System Photos!

Yes, if it sounds good inspite of glass around, that’s fine, but it for sure doesn’t sound good because of the glass around :wink:

I watched John Darko‘s videos about the Vicoustic project in his home. Mind you he has those panels for loan, he did not pay for them.

Following issues are not good for sound quality in my living room:

  • glass windows (because we love to see the garden and the beasties in there)
  • tiled floor (because we have a Bernese Mountain Dog. Carpets and such dogs do not match. We like to keep the room as clean as possible with a minimum of time and effort to do so)
  • TV behind the speakers (because it is rather logic to have the sound direction from the same angle as the motion pictures we are watching and we do not like rolling screens and projectors)
  • hand made art in beautiful frames or family pictures on the wall (because it matches our taste better than foam, fiber filled or Styropor sculptures)

I still love music. quality reproduction of it and have a fanatic interest in the equipment to realize all that.

But: turning our living space into a professional tone studio that looks like a cheap cloth, Styropor wood sculptured „Bretterbude“ which attracts dust and spider cobwebs like honey attracts flies.

Not our cup of tea.

Neither are John Darko‘s reviews of any relevance for me anymore as it is now certain, that what he hears is something that will never happen in our living room. I did like his reviews till before the Vicoustic project, as they did happen in a real living environment.

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Don’t mind the mess. We had family over last night. On that note, the Christmas Tree does in fact have good ole’ fashion bubble lights on it! :D

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This jab/sentiment makes absolutely no sense to me.

Care to elaborate? I don’t mean to pick, but the tone strikes me as so negative that I am now curious to understand you’re apparent “ire”.

FWIW.

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Glass and HIFI … no thanks … HiFI in a car? Yes, there are also some who buy it

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@scotte1 Maybe an itsy bitsy touch of situational jealousy?

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And an alpaca (the shorter neck and rounded back than a llama gives it away). :slight_smile:

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Hi Scotte I am happy to elaborate.

There are very few reviewers reviewing as much „entry level“ equipment as John Darko and the way he used to do that was quite good.

He reviewed in an environment that is very typical for people entering this hobby or that do not have space for a dedicated listening room.

Now he reviews in a dedicated listening room that costs EUR 10.000 for room treatments alone. Not paid by himself, which I find questionable especially if it comes to impartiality.

That is simply not an entry level environment, and according to the interior committee and myself not representative of our living environment, ever.

For high end audiophiles who don’t mind to install a dedicated, room treated listening room, there are already enough reviewers and magazines around.

The effect of the DSP room treatment features of Buchardt Audio, Lyngdorf, Dirac and others will have a whole different effect on the sound quality in a treated room than in a non treated room. That means that people interested in learning to know what the effect in their untreated living room will get a non-relevant answer. That is a big pity as John Darko is one of the few „audiophiles“ who is pro that technology and I like that nuanced opinion very much.

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It’s completely impossible to be jealous of John Darko
Jealous Guy musik af Bryan Ferry

image

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Thank you for your reply.

I respectfully disagree with your premises:

  1. “Taming the room” is to be lauded (it is the most important part of your system and having an, arguably, more neutral room to test and subjectively review kit will be of benefit to Mr. Darko and his listeners/patrons/readers);

  2. The fact that Mr. Darko did not pay for the acoustic treatment products MIGHT make him less than objective as to their perceived performance, but I doubt it (conversely, a lot of folks think that paying big bucks for improvement tweaks makes for expectation or confirmation bias, not vice versa). The Vicoustic stuff is well reviewed, the products reportedly do what they are designed to do and appear to have been properly placed in Mr. Darko’s listening room to improve the space, acoustically speaking. The fact that Mr. Darko has them on loan will not objectively or subjectively reduce their value in giving him a better, more neutral room/listening tool for evaluating kit;

  3. No two rooms and compilation of kit are the same. I do not agree that having a well laid out room that has relatively expensive room treatment installed disqualifies Mr. Darko from reviewing “entry-level” kit. Whether one can afford or stomach the aesthetics of the Vicoustic stuff for use in ones home is irrelevant in my mind. I just can’t follow you logic in this regard. All reviewers’ listening experience is impacted by their rooms and their kit and therefore result in a listening experience that will be different than that of the one who buys or auditions kit based on a review. These differences will vary based on the care reviewers take to set up rooms and kit. I, personally, would be more worried about bad equipment reviews from reviewers who did not bother to make sure the kit they were reviewing had a fair chance of singing at their best because the room was crappy or the kit was set up or mated carelessly such that it impeded performance; and

  4. And finally (IMO/IME), DSP is a refinement tool that cannot correct all acoustic challenges. The more issues the room has, the more room treatment and/or DSP is needed to try to improve things. Having a great room, acoustically speaking, does not mean that DSP is no longer beneficial to those that are comfortable using same (and I am one of those people). It just means that DSP implementation in such case will require a lighter touch.

In any event, sorry for the long post. And, to each his own.

Have a great weekend.

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We can probably read so many Speaker tests - The only thing that matters is how the speakers sound at home in your room … Everything else does not matter

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To a certain extent, for sure.

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Unless you fork out and pay speakers up front just to be able to listen to them in your own room, it is correct that the best room to audition is your own.

However, before I fork out and transfer that kind of money to somebody else’s bank account, I must have heard the speakers up front.

I don’t care that it is not my own room. Also I want to see and touch them to get a complete idea on built quality.

The fact that Buchardt Audio offers a low enough flat fee globally to return the speakers should they not fit the own room is a big piece of comfort. But still I have listened to the speakers prior to paying them.

Indeed, we agree to disagree.

No bubbles here but I love big bulbs! View of the tree from the harbeths

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Looking at your room makes me feel good. Like a real home.

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Always thought the Christmas tree made the room sound better.

It DOES. Trust me !!

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Christmas trees and Grandchildren are what Christmas IS !!

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With Rudolph it’s invariably about money.

To lighten things up, my tree. Real Norway Spruce.

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