Room Treatment - Stillpoints Aperture
 

In the February, 2015 issue of Stereophile Michael Fremer has a short review of the Stillpoints Aperture room treatment panels. The Apertures were designed by the acoustician who invented Sonex panels. Fremer attributes "a truly dramatic and positive change in the sound" by using the Apertures. In contrast, he attributes only a "modest" improvement in using RPG's Skylines. Unfortunately there is no mention of how or why they work nor how to best use them.
I plan on in trying to improve my room acoustics this year, but have little direct experience in doing so or in the use of room improvement products. I am hoping that those of you that have experience with the Apertures or the use of similar products will share your thoughts.
Thanks, Mike

Okay, I'll start. For a year now I have experimented with the number and placement of Stillpoints' Aperture panels to optimize playback acoustics. For context, my 17'x22'x9' room is not real big but I feel fortunate to have it dedicated for audio. All walls and the ceiling use double drywall with Green Glue between the drywall panels.

Acoustic treatments are often indecorous but the Apertures are nicely attractive for their function. Visibly, the Aperture is a 22"x22" finished wood frame surrounding a cloth panel. I chose oak for the frame to go with the room's trim, with cream color cloth to keep things neutral. Stillpoints can imprint digitized images of your choice on the cloth panel using a dye sublimation(?) process. I mention the aesthetics of the panels because the Aperture's look and size allows its placement where other products may not be accommodating to wifely requirements for living rooms and other more publicly visible listening spaces in one's home.

Likewise important is the high effectiveness of the Aperture for its size: it combines a diffuser, absorber, and resonator in a small package. I heard the difference made by each panel I brought in the room and though it took a bit of time to work out their best placement, each time I moved a panel the difference was obvious.

Experimenting is easy. Panels can sit on the floor and be stacked. They come with 3M Command Strips (removable-without-damage Velcro-like thingies) for temporary placement on a wall. Once position is known, the panel can mount to the wall using the included aluminum Z-Hangers.

I tried different numbers and arrangements of panels on the wall behind my speakers. Each side wall reflection point needed only one as two over-damped the upper-mids and highs. Stillpoints suggested two or three stacked behind each speaker and/or stacked in the middle. I tried those positions and many others before arriving at a final placement. They are not for the ceiling.

The room tuning capped off with three Apertures on the wall behind the listening position. Soundstage depth had already increased considerably with the speaker wall set-up. The three rear panels caused the soundstage to pull toward the listening spot while retaining its depth.

I don't know the Aperture's effectiveness cut-off point into the lowest frequencies. They are not bass traps if your room needs that sort of help. Mine did not, but improvements in one part of the frequency range can yield audible benefit in another and I sensed some general improvement in the lower bass. I use one panel on the floor behind my speakers. Its precise placement makes something of a tradeoff between bass tightness versus weight.

With the Apertures in my room I heard improvements in frequency balance, image clarity and placement, soundstage depth, detail clarity, tonality, low frequency articulation, and a general sense of presence and verisimilitude. Fremer's quoted comments reflect my own. The Apertures brought a genuinely real and impressive improvement both to my audio room's acoustics and my enjoyment of music from my stereo. I appreciate having them each time I listen.


https://www.audioaficionado.org/pict...pictureid=3403

Tima,

Thank you for the detailed and very useful description of your setup process for the Stillpoints Apertures panels in your room.

They were being setup at the Constellation room at CES last week by Bruce Jacobs when I was there; but unfortunately I had to leave before getting a chance to compare the before and after effect.

What is the MSRP?

By the way, congratulations on your room and equipment. It looks amazing; and the Gryphon monos I'm sure are impressive. I've been ogling the Mephistos, but the lack of a US rep has made it very difficult to hear them.

Best wishes,

Retail is $650 ea

Thanks Tima for the very clear and helpful product review. From your comments I conclude that the Apertures combine several room tuning abilities that work together synergistically, thus reducing the number and types of tuning products required and simplifying the process required to improve a room's acoustics.
I fortunately do not seem to have any serious audible bass response issues in my room and am encouraged by the sonic benefits you describe. Also, I'm reading into your comments that sophisticated room measurement, while useful, isn't necessary to optimize the effectiveness of the Apertures.
Thanks for taking the time to so thoughtfully share your experience with the Apertures. Also, I love your listening room, it looks great and I'll bet it sounds great too!
Mike

Hi Tima, as a lover of felines, I was remiss in not commenting on your very handsome feline friend. Mine will sometimes join me when I'm listening to music and always adds to my enjoyment. I hope yours is similarly inclined.
Mike

mfoley3 & cmarin, I do appreciate your comments.

Yes, from friends I heard that Bruce's demo is convincing and I'm waiting to catch it myself, maybe at Axpona. I'm thinking Stillpoints dealers support in-home trials and/or money back guarantees so direct trial in one's own room may be possible. For me that is the way I prefer to evaluate gear. I had the good fortune to use six panels initially though (guessing) having three or four could be enough to gain insight. You might follow-up with AA participant 'allvinyl' (JohnT) who is with Stillpoints.

It was fun experimenting with the Apertures in different positions and it was easy to gauge their effect, even down to adjustments of less than one foot. That gave me confidence, knowing both they and my ears were working. I had other acoustic treatments in my room and at first spent time integrating the Apertures with those. Only after removing all the non-Aperture panels (excepting some small Michael Green Corner Tunes at ceiling wall junctions) did I really make progress. mfolely3 I agree with your thoughts about room measurement.

