What Are The Biggest Challenges To Your Listening Room Setup?

[Ben Webster 266]

He asked for a solution and I posted one. What’s wrong?

The elements are very effective but from my personal point of view they (especially the absorber) slow down the music.

It’s the same with SO (but in a different frequency band): you must know what you do and you must like it.

I had some absorber and decided not to use them: sound wise an improvement but it was less fun.

As always: hear it and than decide.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Ben Webster

[JRS 16]

Brief answer to the original question... my wife.

Joking (sort of)

[ProJules 76]

My speakers are on the floor angled upwards (on desktop stands) 

The areas they are in aren't exactly the same either. I look forwards to trying room corection one day as they will surely need different bass settings. 

Edited December 30, 2020 by ProJules

[TooManyCatweazles 414]

1 hour ago, Ben Webster said:

He asked for a solution and I posted one. What’s wrong?

The elements are very effective but from my personal point of view they (especially the absorber) slow down the music.

It’s the same with SO (but in a different frequency band): you must know what you do and you must like it.

I had some absorber and decided not to use them: sound wise an improvement but it was less fun.

As always: hear it and than decide.

Last year we moved into a new office space with a lot of acoustics treatment. You can even play pinball without disturbing the people next to that room. As always the rule is: Don't fix it if it's not broken. If you do have a 'broken' acoustics, like strong room modes or extreme decay times, why not fixing it?

The alternative of cause might be to only play live music which weaves the room acoustics into the performance. There is at least one record in my collection, which has been using this approach https://www.discogs.com/de/Various-Vor-Der-Flut-Hommage-An-Einen-Wasserspeicher/release/13045039

Edited December 30, 2020 by TooManyCatweazles

[TooManyCatweazles 414]

3 hours ago, Ben Webster said:

Here are some pictures:

https://hofa-akustik.de/akustikmodule/akustikbild/#motiv

They also print your individual photos.

Thinking about it, one could also take some acoustics material like Knauf Silentboard, and hide it within the wooden frame of a photograph on canvas. A nice DIY project, with less money invested. But as I stated above: Don't fix it, if it's not broken. And for those who own a Linn DS, SOv2 as a free 'room treatment' is a low brainer. But we should not forget, that we have members in this forum, who do not (yet) own a DS.

Edited December 30, 2020 by TooManyCatweazles

[akamatsu 1,423]

I've found that the better my system is set up, the less impact the room has on the sound quality. I used to think about room acoustic treatments, but now the topic hardly crosses my mind. It was a very interesting surprise since my last adjustments to my speakers. It appears that, set up properly, space optimisation really can negate the effects of the room. Of course, an RT60 problem isn't going to go away due to SO. This can be easily and inexpensively be handled by drapes/window treatments. But other than that, the usual home decorations (clutter) seems to work just fine.

[Ben Webster 266]

6 minutes ago, akamatsu said:

I've found that the better my system is set up, the less impact the room has on the sound quality.

Absolutely! 
I bought some absorber but after fine tuning my system, the absorber were obsolete.

It’s always better to avoid errors than to correct them.

[akamatsu 1,423]

4 minutes ago, Ben Webster said:

Absolutely! 
I bought some absorber but after fine tuning my system, the absorber were obsolete.

It’s always better to avoid errors than to correct them.

I'm glad someone else is experiencing this. The better and better my setup, the less and less I would think about room acoustic treatment. At this point, it occurs as completely optional.

[akamatsu 1,423]

@Ben Webster,

It just occurred to me that you don't use Space Optimisation. That is very interesting that you are able to control the bass enough without room treatments. My experience has been more music, less bad sound. That is very simple, but it may be the case.

I'd like to hear your take.

Cheers,

Michael

[Ben Webster 266]

1 minute ago, akamatsu said:

the less and less I would think about room acoustic treatment.

In the past I optimized the sound of my system.

