I’m not yet an official Decware owner. I have a Torii MKiv on order should be ready end of winter early spring
I’ve learned so much from this forum I thought my recent annoyance I'd turn into something that may give back in some small way.
I’ve found that the room is such a significant factor to the sound you can get from your stereo. Acoustically treating a room can increase your enjoyment of the room even when the stereo isn’t playing.
I recently had my apartment flood for the second time, and I’ve moved into a new unit.
The new unit is just about identical. I took a few photo's along the way to share.
Some of the limitations I have.
I'm currently living in The Philippines. I’m not sure how long I will be here. I love living here and am considering retiring here, Or I'll move back the the USA. So my studio apartment is temporary. I could be here for 3 months, or 3 years I don’t know.
Being in The Philippines, the selection of materials is limited, while many products will ship here the import duties and shipping can easily double or triple the price of imported goods if they are large or heavy it can be extremely expensive. I also don’t have access to a workshop or many tools.
The room is 2.8m x 9.9m (9’2” x 32’x6”) the room widens in the middle where the kitchen is.
The walls are concrete. I didn’t realize how many years I was listening to drywall vibrate until I heard a walled concrete room.
I cannot do anything permanent.
This is the empty space where everything will happen.
The window is single pane and has gaps when shut. First thing I did was seal the window gaps, so moisture and dust don’t come in. The white foam also protects the black fabric from UV rays.
The wooden frame is made from 2x4s. It’s secured by hammering in the two vertical pieces, and it is in there tight. First time doing this I set the 2x4s then screwed in the white holders second.
These are the acoustic panels I’m using. They are from Primacoustics. I chose Primacoustics because they are the only ones I could find. I did look into building my own with 703. I calculated it out and it was about a wash on cost.
Having all these stacked like this really alters the room acoustics already.
It took only a few minutes to slide in all the 2” panels in. The reason I completely blocked out the window is that I wanted to stop as many reflections as possible. It also helps block out the outside noise. As a side benefit, it helps me sleep because the room is almost entirely dark.
These are 2 3” panels in the corners. Once I get a more permanent living situation, I will replace these with diaphragmatic bass absorbers. I estimate the diaphragmatic bass absorbers will weigh 200-250 pounds!
I then stacked another 3” on top in the corners. Corners are generally the best bang for the buck in absorption.
Don’t worry I used sticky tape to clean up the panels when I finished
Sidewall panels are 3” resting on easels without the 3rd leg.
This is the final setup. When I first was placing the panels I had the walls heavily damped. It was overdamped, and it killed the aliveness.
Amphion Argon 7LS in rough placement 1.3m 4’4” away from the wall. They are on Isoacoustic Gaia resting on sheets of paper so I can slide them around. The Amp is a “cheap Chinese” 15w Oldchen kt88 tube amp. I bought it wondering if 25watts would be enough. I also have PS audio M700 monos.
PS Audio P3 regenerator, Oldchen KT88-k1, Teddy pardo 7v and 9v, TP-Link media converter and PS Audio DSD DAC being fed by Microrendu. I’m laying the cables out so it’s not too much of a rats nest when plugging everything in.
Cabling is Synergistic Research red x3, Purist Audio Cable Luminist Revision Neptune ( I got a fantastic deal on this cable. I still cannot believe I spent so much on it!) and the speaker cables are Zenwave. (on loan from my brother.) Analysis Plus Solo Crystal Interconnects and Curious evolved USB cable.
The equipment is sitting on 2” acrylic sitting on rubber and cork feet. I have hexamagic anti vibration (great value!) under the P3 and Teddy pardo. I use Isoacoustics Oreas under everything else.
All plugged in and no sparks or terrible sounds! wooo! in fact it’s dead silent.
With my desk chair serving double duty as my listening chair, I’m almost ready. Just need to fire up Roon queue up a relaxing playlist and write this.
Without treatment, the room was very unpleasant for listening to music. The soundstage was between the speakers. For the most part, when it did go past the speakers, it didn’t sound right at all. Details were completely lost. I vividly recall hearing a cymbal hit thinking it sounded like hundreds of BB’s poured into a tin can.
I don’t think I still have the untreated REW measurements. I think I had a 2s+ reverb time below 200hz and 500-800+ ms in the rest of the frequency range.
After treating the room the speakers disappeared. The depth of the sound goes past the window. The width of the soundstage goes past the speakers easily, the room seems 2-3 wider, and after you have closed your eyes, you lose your sense of space in the room.
I’ll measure the room again this weekend and share the results if people are interested. It’s still not pretty! I Have a bad suck out around 80hz. 100-200hz and 20-60hz has +15db increase.
Reverb dropped to just under 300ms until getting into the bass region where I think it’s max is 1.2s of reverb.
I don’t remember the exact numbers from REW. Too lazy to look it up now.
As of right now, I don’t have any plans on adding diffusion. I’ve found someone who can make me a diffusor to my specs. Once I get a more permanent place to live I’ll look into it.
Any suggestions or comments I’m happy to hear.
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Studio Apartment Before and After (Read 8022 times)
