Acoustic Treatment & Building a Listening Room

I adore both the Shindo and Leben product lines, I have spent many hours listening and ogling their gear. I would kill for an all Shindo system built around their Field Coil speakers :smiling_imp:
I can’t get enough of the Leben cosmetics, it’s all great stuff in that room of yours :pinched_fingers: :gem::heart:

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No worries at all. I don’t mind. I neglected to come back and give any updates here and ended up posting these pictures in another thread. Long story short, I have a dedicated listening room now. I got the first set of panels mounted and what a difference. I’m still going to do a lot more but this was a great start.






The panels are from Psy Acoustics. They were mounted with French cleats that I ran around the perimeter of the room. This allows me to easily add or move panels around.

Next I’ll be adding some bass traps and some treatment for the front wall as funds allow.

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Very nice, those images printed on the board really pop!

Are these all sound absorption boards?
I noticed a wood looking slat in a corner behind the speaker, what are those? I didn’t see them on the Psyacoustics website.

Thanks!

All the Psy Acoustics panels are broadband absorbers (4" thick Rockwool). They’re to handle the first reflection points and help a lot with flutter echo. The little ones in the corners are some Impression series panels from GIK Acoustics. I had those on the walls in my previous listening area. They are just in the listening room temporarily until I get some proper bass traps in there.

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The French cleats were genius idea for giving you flexibility and came out looking very clean. Bravo friend, bravo :pinched_fingers:

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I see you’re a Roger Dean fan, with those Asia and Gentle Giant covers. Was that a special order or were they part of Psy Acoustics’ available catalogue?

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Roger Dean’s art has been a big part of my music listening obsession for as long as I’ve been listening. When I stumbled across Psy Acoustics and their custom panels, I couldn’t think of anything more fitting to adorn my listening room.

These were special orders. I purchased the digital downloads from the Roger Dean site and used Topaz Gigapixel AI to upscale the images (they need to be HUGE to print at this size). I’m deciding between Drama or Tales from Topographic Oceans panel for the front wall.

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Pretty f’ing fascinating video to watch. This really should explain why rooms matter but just as important it take a good look at our perception of sound and how sound acts in various spaces.

Wild.

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Not sure if this was brought up already, but GIK has a good article about finding reflection points - Early Reflection Points - GIK Acoustics

"Sit at your listening position as you normally would when listening or mixing. Starting with the left wall, have a friend hold a mirror up against the wall next at your speaker height, then move toward the back of the room. When you can see the reflection of the left speaker in the mirror, mark that spot. That’s your first reflection point. "

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Thank you for the share, I have read about the mirror method and might have in here. I need to unmount the mirror from the ceiling in the other room first :rofl:

Kiddding, will give that method a shot, weir enough I don’t have a mirror that is free standing, need to get one of those dorm style vertical mirrors used on the door, imagine that is a good size for this method?

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@Camus , pick your poison…

https://www.google.com/search?q=audio+diffusion+why+behind+the+speakers&client=safari&sca_esv=597681688&channel=iphone_bm&sxsrf=ACQVn0_J71isi7DcvkNFcx4WXbaylHVWFA%3A1705022347502&ei=i5OgZfr9HcKs5NoPkfqmqA8&ved=0ahUKEwi67-ya19aDAxVCFlkFHRG9CfUQ4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=audio+diffusion+why+behind+the+speakers&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJ2F1ZGlvIGRpZmZ1c2lvbiB3aHkgYmVoaW5kIHRoZSBzcGVha2VyczIFECEYoAFIrjZQphNY4zVwAXgBkAEAmAGWAaAB1QyqAQQxNy4yuAEDyAEA-AEBwgIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA8ICBRAhGJ8FwgIFECEYqwLiAwQYACBBiAYBkAYI&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

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Thanks Nick, I didn’t realize I was going down the road of a million opinions. How does that saying go, lots of people have opinions like they have _ s _ h_ l_ s ……

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If anyone has not heard of Ken Fritz, google him and learn about his story. There was a YT video shared around about his system if I recall.

