Well, the Hedback Design room acoustic makeover is completed. Jeff Hedback (http://www.hedbackdesignedacoustics.com/) is a musician and expert acoustical engineer who designed and developed the changes we implemented, including the large ceiling diffusor cloud, side wall diffusor systems and the 400 lb MAT tuned membrane "floating wall" (behind the screen)..
We installed the large ceiling diffusor/trap a couple weeks ago and the sound of the room is transformational...a qualitative shift in everything...tonality, image specificity, detail, naturalness, soundstage depth. It's as if I told the room to "settle down and let me listen" and a whole new world opened up. Hell, it will probably force me to relook speaker positioning, etc...except my 90 minute listening session last night was sooo good that I'm not sure i wanna fix what ain't broken.
Thanks to Jeff, my local craftsman extraordinaire Doug Carpenter (yes, that's his real last name
) and to my wife and family for putting up with this.
All told, the major changes were:
* front corner traps, floor to ceiling, custom made. Allowed me to repurpose the Realtrap Mondo corners to the back sloped area.
* a 400 lb tuned membrane "floating wall" on the front wall, behind the screen assembly, which brought about amazing soundstage and balance (fewer nulls, etc) improvements by itself
* side wall diffusors and tetrahedral treatments that open up the room and improve even surround high rez imaging.
* the piece de resistance, a large ceiling cloud, hanging from acoustical clips, made up of wood diffusors and 4 inches of bass trapping foam insulation. (There is light roping installed but it shows up very slightly....no big deal, the roping set me back $12.). The energy held up in that ceiling area was quite high, caused mostly by my sloped ceiling design when we built the house. it was a good idea at the time!
All of the Realtrap products (20+ of them) and GIK art panels continue to do their jobs (in many cases re-positioned), and work in tandem with the Hedback Design custom built foundation.
(Pictures have darkening window treatments recessed to show natural light, but I never listen/watch that way. Left wall area is also cleared of RFZ trap for same reason, to let light in).
We installed the large ceiling diffusor/trap a couple weeks ago and the sound of the room is transformational...a qualitative shift in everything...tonality, image specificity, detail, naturalness, soundstage depth. It's as if I told the room to "settle down and let me listen" and a whole new world opened up. Hell, it will probably force me to relook speaker positioning, etc...except my 90 minute listening session last night was sooo good that I'm not sure i wanna fix what ain't broken.
Thanks to Jeff, my local craftsman extraordinaire Doug Carpenter (yes, that's his real last name
) and to my wife and family for putting up with this. All told, the major changes were:
* front corner traps, floor to ceiling, custom made. Allowed me to repurpose the Realtrap Mondo corners to the back sloped area.
* a 400 lb tuned membrane "floating wall" on the front wall, behind the screen assembly, which brought about amazing soundstage and balance (fewer nulls, etc) improvements by itself
* side wall diffusors and tetrahedral treatments that open up the room and improve even surround high rez imaging.
* the piece de resistance, a large ceiling cloud, hanging from acoustical clips, made up of wood diffusors and 4 inches of bass trapping foam insulation. (There is light roping installed but it shows up very slightly....no big deal, the roping set me back $12.). The energy held up in that ceiling area was quite high, caused mostly by my sloped ceiling design when we built the house. it was a good idea at the time!
All of the Realtrap products (20+ of them) and GIK art panels continue to do their jobs (in many cases re-positioned), and work in tandem with the Hedback Design custom built foundation.
(Pictures have darkening window treatments recessed to show natural light, but I never listen/watch that way. Left wall area is also cleared of RFZ trap for same reason, to let light in).
