Room treatments, your experience with MLs
Several of us have been mentioning room treatments as important conceptually and a breakthrough empirically, so I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to this. As there's a lot of theory out there, it might be good to focus, instead, on our specific experiences with room treatments and Martin Logans.
I have a dedicated audio-video room. 21x16x8. Recently I added a tube trap at each front corner, and free-standing panels that do both absorption and diffusion. The latter I placed about 4 feet behind my Aeons, which are about 5 feet from the back wall.
The effect was dramatic. Even my wife, who can be skeptical about these things, had to say wow after the first few bars of her favorite dvd concert.
The improvements in my case:
* Soundstage depth. The players are now more distinctly located, in a deeper stage. Not only that, but the relative volume at which they play is very apparent -- even when they're playing together, some will play louder than the others, some will play much softer, and I now hear this more easily.
* Soundstage height. I always thought my MLs had good height. Now the voices from the center come from a bit higher up, and the orchestral players are arranged vertically, not just horizontally.
* Bass. There used to be a suckout right near the listening spot. That's been corrected. I measured before-and-after, using test tones, and what's amazing is that the SPLs are actually higher without the traps at certain bass frequencies. However with traps the peaks are lower, and the troughs are higher, so that the overall curve is smoother -- by ear this has translated to better and deeper bass.
* Midrange articulation. Vocals, always a treat with MLs, become even more of a treat. When a singer shifts between her head tones, chest tones, and in-between tones, I can now more easily hear the changes.
* Background vocals and instruments are now as full-size and as full-bodied as the lead singers and instruments.
* Synchronization of players. Sorry don't have the proper term for this. What I mean is that you can sense the players listening to each other play and adjusting to each other as the music changes. In jazz where different players take turns in the spotlight, this is more apparent.
* Reduction in glare at high volume levels. This can be a problem with MLs, especially if the back wall is untreated. Still needs a bit of work in my case, but it's been reduced.
* Movie soundtracks have become much more of a treat, as the whole bubble of sound within the room expanded.
(Oh, my wife also added a Persian carpet, which does a better job sonically than the old el cheapo rug, aside from looking nice.)
What I would like to further explore:
1. Absorbers in the center of the wall behind the front speakers. Any experience with this from anyone? I have a front pj and I am thinking of an electric screen to replace my pull-down, if this center absorption is promising.
2. Adding tube traps in the rear.
3. Adding diffusors along the side wall.
Several of us have been mentioning room treatments as important conceptually and a breakthrough empirically, so I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to this. As there's a lot of theory out there, it might be good to focus, instead, on our specific experiences with room treatments and Martin Logans.
I have a dedicated audio-video room. 21x16x8. Recently I added a tube trap at each front corner, and free-standing panels that do both absorption and diffusion. The latter I placed about 4 feet behind my Aeons, which are about 5 feet from the back wall.
The effect was dramatic. Even my wife, who can be skeptical about these things, had to say wow after the first few bars of her favorite dvd concert.
The improvements in my case:
* Soundstage depth. The players are now more distinctly located, in a deeper stage. Not only that, but the relative volume at which they play is very apparent -- even when they're playing together, some will play louder than the others, some will play much softer, and I now hear this more easily.
* Soundstage height. I always thought my MLs had good height. Now the voices from the center come from a bit higher up, and the orchestral players are arranged vertically, not just horizontally.
* Bass. There used to be a suckout right near the listening spot. That's been corrected. I measured before-and-after, using test tones, and what's amazing is that the SPLs are actually higher without the traps at certain bass frequencies. However with traps the peaks are lower, and the troughs are higher, so that the overall curve is smoother -- by ear this has translated to better and deeper bass.
* Midrange articulation. Vocals, always a treat with MLs, become even more of a treat. When a singer shifts between her head tones, chest tones, and in-between tones, I can now more easily hear the changes.
* Background vocals and instruments are now as full-size and as full-bodied as the lead singers and instruments.
* Synchronization of players. Sorry don't have the proper term for this. What I mean is that you can sense the players listening to each other play and adjusting to each other as the music changes. In jazz where different players take turns in the spotlight, this is more apparent.
* Reduction in glare at high volume levels. This can be a problem with MLs, especially if the back wall is untreated. Still needs a bit of work in my case, but it's been reduced.
* Movie soundtracks have become much more of a treat, as the whole bubble of sound within the room expanded.
(Oh, my wife also added a Persian carpet, which does a better job sonically than the old el cheapo rug, aside from looking nice.)
What I would like to further explore:
1. Absorbers in the center of the wall behind the front speakers. Any experience with this from anyone? I have a front pj and I am thinking of an electric screen to replace my pull-down, if this center absorption is promising.
2. Adding tube traps in the rear.
3. Adding diffusors along the side wall.
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