Topic: playback-pr0n

[Mic D]

kevin, now I know I need to head down there thi summer, just put a reserved sign on your couch for me!

Plenty of room here. Come on down!

[scervin]

Do you mean acoustical foam?  I might have a line on a boatload of free stuff tonight, actually!  Pm coming soon...

Foam works ok for diffusion, but not much at all for absorbtion.  You probably need more in the form of absorbtion.  Compressed fiberglass panels (duct board) work well.

sc

[pfife]

In my shots there are some free standing panels on the left wall.   They are a pine frame around compressed fiberglass panels covered with batting and burlap.   Small investment of work and they helped in my room. 

Even if you get the foam, you might consider making covered freestanding panels.  They are easy to move into position for critical listening and then you can put them aside to keep the rest of the household happy the rest of the time.

Those look nice- where do you move them to for critical listening?

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Those look nice- where do you move them to for critical listening?

I was speaking in general, since usually the best place for floating panels is not a frau approved location.  I used to move one of the panels to the right side to help deaden some of the reflections that come from sound bouncing off the walls in L part of the room.  Since that is usually a walking path, I can't leave it there all the time.  The other panel I would shift to the first reflection point for the left speaker.

As positioned in the photo (and stay there pretty much all the time), one gets the first reflection point for the left speaker and the other gets the first reflection point for the right speaker.  Since one panel just barely hits both left side first reflection points, the best results I've had were with the panels positioned as they are in the photo.

What gets moved around for critical listening are the argent room lense clones.  They are unfinished and look like crap but work pretty well.  I put one outboard of the right speaker and the other I don't have figured out yet.  There is not really room for it outboard of the left speaker and with the panels there I didn't perceive any benefit.

[ducati]

The dog in my photo is part of my comprehensive acoustical treatment 

I toss some pillows on top of the back of the couch at first point of reflection for the left speaker, and for the right I open the window.  You can't see in the photo but there's a set of double windows just off that rack. 

[pfife]

I need to do something about reflection, I do think...  Or at least try it before other options more expensive...  a little reading on audiogon is telling me that I might have a bit too much toe in...

[macdaddy]

here is the amp - my (heavily) modded joLida 302a...

So how do you like the Jolida?  How much improvement did you get from the mods?

sorry lil kim, id didnt see the post until today...

i bought the unit modded by a guy on audiogon. then fedex dropped it, so i sent it back to him, he replaced the circuit board with a new one from jolida, we talked about the mods (like putting it in triode), he did the work, and then sent it to me...

i know how special it sounds (relative to what my ears have heard throughout my lifetime), but i have never heard a stock joLida (mine or anybody else's), so i have no idea how much was improved...

[pfife]

I'm not seeing much, if any, toe in on y'alls speakers... is there a reason that one should/shouldn't toe in the speakers?  I always thought it was the way to go, but that's just more of an unfounded assumption than anything else... plus, I am reading that toe in might have something to do with the bright hi's...

[cheshirecat]

i bought the unit modded by a guy on audiogon. then fedex dropped it, so i sent it back to him, he replaced the circuit board with a new one from jolida, we talked about the mods (like putting it in triode), he did the work, and then sent it to me...

Do you know what the mods were that were done?  Just curious, i've rebuilt a few older dynaco st-70s and a pair of mk IVs, I can't imagine these are too difficult to work on, just wondering what people are doing to them.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I'm not seeing much, if any, toe in on y'alls speakers... is there a reason that one should/shouldn't toe in the speakers?  I always thought it was the way to go, but that's just more of an unfounded assumption than anything else... plus, I am reading that toe in might have something to do with the bright hi's...

I think it's manufacturer and room specific.  When I was running the Thiels, they didn't respond well to toe in beyond an inch or so.  They got bright the more on axis to the seating position.  I have always run speakers with no toe-in when I initially set them up or in a new room.  Then try toe-in as I get used to the sound.  With the speakers forming the base and the seating position the apex of a triangle,  I've had best success with toe-in when the speakers were on the long wall and I was sitting closer to the base than the width of speakers.  Along the short wall, when the seating position is further from the base than the base width, little or no toe in has been best to my ears.  I have a limited range of experience with different speakers so ymmv.

I think part of the advantage of toe-in is that the first reflection points are put further off axis.  But wall treatments can provide a similar effect.  If you want to try something in your room, move your speakers to have toe-in of just a small amount and then "treat" your walls at the reflection points using blankets.   If you have some wood around the house (plywood sheet or make a simple frame out of 1"x2") make a support that will allow you to hang a few layers of blankets and place them along the walls to see if that helps.   You could hang the blankets directly on the wall if you have a strong picture hook on each side, you can drape the blankets over a rod and hang the rod from the hooks with a string tied to each end.  If you hang the blankets so that they are bunched, that will help to defract any reflections off the blankets.  Thats a cheap/non invasive test and if it helps, build some fiberglass panels.

[ducati]

I'm not seeing much, if any, toe in on y'alls speakers... is there a reason that one should/shouldn't toe in the speakers?  I always thought it was the way to go, but that's just more of an unfounded assumption than anything else... plus, I am reading that toe in might have something to do with the bright hi's...

It's hard to tell looking at the photo, but mine are actually toed in so I can't see either side of the speaker.  This means the tweets are firing right at my ears.  With the ProAcs, you want that...  With my old B&Ws gawd they killed me when toed that far.

Toeing your Heresys out may well soften the highs--but it will also soften the mids.  Does anyone know the dispersion characteristics of horn-loaded tweeters?  I've never had one and don't have direct advice to offer here.

[Daryan]

http://www.foambymail.com  My room is literally covered in 4 inch pyramid with bass traps in all the corners.  I also have some high end panels as well.

[Mic D]

I'm not seeing much, if any, toe in on y'alls speakers... is there a reason that one should/shouldn't toe in the speakers? I always thought it was the way to go, but that's just more of an unfounded assumption than anything else... plus, I am reading that toe in might have something to do with the bright hi's...

The speakers I'm using right now have rear ambience drivers in the back so when they are toed-in, the rear drivers are actually "toed-out". This can create a huge "hole" in the middle of the ambient soundfield. The vr-2's require very little/no toe-in when the rear drivers are active.

[scervin]

http://www.foambymail.com  My room is literally covered in 4 inch pyramid with bass traps in all the corners.  I also have some high end panels as well.

That's funny, foambymail.com (Foam factory is 5 min from where I sit at this very moment).  Curious which bass traps you are using.  Again foam does very little for absorbtion.  You could have probably used 1/2 as much duct liner and I wouldn't think you want a room full of diffusors?

[dmonterisi]

this is shanon tweed b-grade skinimax porn by y'all's standards.

B&W N804s
B&W CC6 S2 (center speaker)
B&W LM1 surrounds (not shown suspended on side walls)
Marantz SR-19 HT receiver
Onkyo DV-SP800 universal player
tivo
some non-working POS DAT deck that i borrowed from somebody
Yamaha cassetted deck
Sony M-1 (not shown)
Kimber 8TC bi-wired speaker cables
Computer (not shown) with coax>SR-19
VCR
TV
candles
photographs
Print of Picasso's La Ronde
coffee table
remotes
Ipizzle
mail
small statue of dog
wires

I think that's it.