WaPo must out an article yesterday about him, and think they did a great job;

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/interactive/2024/ken-fritz-greatest-stereo-auction-cost/

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Sad story…

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Someone asked me a question via PM and I wound up taking impromptu pictures to send in my response. I’ll go as far as saying that in a 2 CH system, the room will be 60% of your overall performance result. If I’m overstating, it’s not by much.

Putting high end equipment into a properly treated room will get you the most for your overall investment. Most importantly, it can keep you from feeling the need to spend more. I’ve been able to critically listen to systems that triple the cost I’ve got in my chain, that didn’t sound as good o me as the sounds I get in my little listening space. There are a number of reasons for that, taste being one of them, but the most critical component in my chain is the acoustic treatment. Don’t neglect i if you get serious about 2 CH. It will save you thousands in the long run.


These are GIK B4 with scatter plates.


This is a stack of B4 bass trap with a std 2" acoustic panel on top. They’re both being held up by a pair of GIK’s free standing metal stands.


These are a DIY kit solution from Bubos Acoustics, which you can get from Amazon. They take a fair bit of time to assemble and install but well worth it and have given me better results as a first reflection point than an of the GIK solutions I used as first reflection solutions previously.

Last but certainly not least, is the ceiling panel. This is another std. GIK 2" panel, floating on GIK’s ceiling mounts.

BTW, the 4" and 2" size referred to on the panels is a misnomer, as the panels are actually 5.5" and 3.5" thick respectively in their frames.

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I have first hand experience listening in @dB_Cooper ’s room. I was there BEFORE he got the treatments and multiple times afterwards.
All you need is a minute of listening to the room post addition of his treatments and it is an actual difference of NIGHT vs DAY, this is not an exaggeration by any means. The room is difficult due to its size and to sit in the space and close your eyes while you listen you become stumped as to how good it sounds :pinched_fingers:
@dB_Cooper took his time, researched and modified things a few times over and the effort along w/ expense was absolutely worth it👏

I wrote an article a long while ago on small room tweaks. It was not much but I was being earnest and I put my money where my mouth is by dedicating my entire living room to a 2 channel set up for one person. After 15 or so years in a poorly set up room, after I cleared everything and started from scratch and made many small room treatment tweaks along with actually dedicating the space, prioritizing speaker placement and my listening position the difference is absolutely night to day.

If you can dedicate a room to 2 channel and take your time even an awkward space can be greatly improved and you can maximize the potential and output of your gear.
Happy listening all and congratulations John on a gorgeous and extremely well thought out and patiently constructed set up. :pinched_fingers: :clap:

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You just like Philly food, that’s why you visit. It’s funny because I remember one of the first things I told you when I visited your house was… get rid of that coffee table you’ve got sitting between you and your speakers. The coffee table was the size of a small NYC studio apartment. Not kidding.

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I received my GIK diffusion panels and also 4" acoustic panels for the first reflection point on the left. Still considering some gobos and soffits in the back. Not in a hurry though but I think i’ll get them eventually.

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Such little things can make a dramatic impact. I have a pocket door behind me as I sit in my listening position. The door is approximately 3’ behind my head. I’ve had bare glass, I put thick light diffusing film, I was going to try a curtain next… wasn’t really happy with anything I’ve tried.

A couple of weeks back, I thought to put in a rolling blind that I could hang and roll down to listen but wasn’t thrilled about the taking on and off as you wouldn’t be able to open the door with it hanging on.

I got the idea to inset the blind into the space of the glass panel. Then I ordered the blind, I knew the measurement was close and though I’d have to maybe trim one side to get a good fit. Well what I received was precise to the opening down to the millimeter!. The only thing I had to do was trim the length. I used a bead of hot glue to keep it in place as I worked it, about ten inches on each side at a time.

This is giving me the perfect amount of diffusion behind me and the dept and dimentionality of the stage is more obvious, instruments are more tangible still and I don’t have to do anything to open and close the door, completely integrated into the frame. The right room treatment does wonders, don’t be afraid to move things around and experiment. Total cost of the project, $80 bucks and nearly $60 of that was to buy a quality hot glue gun.

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Speaking of room treatment, another minor addition yesterday with very tangible impact. This and further fine tuning my speaker placement, very meaningful impact. The room feels larger and the highs are just more natural sounding.

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