Since I suggested creating a Rooms & Treatments forum section in an email to Paul McGowan, I guess it would make sense for me to put some content in here. Three years ago, I was listening to my sound system in a basement office, just a rectangular room with 8-foot ceilings. All my years of listening, I had just plunked my system where it made the most sense for my and my family’s lifestyle. But then I started wondering how much things would change if I started paying attention to how the sound was working (or not working) in the room. Then I started reading statements like “you will NEVER hear what your speakers and system are really capable of unless you spend time treating the room,” and “you can make a decent system sound fantastic in a treated room and ruin a great system by listening in a room with lousy acoustics.” So when we moved into a house with an unfinished basement, I started dreaming, designing, doing more research. I had professionals do the structural and electrical, but I specified everything and did the internal treatments myself. I can’t believe what a difference it made, like nothing I’d ever heard. But then I’d never even been in a dedicated audio room before, so I had nothing to compare it to.
I’ll spare all the details - if you’re interested, I posted this when I got done.
Of course during my research I read about software that can be used to “tune” a room - to find bad nodes, etc. I guess the idea is to locate areas in the room where things go out of whack. But how do those out-of-whack things affect my listening chair? To treat the room, I used a lot of theories and best practices, and then Paul McGowan’s Audiophile’s Guide books to place things. What advantages might I hear from playing with room-tuning software? Any recommendations?
My recommendation is to make BACCH a part of your system. Any of the products that include the Optimal Room Correction (ORC) module will simplify getting the best sound out of your room.
An excerpt from the ORC description:
BACCH-ORC is the most advanced room correction technology today. Unlike any other commercially available room correction system, BACCH-ORC relies on quick in-ear (binaural) acoustic measurements, millimeter-resolution head tracking, and cutting-edge algorithms derived from years of psychoacoustic research, to produce and apply individualized optimal room correction (ORC) filters that elevate any stereo loudspeaker playback system to its ultimate level of transparency.
Not only does BACCH-ORC correct for the spectral coloration of the loudspeakers and the listening room, it also neutralizes the spatial signature of the loudspeakers, which interferes with the spatial cues of the sources in the recording, leading to significantly enhanced spatial imaging.
It’s very easy to create ORC filters from the supplied binaural mics and I believe the results are more precise than the trial and error approximations we otherwise make with speaker and acoustic treatment placements. These latter techniques get you in the zip code and ORC allows you to get to your specific destination. With ORC you aren’t so much ‘tuning a room’ as you are optimizing what the room provides at your listening position. The good news is that the impact is dramatic. The bad news is that the maximum effect is only realized at the sweet spot listening position (or immediately in front or behind it). That’s not to say it sounds bad elsewhere but the effect is not as great.
If any of this interests you, I suggest considering giving BACCH a shot via their no-risk 30-day trial period. I think you’ll find that’s 29 more days than you need to determine if it lives up to the hype.
Thanks very much for the quick reply. I’ve looked into BACCH before and can’t remember exactly why I didn’t finish - seems it was hard to figure out what it would cost. I’ll give it another look.
I just finished my journey with new room. In the end the room and the placement of seats and speakers do the most. Then treatments help. Software will never fix really bad nodes.
I use Focus Fidelity to create Roon Convolution filters to do the last mile to use telecom terms. Icing on the cake.
If BACCH is too rich for your blood (it is for me right now) give that a look. Under 500 for everything including mic and you cans some serious corrections.
Framed in room. Used rockwool all sides and covered with Sonopan and the Sheetrock. I had Vicoustics do the design for where to put panels. I added some foam along edges. For music it’s pretty good sound proofing. But movies with the 3600 watts and 4 15” cones not so much.
Hey Brian, sorry so long getting back to you. What a great room you have. But what’s with all the video? And all the seats? I don’t have nearly enough friends to fill those. Seriously, I’m visually impaired and have just never been big on video and movies. Sure I can see well enough to watch a movie, but I guess it’s just never been my thing enough to get deep into the quality.
When I did my room, I really got serious about how quiet I could get it. It’s the same philosophy as lowering the noise floor on components. Some of the material I read said that even if we THINK it’s silent, if it’s not truly silent, the slightest of ambient sound colors what we hear.
I’ll look into Focus Fidelity. To be totally honest, on a scale of 1 to 10 of audiophiles, in terms of what I can hear and what I will spend, I’m probably around a 6. I certainly spent more and did more work than most on my room, but even then I read about rooms costing 5 times as much. So $500 won’t break my bank. I’ll look at it.
