but so far very pleased with the overall improvement.
In stages is also the approach I took Folkman. It seems that we are also learning as the process goes on, as we hear what various products do. Errors are easily made, but get corrected as we go along also. This is where ‘ the journey’ expression creeps in, it is certainly an exercise, which is not done overnight. Also I have found it helpful to use other old Forum member friends’ ears, when I was getting stuck with the room. All good Peter
The best approach arguably is the reverse, start fully treated then if it seems over-damped remove different bits, allowing you to fully assess - but unless you can get everything on a sale or return basis with a return window of maybe a month minimum, preferably more, then adding in stages would seem an eminently good approach, and was my plan.
If I were doing my current room which has been fully assessed (I’m not because my current plan is to move home within a couple of years), I’d start with the bass traps in the easy-to-do-corners (two vertical corners plus one ceiling/wall horizontal), ceiling and wall first reflection points, plus rear wall.
Hi FR,
No, it will be hideous for the vast majority of people.
Many people find the absence of any sound reflections to be disorientating to the point of starting to lose their sense of balance.
Apart from the above, it should be fine, so long as you don’t have to do the vacuuming yourself…
Best regards, BF
Yes, overdamped. Sometimes it can be the case.
Very interesting thread! I watched this video some time ago and after I had already started to do some acoustic experiments myself. For now I focus on the first reflection points as well as furnishing. I moved into a new apartment 6 months ago and since then I have been trying out some stuff. I focus on broadband absorption with 10 cm thick panels. As for most of us I aim to find a balance between stuff that improves the sound but also does not make a negative impact on the feeling of the room itself.
Getting a new sofa in wool with an ottoman replacing a sofa table made a big and positive impact on both the visual feel of the room as well as the sound quality. The picture on the wall is a drawing by my girlfriend and is a custom ordered absorption panel, also 10 cm thick. She loves it and not only does it improve on the look and feel in the room but it also has a positive impact on the sound. A win win for everyone involved!
Interesting drawing - sort of MCEsher-ish, though without the optical illusion. Nice touch with the protrusions into the border.
Where did you get your traps?
Well regardless of your opinion of him, and I hear he speaks highly of you too… The point he is making is right on the money. You can improve the sound of your system immensely by fixing or treating problems in the room, altering placement and starting with those fundamentals. These changes are often far more significant than throwing money at new speakers or a fancy new box. The interaction with the room is fundemental to the sound.
Gee! I’d never have guessed that speakers are influenced by the room.
Hands up who think that Linn Kans will sound the same in their living room as they will at the Albert Hall?
Hi Guinnless.
I think you may find that people, that have contributed to this interesting thread and maybe even people, that have just decided to read it don’t see any reason for your ‘trolling’. You may have absolutely no need to take an interest in the room’s influence on the listening experience, but some of us with tricky rooms are sharing our experiences here and are finding the subject jolly gratifying. Peter
I’m not trolling just not a Darko sycophant. I’ve had to deal with a ‘difficult’ small room in the most natural way that I can in addition to dealing with difficult hearing that’s more problematic to fix.
Nowhere! I havent installed any as yet - I did the assessment with help from GIK, and have a plan for what is needed for my room. Most panels would come from GIK, however I was researching alternatives for the bass traps, trying to find something more efficient and/or with dimensions that would better fit (hence my references to others), and some of the alternative shapes interest me for the ceiling. But I am planning treating the listening room in my next (and final) house from the outset, though that can’t be finalised until in there and able to measure. Sadly it is highly unlikely to be a purpose-designed listening room, and still will have to double for other duties, though like now there will be another lounge to maximise listening capability.
He has quite a memory!!
My dealers’ rooms are REALLY damped, and thus rather useless for me to use as a listening space. My room is far too alive. But I’ve now read on another forum that many people think the dealer over-damped the rooms and they who know a lot more about hi fi than I do don’t like his rooms either. His rooms are like half-way to being anechoic chambers!
« Half way anechoic chambers »: exactly what I think. The sound is nice, soft, but a bit boring. It’s the danger of acoustic treatment.
I tried some panels, bass traps, but finally kept the minimum. Only one bass trap in problematic corner, heavy carpets on the floor, and well isolated speakers from the floor. It’s more lively like that.
Only if the music is boring, or boringly recorded! Having artefacts from a small room (most domestic listening rooms being small compared to live performance venues, at least they are in the UK), and mentally confusing short timeframe echoes from near reflecting surfaces, is not my idea of interesting or lively, but muddled and unnatural. If the recording process aims to record the most accurate representation of what the artist played (or intended if assembled in the studio rather than recorded in one take), it seems an odd thing to prefer it ‘livened up’ in some way, but of course if that is your preference then of course it is right for you.
This is a really interesting thread. I don’t have any room treatments as such, but have applied some principles, particularly in speaker position with great results.
My main system is in a large open plan lounge/dining/kitchen. Overall, it is 6 to 7m wide and 14m long. The system is the lounge portion and playing across the room, so 7m across, but listening couch is about 3.5m from speaker, with speakers we’ll forward from the opposite wall (they are rear ported) with no close rear corners. The corners behind the listening position are set back quite a bit, one has a book shelf, the other a piano. The floor is timber and has a rug in front of the coach. Furniture is all soft. Lots of big glass windows - can’t do much about those other than open them 
it all seems to hand together pretty well sound wise. One thing I’m playing with is speaker connection positions, currently running diagonal connections rather than the bottom pair. The top pair is too empathised on the treble.
The media room/office is necessarily compromised. It’s about 5m by 4m, played across the room. Ideally the speakers need to be further apart and away from the desks, but need to remove a desk to do better. So whilst it’s an office, it has to do.
I wanted to give my feelings on overdamped rooms I sometimes saw. Not the acoustic treatment in general, which is very often necessary.
In overdamped rooms, in my opinion overdamped, the music can sound boring to me. Bart pointed the same.