But at least since ten years I’m in the lucky situation that there is no need for sound optimization.

Now I’m looking for musicality improvements. I want to see the face of Elvis, want to understand what Cannonball Adderley has to tell and how Oscar Peterson interact within his Trio.

[Ben Webster 266]

11 minutes ago, akamatsu said:

I'd like to hear your take.

It’s not easy to answer. Clean power (but not with any filter), “optimal” placement not only the LP12 and the Komris (e. g. maximum space between Radikal and LP12), cable dressing, the right torque settings, no voodoo things (some have a huge impact but not very often an improvement).

And very important: listen to people who are not familiar with Linn but with music.

Fun fact: three year old girl ist dancing in front of the Komris when everything is ok. After changing something she is leaving the room...

Edited December 30, 2020 by Ben Webster

[akamatsu 1,423]

2 minutes ago, Ben Webster said:

It’s not easy to answer. Clean power (but not with any filter), “optimal” placement not only the LP12 and the Komris (e. g. maximum space between Radika and LP12), cable dressing, the right torque settings, no voodoo things (some have a huge impact but not very often an improvement).

And very important: listen to people who are not familiar with Linn but with music.

Fun fact: three year old girl ist dancing in front of the Komris when everything is ok. After changing something she is leaving the room...

Voodoo is what really destroys the tune. I think there are people here who would really benefit from getting rid of all the tweaks that go against common knowledge of hifi, and just go back to the basics. They will never be satisfied, and will continue to tweak. I said it before; in one year, I'll just be listening to music. The tweakers will still be tweaking, but will never be satisfied as the tune is nowhere to be found.

I am that three year old girl.

[Johannes 380]

6 minutes ago, Ben Webster said:

Now I’m looking for musicality improvements. I want to see the face of Elvis, want to understand what Cannonball Adderley has to tell and how Oscar Peterson interact within his Trio.

Interesting. I was given a Linn user who sold Linn for years and swears by Linn because, as he says, Linn is the only system where the timing is right and the interaction of the players is correct. He always rejected "sound optimisation" because it ruined the interaction for him. Now I have set it up for him with the appropriate selection options (we are still at the first absorption) and he has just called and said it now sounds much better than his old SO1 settings. He also asked if we could take a break for 2 days with the other 2 values, as he just wants to listen to music.

[akamatsu 1,423]

2 minutes ago, Johannes said:

Interesting. I was given a Linn user who sold Linn for years and swears by Linn because, as he says, Linn is the only system where the timing is right and the interaction of the players is correct. He always rejected "sound optimisation" because it ruined the interaction for him. Now I have set it up for him with the appropriate selection options (we are still at the first absorption) and he has just called and said it now sounds much better than his old SO1 settings. He also asked if we could take a break for 2 days with the other 2 values, as he just wants to listen to music.

You have awoken the three year old girl in him. Well done!

[Johannes 380]

8 minutes ago, Ben Webster said:

It’s not easy to answer. Clean power (but not with any filter), “optimal” placement not only the LP12 and the Komris (e. g. maximum space between Radikal and LP12), cable dressing, the right torque settings, no voodoo things (some have a huge impact but not very often an improvement).

And very important: listen to people who are not familiar with Linn but with music.

Fun fact: three year old girl ist dancing in front of the Komris when everything is ok. After changing something she is leaving the room...

1 minute ago, akamatsu said:

Voodoo is what really destroys the tune. I think there are people here who would really benefit from getting rid of all the tweaks that go against common knowledge of hifi, and just go back to the basics. They will never be satisfied, and will continue to tweak. I said it before; in one year, I'll just be listening to music. The tweakers will still be tweaking, but will never be satisfied as the tune is nowhere to be found.

I am that three year old girl.

Beautifully said - that's exactly what I think too. @Ben Webster we are not far apart.
For me it is difficult to write what I mean in English, I use Deepl. I think that's where a lot of misunderstandings come from.