How important is the room?

[DaveyF]

Today, I had the pleasure of listening to a mid-fi system in a VERY large room that was absolutely amazing acoustically. The room had a 20'+ ceiling and was probably 30'X25' with a fireplace at the end spanning the full height of the room. The fireplace was finished in copper and the hearth was made of brick. The system was a Denon system feeding Klipsch speakers and a Klipsch subwoofer...Most impressive, so much so that I thought the bass and the mids were almost lifelike

Oddly, I had heard this same room with a superb high-end system about 25 years ago and it impressed the heck out of me even then. What struck me today was how immensely important the room is to the overall sound, naturally I had known this before, BUT when you hear a system like this being able to produce a sound that many of us cannot get with mega buck gear in a lesser room...it's an eye-opener.

Another thought occurred to me, instead of investing any serious money into gear, perhaps the answer in this hobby is to acquire a magnificent acoustic room and the rest will take care of itself.
The contribution of the gear to the sound in the room room makes me wonder now, because this sound was so damn good that I have to question a little where we are going with our gear upgrades Thoughts?

 

[Steve Williams]

Sage advice Davey

FWIW, I bought my house because of my sound room and what I could do with it

 

[fas42]

Actually, that combination of gear I would suggest to anyone straight off, and have done so a few times already, who wanted an impressive system at a budget price. The acoustics of the room are in turn enhancing the intrinsic "synergy" of that arrangement ...

Frank

 

[Bruce B]

Another thought occurred to me, instead of investing any serious money into gear, perhaps the answer in this hobby is to acquire a magnificent acoustic room and the rest will take care of itself.
The contribution of the gear to the sound in the room room makes me wonder now, because this sound was so damn good that I have to question a little where we are going with our gear upgrades Thoughts?

I have said this for years... the better the room, the more modest the gear you can get away with.

I'd say the room is 60-80% of your sound

 

[RogerD]

I'll be the spoiler here. I don't think you need a great room or to spend a ton of money on equipment,to get exceptional sound.

 

[Bruce B]

I'll be the spoiler here. I don't think you need a great room or to spend a ton of money on equipment,to get exceptional sound.

Put a $six-figure system in a 12' x 12' x 12' room with concrete floor/ceiling and cinderblock walls and get back to me!

 

[RogerD]

Put a $six-figure system in a 12' x 12' x 12' room with concrete floor/ceiling and cinderblock walls and get back to me!

Ge do you feel better now,smart ass! Go take a midol

 

[Soundproof]

Sage advice Davey

FWIW, I bought my house because of my sound room and what I could do with it

Same here with my present home, and I'm now in the prosess of building another where the focus is on the listening room ...

The room is key to the perception of realistic reproduction.

 

[JackD201]

I had my present system shoehorned into the living room of my old place. I managed to get very good sound. I then moved to a house literally built around the music room. All I can say is that all the planning, saving and hard work paid off. For those thinking of plunking down large green on equipment, I would strongly recommend spending it on the listening environment first.

The room doesn't have to look industrial either. Now more than ever, you will find a fantastic array of sound products that can be invisible if not pleasing to the eye, even clear coating absorption for windows!

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

That's a big room. My guess would be that the way the system is set up in that room, there is a lot of space for the direct sound to travel, beyond your ears, before it hits anything. So you're hearing mostly direct sound from the speakers, and the first reflection are coming late enough not to interfere much with your perceptions. You can accomplish this with smaller systems in smaller rooms, listening closer. You can get it with room treatment. Or, if you're lucky, you can get really close with a lot of soft stuff in a cluttered space . I use a combination of a near field set-up and the soft clutter in a small room principles. Sadly, the wall directly behind my listening position was covered with my wife's shelves, which were filled with all kinds of stuff of various textures, angles, density, etc...a clutter storage system, if you will. She cleaned it up last week and now I have a slight glare in the upper midrange when I turn up past a certain point. I could treat that wall, but it's much easier to just turn down a bit and wait for her to fill the space up again, which is inevitable.

Tim

 

[rockitman]

I have said this for years... the better the room, the more modest the gear you can get away with.

I'd say the room is 60-80% of your sound

Totally agree. And if you have reference gear, it's even better. My jaw dropped after I fully treated my listening room with bass traps and first reflection zone absorption. It was by far the most important aquistion I have made in dramatically improving music reproduction in my space. Rooms need to have a relatively flat frequency reponse to sound their best otherwise you end up with bass bloat and muddled imaging... But you already know that. Just adding some agreeement with your post. Cheers !

 

[Ronm1]

Totally agree. And if you have reference gear, it's even better. My jaw dropped after I fully treated my listening room with bass traps and first reflection zone absorption. It was by far the most important aquistion I have made in dramatically improving music reproduction in my space. Rooms need to have a relatively flat frequency reponse to sound their best otherwise you end up with bass bloat and muddled imaging... But you already know that. Just adding some agreeement with your post. Cheers !

Yep, to you and Bruce. I won't say my jaw dropped but room treatment was enlightning to say the least.
Now my room has to double as both HT/2ch. Improvement for music was pretty obvious, but dialog with film certainly went up a notch. No longer would it get lost in effects after treatment.

 

[FrantzM]

I have said this for years... the better the room, the more modest the gear you can get away with.

I'd say the room is 60-80% of your sound

I concur ! Spend the money on speakers and room , then add whatever you fancy ...

 

[MilkMan]

Forgive the newbie post. Is the 'room' becoming less significant in the overall equation due to the new fangled 'room correction systems'?

 

[FrantzM]

Forgive the newbie post. Is the 'room' becoming less significant in the overall equation due to the new fangled 'room correction systems'?

Very important question .. The answer is no... DRC systems are not a panacea. You need a baseline of at least an adequate room , treated to mnimize he least deleterious aspects, then you can correct with DSP to perfection... Not the other way around . No amount of DRC will make a bad room good...

 

[Steve Williams]

Forgive the newbie post. Is the 'room' becoming less significant in the overall equation due to the new fangled 'room correction systems'?

no post here is a newbie post.

Welcome to WBF

 

[MilkMan]

Very important question .. The answer is no... DRC systems are not a panacea. You need a baseline of at least an adequate room , treated to mnimize he least deleterious aspects, then you can correct with DSP to perfection... Not the other way around . No amount of DRC will make a bad room good...

Thank you for your comments. I fully concur. I have used several different types of room correction technologies but none have been the magic solution. In the end, I've always ended up making manual tweaks to get it as close to perfection as my ears prefer.

 

[MilkMan]

no post here is a newbie post.

Welcome to WBF

Thank you Dr. Williams. I appreciate the welcome!

BTW, the name's Steve

 

[Steve Williams]

Great bunch of highly knowledgeable members here with smart answers to just about every question

 

[MylesBAstor]

I concur ! Spend the money on speakers and room , then add whatever you fancy ...

I really think this becomes the chicken or egg scenario. One can come up with lot's of different scenarios that would be exception to the rules

That said, people needs a good front-end with a modicum of Rx combined with correct speaker placement combined with some reasonable starting room dimensions (and construction?).