DougMac
05-14-2015, 08:41 AM
I had a chance to stop by the Ascend Headquarters to audition Sierra Towers (which sounded spectacular). I noticed they had some 340's in the audition room, which is what I'm currently using in my dedicated home theater. We hooked them up to give me a point of comparison to the Sierra's.
A couple of things struck me. First, the 340's are no slouches and acquitted themselves well compared to the Towers. I also noticed how much better they sounded in the Ascend audition room compared to home. The soundstage was more expansive, center placement of vocals was pinpoint and the mid-bass "boxiness" I hear sometimes was not there. The audition room is roughly the same size as my home theater, but I noticed the extensive use of room treatments by Dave.
When I got home, I started doing some research on room treatments. I decided that DIY super chunk bass traps would provide the most effective starting point. I special ordered a package of Roxul Safe'n'Sound from Lowe's. The batts are 21.5" wide. I cut the batts into triangles measuring 21.5" on two sides. I then cut same size triangles out of 1/2" plywood. I drilled holes at each corner and used 1" wooden curtain rods for the vertical frame. I slid 2" PVC sections on the posts to hold up each wooden triangle, which were placed 24" apart. The entire trap was 8' tall, the height of the proscenium where my front projection screen resides. I then built frames to put in front of the bass traps, using a black spandex material as my "speaker cloth". The traps are in the corners on either side of the screen.
I started the test with the SVS sub off. There was an immediate and very noticeable improvement. My 340's now sounded like the ones in Ascend's audition room. The soundstage was much better and any hint of mid-bass boxiness was gone. Instruments and voices were more detailed.
I then turned on the sub and found the bass traps made a huge difference in low bass. It was deeper, smoother, more musical and detailed. LFE in movies hit much harder and deeper. I set my system to 75db @ 1,000 hz. I measured at 17hz and got 74db! Measurements up to 80hz were right at 75db with much fewer and smaller dips and peaks.
I have around $100 in the project and I can't remember when I've made such a dramatic improvement for so little money.
I still see Sierra Towers with a Horizon center in my future, but I'm not in quite as much a hurry now. Thanks Dina, Joe and Dave for being such good hosts! Sorry Dave.
A couple of things struck me. First, the 340's are no slouches and acquitted themselves well compared to the Towers. I also noticed how much better they sounded in the Ascend audition room compared to home. The soundstage was more expansive, center placement of vocals was pinpoint and the mid-bass "boxiness" I hear sometimes was not there. The audition room is roughly the same size as my home theater, but I noticed the extensive use of room treatments by Dave.
When I got home, I started doing some research on room treatments. I decided that DIY super chunk bass traps would provide the most effective starting point. I special ordered a package of Roxul Safe'n'Sound from Lowe's. The batts are 21.5" wide. I cut the batts into triangles measuring 21.5" on two sides. I then cut same size triangles out of 1/2" plywood. I drilled holes at each corner and used 1" wooden curtain rods for the vertical frame. I slid 2" PVC sections on the posts to hold up each wooden triangle, which were placed 24" apart. The entire trap was 8' tall, the height of the proscenium where my front projection screen resides. I then built frames to put in front of the bass traps, using a black spandex material as my "speaker cloth". The traps are in the corners on either side of the screen.
I started the test with the SVS sub off. There was an immediate and very noticeable improvement. My 340's now sounded like the ones in Ascend's audition room. The soundstage was much better and any hint of mid-bass boxiness was gone. Instruments and voices were more detailed.
I then turned on the sub and found the bass traps made a huge difference in low bass. It was deeper, smoother, more musical and detailed. LFE in movies hit much harder and deeper. I set my system to 75db @ 1,000 hz. I measured at 17hz and got 74db! Measurements up to 80hz were right at 75db with much fewer and smaller dips and peaks.
I have around $100 in the project and I can't remember when I've made such a dramatic improvement for so little money.
I still see Sierra Towers with a Horizon center in my future, but I'm not in quite as much a hurry now. Thanks Dina, Joe and Dave for being such good hosts! Sorry Dave.