This is my experience in a nutshell.
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I recall reading on GIKās website some time ago that they felt diffusion on the front wall behind speakers was low on the list of high efficacy improvements in many rooms. Iāve tried using diffusers or trap/diffusors in front of our tv used with system #2 and it makes very, very little difference to the end result. The speaker drivers sit roughly 16ā forward of the plane defined by the tv screen.
Usually we add stuff that softens a room, not make it brighter. This is why most rooms get overdamped and rob the music of that dynamic liveliness we paid the big buck to get. We way overthink this.
DSP isnāt magic, it will flatten the bass in the seated position, and only somewhat in a simiar resonance node. The biggest mistake is to not get the system as flat as you can BEFORE you EQ with DSP. The more DSP has to work the less the natural end product will sound. Make the room work in your favor first. Walk around with a SPL meter and find the peaks and valley nodes. Consider a seated position that coincides with the flattest spot relative to the SPL of a 1 KHz tone as a reference. Donāt sit in a bass peak or a hole.You may need to move the speakers if you canāt move the seated position, or both if you can move each, or one. It all depends but naturally EQ the room first. Now DSP and consider (usually not needed except really abnormally harsh rooms) sound absorbers.
Most will try to fight the room, sit tight and expect DSP and room treatment to tame the āvisually" appealing seated position. You need to agree with the room first. I know, I know, DSP was the save and solve everything tech for bass. No more work for you! Well, thatās wrong. Most people who donāt like DSP have an overworked EQ curve fighting a room.
Galen
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Amen. Not understanding the room was one of my first mistakes.
It takes alot of hard work (and money, in my case) to win that āargumentā with the room. Lots of diffusers, some traps, Black Boxes, and PSI active absorbers. Everything helps. Not perfect, according to Wizard EQ, but much better.
The easy proof is when I take out the PSIās with a touch of the app. Boomy bass, midrange overhang,
gritty highs. Yuk. Itās the best single solution.
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Succinct and useful, thank you.
To bring things into context, my original question relates to the very large projection screen I have between the speakers and the constant search for improvement.
If I had to do it all over again, I would start with 4 PSI units and then would end up with way less treatments.
Room sounds great. Too bad some of the recordings I like seem to have been mixed for headphones. But, thatās a whole other topic
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Sort of where I was when building the room. Vicoustics suggested that I swap to Acoustically transparent screen. My old room was not, and had absorption behind the screen. New room is diffusion and AT Screen. That being said, new rooms sounds better. it is wider, so thats part of it too.
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