After a long session last night a few more observations for anyone who's interested.
1.
Soundstage improvement. I have mentioned previously that I noticed a difference to the soundstage and that it was a tad bigger but actually it a little deeper with information in the recording now thrown even further back. Small but significant.
2.
Clarity. This has been an intriguing one. Most folk, including myself when they here an improvement in clarity often say " I have heard things in the recording that I have never heard before" A bit like ultra resolution DACs and amps. All resolution and no soul. I never let myself get fooled by this as its a bit like turning up the treble years ago or similar to the VIVID setting on your TV.
What I observed was more subtle than that. I will try and articulate what I mean my talking specifically about vocals.
You know when you are listening to a piece of music and you can hear the vocals but can't quite catch what the actual words are and then you change something in your system and you can hear suddenly clearly what is being sung, how they are singing it and the intonation etc. This is the improvement in clarity I observed in the system. Along with greater tonal quality, naturalness and simple believability.
3.
Tonal quality. I was not expecting any difference here but the panels have also attenuated the midrange driver somewhat as it is at the top of the speakers and so directly in firing line with the acoustic panels. `I noticed midrange and lower midrange information now had more tonal quality, a bit more layering of harmonics and weight in the notes especially piano.
4.
Imaging. This was significantly improved. As I mentioned on early listening I noticed distinct "untangling" of information in the recording. Where a singer double tracked themselves and sounded muddy I could now hear two distinct vocals in the mix.
I must mention that I am only at the beginning of my room treatment project and have much greater plans but I don't want and in fact would not be allowed to get away with just throwing large slabs of rock wool in all the corners and putting corrugated dispersion panels everywhere as this is a living room and not a "Man Cave". If I did have such a room I would move a bit quicker but because of the WAF factor I have to tread carefully. However some of my later plans have been given the green light.
So I intend to improve the rear wall behind my listening position and there will be quite a number of more panels on the walls. I am not expecting huge gains from lots of further acoustic treatment but we will see?
As I have mentioned I have a large amount of damping in the room with 3 sofas and I have actually tried some rough Bass traps with no discernible improvement what so ever. My speakers currently don't have large bass drivers anyway and I would say are a bit bass shy so I don't think I need more in this area. The walls are still a bit echoey further down to the listening position and there is still a fair amount of reverberation in the room but the speaker area once the heavy curtains are drawn now sounds way more controlled.
The project will continue as I am now more than convinced room treatment is an essential factor in obtaining the best from your system `But it does change the sound. If you have put together a system to work in your room and fine tuned it to your liking, throwing in lots of room treatment does produce quite a significant difference which you may or may not like. Speakers that were once bright can suddenly sound rolled off. You can loose bass and like I say go too far and kill the sound you enjoy so best tread slowly and carefully.
All of the improvements I have had are however positive and have greatly enhanced my listening experience to the point I am rediscovering records in a new light and hearing shades of information that were previously hidden by the room reflections.
One last thing. I have recently seen an article that measured room reflection timings from different parts of the listening environment and they found that at each timing difference certain aspects of the music were detrimentally affected so the conclusion was to limit these reflections and the multiple timings reaching your ear and you will hear a much improved sound from your system and all that implies. In other words try and get you top end information in particular to stop bouncing round the room too much and aim to receive more directly from the tweeter. This all makes logical sense to me and it will be in my thoughts as I proceed forward with the room.
Originally Posted by Jimbo
After a long session last night a few more observations for anyone who's interested.
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