Oh yeah. When I had them design the treatment pattern I said two channel first then HT. I ended up changing screen material to acoustically transparent so the wall of diffusers would do their job.
I see you have a mini-split unit for heating/AC in there. Did you ever look at a passive "dead vent) system where you share the air from another room to condition the air of your listening area? Or maybe you’re lucky enough to live in an area where you can “pre-run” the mini-split before listening and it will hold its temp long enough? I live in the southern USA, and even though my room is mostly below ground, I need a little heat and air for comfort. It was work and expense, but I can turn my vent on and have to turn it up pretty high before I can hear anything at all.
In my previous house I did an extension of the first floor zone to my room. It helped. But I did not want to pay for AC to be on for 1100sqft to only “help” the room that really needed it. So I added a minisplit there. that was walk out basement. super easy. 3" hole in wall and I had a 20amp source right there.
But this new construction, I wanted it done right from the start. Dont need much heat in that room, but I have new office right next door. so I put in 2 zone minisplit. from the construction pics you can see you have to run and hang the unit before all construction done. its a weird process. But I did the MRCool DIY. I would not do that again. No rebate with DIY, so all the money I save by doing it myself, I lost on rebate. Anyway, it works like a champ. only on when I need it. Fast cooling and heating (in New England we need our heat).
With the room super insulated like it is, all the equipment heats the room up fast. Projector too. In winter don’t need heat after watching a movie that is for sure. But summer like now, oh boy I use that AC. its whisper quiet too.
This is the office. You have to walk through to get to my music room. The room is below the family room which has a curved wall of windows. I found cheap home made shelves out of very good plywood on Facebook and had them mounted on that wall. Came out nice for my movie collection
I have to say, your finish carpentry is sure better than mine! But I inherited my talents from my father who, if it couldn’t be built out of 2x4s, somebody else would have to do it. But as I said, I’m visually impaired, so if someone comments on my shoddy woodwork, I have a great excuse. Now as far as SOUND is concerned, if that’s shoddy, the only excuse is budget.
And those patterns on the carpet - is that from vacuuming? Sakes alive. Speaking of vacuums, I just sent this to a friend: Reminds me of a Mitch Hedberg joke: “A vacuum cleaner store is just like a guitar store - there are a bunch of vacuums hanging in the window to attract the vacuumists. But they do not attract the same clientele as a guitar store. because if they did, the vacuum store would be loaded with a bunch of broke f-ers who just want to run the new vacuums. ‘Let me try out that Hoover….. let’s see $100.’”
When I did my basement - in addition to the audio room, a closet for my media, office, family room, full bath, and sauna (which I built from a kit) - I was going to do central heat and air like the upstairs, but when I considered that the area really stays fairly cool in the summer and not freezing in the winter, when I looked at mini-splits, it was a no-brainer, 2 of them cost about 10-percent what I would have paid for central. I did look at DIY minis, but went ahead and had our builders do it.
So are you saying that you run the mini-splits WHILE you listen? Mine are quiet, but after putting all that work into total silence, no way.
Yeah I had help with that finish carpentry. If you see what they looked like when I got them, the. It’s really impressive. Got them for $20 each and modified them and had the carpenter mount and trim out. I did some of the easy face trim but he is the hard stuff.
I usually don’t have to run them for 2 ch but with long movie or watching football yeah it can get hot.
My aborted attempt at software room tuning is the miniDSP SHD that is boxed up waiting on me to find it a new home. There’s nothing wrong with it other than coming to the realization that I’m just not that interested in fussing with the system. A simple DMP A8 parametric EQ tweak to trim an infrequently energized room mode - one of several reason for bringing it into the system - hollows out the sound all of the time. Most might conclude my implementation is at fault, and that is probably true. But, outside of basic setup stuff, whatever I try tends to make things sound worse not better and I’m tired of chasing ghosts.
Coming to terms with my interests and relatively modest budget is also running up against the realization that s#!t recordings are going to sound like s#!t regardless of how much money and fuss I throw at the system. At the same time glorious recordings sound pretty freaking awesome even with the apparent short comings. Do these imperfections matter in these instances where the music is felt in ways that defy words? Nope.
So my friends, this is where I step off the merry go round. I’ll keep the recently added Marantz PM KI Ruby because it is awesome in its own ways and for no other reason than it’s a fitting way to fill a long held soft spot for Marantz. And I’ll fill out a parallel signal path by replacing the desktop headphone amp with a proper pre with a full complement of exposed tubes. It won’t matter if it doesn’t improve the harmonic glow. It’ll be all about the aesthetic and I’ll finally be okay with that.
