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Chris Frost
22-01-2008, 20:38
Hi all, Chris Frost here from Lucid AV based in mid-Cheshire.

Lucid's main business is designing and installing AV and multi-room music systems. I also spend a lot of time calibrating TVs, projectors and AV audio systems to get the best performance. Some of you may know me as the AV Doctor from The AudioWorks web site & forum. Ed and Larry there have given me great support by promoting the calibration service in the shop, thanks guys! As a fellow music enthusiast I've been pleased to point some of my customers back towards AW when they need good hifi.

New developments for 2008 include a greater selection of room treatment products. Two of the most innovative are absorption panels with near-photo quality printable surfaces, and a thin sheet material for reducing sound transmission both ways through walls, ceilings and floors. Both offer the opportunity to tune a room without significantly altering the aesthetic; a great bonus when domestic harmony needs to be maintained!

Good luck to the admin team in launching this forum. I hope I'm able to add something to the quality of information on hand to benefit the members.

Best regards

Filterlab
22-01-2008, 22:36
Hi Chris and welcome.

Nice to have you here, sounds like a very interesting product. Tell us more. :)

Chris Frost
07-02-2008, 15:57
Hi Rob,
The acoustic panels act as absorbers for acoustic energy bouncing off hard surfaces around your listening room.

The short description of the product is a 3" (76mm) thick slab of acoustic absorbtion material covered with a sound transparent fabric covering. The panel has a picture frame surround. What's different is that the surface is printable, so the panel stops looking like something from a recording studio and looks more like a piece of art or a photograph you would hang in your home.

What picture you decide to have printed on the panel surface is entirely up to you. As long as the rights are available you could have any image. The printing process is high enough resolution that you could have a panel as a family portrait if you wished.

The panels come in two standard sizes - 600x600mm and 600x1200mm, the latter can be printed and displayed as a landscape (wide) or portrait (narrow and tall) format. Custom sizes are also available in 1200mm x any length up to 10 meters. If you get permission to reproduce the Bayeux tapestry we could print it on a panel for you!


Here's the longer version of why these work and the results from a recent listening test:

A boxed loudspeaker radiates energy all around; mostly from the front, quite a bit from the sides and some from the back. This sounds energy bouncing of walls, ceilings, uncarpeted floors and other hard surfaces arrives at the listening position later than the direct. The different time delays and the amounts of reflected sound makes it harder to hear the direct sound.

I did a little experiment over at The Audioworks in the ground floor dem room. Without treatment that room is just a tad lively; a bit like an average living room with a solid wood or laminate floor. We put together a modest system and played some music.

With no treatment the music sounded OK but the vocals were a little indistinct and the treble sounded a bit harsh and splashy (if that's a word?). Introducing one of the panels that the Audioworks use (approx £150) brought everything in to focus. Vocals became easier to follow and the treble lost its harshness. Before treatment the room sounded more like a corridor with the hifi playing at the other end. Now the hifi sounded like it was in the same room.

Using one of the printable panels (600x1200mm, £299) improved the results still further. This is important. It shows that the panel isn't compromised by being printable, and although more expensive the printable panel is also a superior product acoustically as well as being easier on the eye.


Summary,
So there you have it. Solutions for room reverberation problems that your partner or significant other shouldn't have a cardiac over, especially if you let them choose the images ;) The range of library images available is enormous. Have a look at istockphoto.com (http://www.istockphoto.com). The cost of the image is included in the price of the panel.

For more info please send a pm or ask questions here and I'l try to help.

Best regards

Chris Frost

Steve Toy
07-02-2008, 16:01
One of the panels was in use in the AW dem room at the show.