Last Friday afternoon 12 more Carbon Panels arrived. I managed to get them all in the room solo… I was going to wait for my buddy however, my brother said he managed his by himself so I couldn’t let him out do me.
Dennis in his first email said to have diffusers on the front and back walls. That is how I had it setup for the first week without all the Carbon Panels. After a day of listening with all the wall treatment in, I moved all 4 diffusers to the front wall. Speaking with him on the phone he said that he wanted me to listen like that first and then move all the diffusers to the front wall. So my instincts were correct.
I’ve been slowly moving the speaker and listening position. I’m getting confident I have found the ideal spot. Once that is locked in, the 3 CPAs will be installed on the ceiling.
Coverage is ~67% of the walls in linear feet. The CPAs are sitting in another room, as a side note, that room is really nice acoustically with one wall 95% covered with the treatment. I haven’t played music in there, by feel it’s more pleasant than before.
I’m going to bounce a round a bit. Once I have a better handle on what I’m hearing I’ll offer a more focused description.
I sat down to listen… I was almost disappointed for a split second… Then OH SHIT! What is possible in the listening experience has changed, a paradigm shift has happened. Why was there a split second of almost disappointment? When there has been something wrong for your entire life, then it corrected my brain short circuited for a moment. Of course that is how it should sound! Then the realization that everything and I mean everything has changed.
The vocabulary of describing changes doesn’t make sense to use anymore. It just won’t translate correctly. Bigger soundstage, more separation, tight bass, listen deeper, you are there and the list goes on… Yes, all the vocabulary to describe the changes can be used. Will it translate how profound the change is? I don’t think so.
I’ve casually been following a thread about the Taiko Extreme Server, it’s price tag is ~$30,000, They announced there is going to be a 25% price increase soon, $37,500 server. They have a new software that is in alpha testing. Peoples minds are exploding over how much better it sounds. After experiencing what this room sounds like treated. It’s a fool’s errand to use the same descriptors to describe what the experience is. Unless the paradigm and context changes. They are talking about 8 bit color I’m experiencing 16 bit color.
The difference between 8 and 16 bit color is 16,700,000 vs 281,000,000,000,000, that’s millions vs trillions.
When someone describes something as “hyper detailed” I get feeling it’s sterile, hot on top, fatiguing, hard and lost a bit of the soul of the music. I’m now hearing exponentially more information. I can also listen for hours and still want more.
This photo might be a good example.
https://www.earthcam.net/projects/empirestatebuilding/gigapixelpanorama/2021/Slowly zoom in on anything that you find interesting. Once you have zoomed all the way in quickly zoom all the way out.
If you’re not familiar with the NYC skyline click the points of interest and find the Statue Of Liberty. Click it off again and SLOWLY start zooming in. Again quickly zoom out. That is what the treatment has done. Little specks that where not even visible can be focused on and incredible detail can be seen. The music doesn’t get grainy like the photo!
As with that photo, you can take a quick glance and say “yeah, that’s cool” and move on. You can also start to explore little nooks and crannies. Before you know it it’s been hours and the time has disappeared.
Listening to the same track multiple times in a row is a wild ride. There is so much to explore. Following a bass line, a connection is made to the cymbals as it slowly fades away attention is brought to the guitar. The guitar and the bass line are not just playing off of each other. They have a connection. Everything is connected. I have yet to make it through a song focusing on just one part. They way they are connected together it it’s not a drum kit, guitar, bass and singer. It’s one instrument.
The same way a stringed instrument has different parts that make up how the instrument sounds. A band becomes a single instrument. Not just the performance. The sounds blend together in a way that makes sense.
From the whole, you can then go in and hyper focus on a small little detail. The focus doesn’t take effort. There is no struggle.
Vocals are interesting on their own. When there is the smallest bit of ambience on the vocal recording, the echo comes through so clear. Songs I never knew that there was any echo at all, now it can be easily heard. As if the singer cloned themself and was whispering the lyrics a split second after.
Every day, I’m checking to make sure I’m not listening to a remastered version or a completely different version of songs I’ve been listening to for decades. Some songs sound like they have been re-recorded. New instruments and a different mic setup. It’s that large of a change.
All of this is driven on the foundation of bass. This might be the most difficult to convey. Even subsonic bass feels different. It might be because It’s so new. Bass might be more complex than midrange and treble combined! There is so much there! It’s audible and tactile. The tactile aspect is the most fascinating to me currently. The experience we all have had is when music is played energy hit’s our body. It’s almost constant, no dynamics. Difference is standing in a pool of water vs the ocean with waves. There isn’t much excitement with the pool. The ocean is dynamic and exciting, ever changing. The waves can be calming and serene or full of power and force. Music (sound waves) especially the bass have the same properties. It’s a new experience which I’m enthralled with.
The tactile feeling might be why open air drum circles are so popular… or maybe it’s the drugs? Or, both?
I’ve lowered the volume I listen at by ~ 5db SPL. The explosiveness of the music makes it seem a lot louder. Peaks of 71-72db exciting. 75-80 is crushing.
I’m going to make some numbers up real quick to illustrate a point.
Room 1. 30 db ambient noise. It’s treated so all the frequencies get in, do their job and leave quickly. 50db vocals are easy hear, 20db of dynamics range on the vocals. Bass hit of 70db, 40db swing!
Room 2. 30 db ambient noise. The frequencies hangout and over stay their welcome. raising the “active ambient” noise to 50db. Now, Vocals at 50db are hard to hear. What do we do? raise the volume. Now the Vocals are at 60db, the “active ambient” noise has raised to 53db. 7 db of dynamics on the vocals. Bass hits at 80 db now, problem is bass is drunk throws up on the floor and passed out on your couch. For a few moments the “active ambient” is raised to 70db, leaving 10 db of dynamic range on the bass hit. It also covers up the harmonics and subtlety that the bass can offer. To compound this the “active ambient” noise is above the vocals so you don’t hear all of them.
Room 1 “active ambient” and ambient noise are the same. This is what treating / managing the bass does.
Room 2 is a typical room. It’s actually worse than that! This example isn’t taking into account room modes.
Have a “fast” amp and speakers? Your room has one foot on the brake and the other on the gas ruining it all.
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Groovy's Stereophonic Sound Spectacular Music Room (Read 210 times)
