After a recent move, my new rectangular listening room was smaller and very bright lively space.
Instead of a $1400 power cord I spent $1400 to have the room professionally analyzed and recommended room treatments added.
After the first analysis I was asked “is the bass sucked out or lean between 70-90hz”? It was. Turns out the bass waves were cancelling out given the 8’ ceilings and room size. This I know because it could be heard.
The results were astonishing! Unbelievable clean bass much improved detail with the combination of selective absorbers & diffusers which were selected and tuned to the room for dipole speakers.
Not only were the improvements blindly obvious to novice listeners, and the room measured better.
They have a 3D room drawing tool and a questionnaire which forms the foundation of their analysis and recommendations. They want to know the configuration of the room like windows, doors, window treatments, flooring, listening purpose, equipment used, etc.
John nailed what was happening in my room and made 5 specific recommendations in rank order of impact and sonic expectations for each. The beauty of this approach is it allows a person to scale into a full treatment if budget is a challenge. For ~$250 progress is made as a first step.
In my case 4 of the the 5 treatments were installed. My current room is the worst room I’ve used in 30 years of hifi listening. Investing $1460 made this same room the best I’ve heard.
GIK prides themselves on cost effective proven with science treatments. Their absorber/diffusers were $244 a pair in a market were many charge $900 and much higher with use of crazy exotic materials of no added value.
I have measuring equipment, but a simple slap test can say a lot. In my case a single loud hand clap caused an ear piercing echo before treatment. After treatment the slap echo test was crisp, but not ear piercing. It proved the treatment only tamed the room while not reducing it to an anechoic chamber.
The bass traps on the ceiling probably shocked me most on the upside.
My wife has always been “tolerant” of the hifi and occasionally enjoying it. The room treatments were ordered with matching wall/ceiling colors to make them blend in as best as possible. She appreciate the aesthetic, but loved the sound improvement even more. She now listens to the hifi on her own and has fully embraced the whole set-up.
GIK is seriously back-logged, expect 16 weeks to delivery.
For dipole speakers GIK recommended 2 pairs of their PolyFusors stacked on each other in the corners of the front wall. Given the slight speaker toe-in and equal transmission of sound from both sides of the Magnepan 1.6QR’s, John Dykstra called them his silver bullet for dipole speakers.
I learned something new. The acoustic corner of the room is different than the physical corner. The PolyFusors needed to sit against the wall and about 5 inches from the physical corner to be effective. Still need to experiment for an exact perfect spot.
The cost was $270 per corner plus a small uplift for premium Guilford of Maine fabric. Of the 5 recommendations, this was his “must do first” if I could only afford 1 recommendation.
I just received six of those. Took forever for them to finally send them to me. I was disappointed as the boxes barely survived the trip, open at both ends, top plate broken on one. The units themselves all look rushed and have very visible seams in the middle of the arch on each one. Very poor work, took forever, but boy do they work well!
GIK still owes a pair of Quadratic diffusers for the front wall. My corner Bas Trap and floor to ceiling Impressions diffusers sure straightened up my soundstage. My sweet spot is 10 foot wide now.
I have a few GIK panels, and they have been relegated to home theater room duty. They look cheap and badly made, although they do work well.
I replaced all of them with Addictive Sound panels. I think that they are based in Poland, so probably not available in the US. They are absolutely gorgeous, not a flaw. MUCH better built.
They have also transformed my soundstage, which is now much bigger, especially laterally.
Some credit goes to the Holo May as well, with its much bigger soundstage than the DS, in my system.
My studio has oodles of GIK panels. While not showy, they look fine; squared up, fabric evenly stretched, etc. They are years’ old however. Perhaps GIK changed their construction.
Probably a lack of “qualified” help which has become a world wide problem. I’m not sure who was the idiot that thought we wouldn’t need any skilled trades / manufacturing / construction workers so they stopped offering classes in junior high and high school 25 years ago.
They should be drawn and quartered for their ignorance.