I've become an advocate for attention to audio infrastructure with priority to room acoustics, clean power and signal delivery, and vibration control/isolation - pretty much in that order but one can start anywhere. The Apertures reinforced belief that only when infrastructure is attended can one truly gauge a component designer's intent.

The amps are Lamms (they do look similar to Gryphon gear.) The cat is Finzi; he likes being in the music room.

Hoping others with Aperture experience chime in.

My dealer has a handful of apertures. They look really good in person, better than I thought they would. Nice to read the positive comments. I may have to borrow some and demo for myself.

Congratulations on devoting effort to your room's sonic infrastructure. :thumbsup:

The Aperture benefit is focused and you can hear how different panel positions cash out acoustically. Relatively small positional differences can be audible.

Behind each speaker, or in the center between speakers, or both, are good starting spots. Depending on room and speaker size you may want two behind each speaker, but one each is enough for a start. For a first take, just sit them on the floor; they're easily moved. For wall mounting, I'd start directly behind the speaker at tweeter/mid level; slightly toward the inner or outer speaker edges can also be effective. Each room is different so you'll want to experiment for optimizing their effect in yours. After addressing the front wall, you may want to try the first reflection points on each side wall if your room allows it. 3M Command Strips come with each Aperture to allow temporary mounting and experimentation; you may want to buy additional strips to try different positions. Each Aperture also includes a Z-hanger for permanent mounting. Have fun.

Hi Tima, thanks for all the info you've provided. I have two audio projects to complete before I begin using the Apertures and, from your comments, am very comfortable about getting started with them. I'm looking forward to it!
Mike

Tima,

Great system and setup.

Considering the Aperture panels. Like you, I have a pair of Alexias. In looking at your installation, it would appear the lower panel is up from the floor about 20 inches - is this correct? Also, are panels directly behind the speaker? (Hard to tell with the picture angle)

Thx!

Hi Mike,

From the carpet to the bottom edge of an Aperture on the lower row is about 26-1/2".

The panels are behind the speakers but you need to factor that the speaker is not at a 90-degree angle to the wall.

Let's take the left side speaker and the lower Aperture behind it for our example, the speaker in the photo.

The Alexia is angled front-to-back pointing at the listening position with its rear closer to the side wall than its front.The left rear corner of the Alexia is about 19-1/2" and the left front corner is about 26-1/2" from the side wall.

The left edge of the Aperture is about 28" from the side wall.

The Right rear corner of the Alexia is about 4" in from the left edge of the Aperture panel. The Right front corner of the Alexia is about 15" from the left edge of the Aperture. So the Aperture starts behind the speaker but extends to the right past its front.

There are no hard and fast rules. I tried the outside panels closer to and farther from the side walls. The effect of each panel is rather focused so it was pretty easy to hear the effect of moving them. I tried with panels just in the center and just on the sides but kept coming back to the combination of three across. The wall behind the speakers is 9h x 17w. (I no longer use the panels on the floor in the corners. I could slightly tune the bass between articulation and weight, but I had to come to a 'practical' limit on the number of Apertures to go with.) The net gain in terms of listening satisfaction has been huge. I think five could be a place to start. Three across the wall behind the speakers and one on each side wall at the first reflection points. Room transformation for the price of a nice power cord. ;->

TY! I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger on these.

Tima, I am about to dig deeper into acoustic treatment of my room. Could you elaborate on the placement of the panels behind the tweeters. Aren't the sound projected forward (away from the panels) at higher frequencies? Why are they more effective there than lets say on the side walls (1:st reflection) or in the center between the speakers, dealing with the reflection coming from the wall behind the listener?
I am not questioning your findings. Just trying to understand how and why it works at the mentioned places.
Have you any info with regards to the freq range they address?

Hi - I've not seen the interior construction of an Aperture and I'm not an acoustician so I won't presume to tell you how or why they work. I did spend some time experimenting with multiple panels, I know what my ears tell me, and I can share my experience.

Based on your questions I'll suggest to look at my posts in this thread: here, here, and here. In the photo of my room you'll see Apertures (roughly) behind the speakers, between the speakers and at first reflection points on the side walls (just one of those is shown.) So in my room it was not an issue of why one spot works versus another. But if it were, my ears would tell me.

I believe one of those posts suggests a way to start out with five panels. If you can't start with five, then experiment with two (either one behind each speaker or two in the center) or three (one behind each speaker and one in the center, or one in the center and one on each side wall.) Get some idea about the front wall, then try the first reflection point on the side. From my room size and its acoustic - based on what my ears told me - I found six on the front wall and two on the sides worked well. The somewhat minimalist suggestions I covered in this thread may or may not work for other rooms, but based on Stillpoints own suggestions and my own experience, they are reasonable starting points.

Though not shown in the photo, after getting panels in the speaker area setup, I added three more spread across the back wall behind my listening seat. Those added additional clarity and helped pull the soundstage further into the room while not diminishing its depth behind the speakers. I suspect the reasons the front wall treatment is the place to start is because reflections from there reach your ears sooner than reflections coming off the wall behind your head.

To my knowledge Stillpoints has not published data on a frequency range.

If you have an Aperture dealer nearby, hopefully they can let you try several panels in your own room, or bring them to you for a demo. Because of their size, the Aperture makes for easy experimentation. I suggest removing all other acoustic treatment out of the room for those experiments.

I found them most effective in the center of the rear wall behind the speakers and also directly behind my listening seat - though my listening position is only 4' from the rear wall so this may or may not be the most helpful in your room. First reflections were not the best place for them in my experience, but that will be very room dependent.
Bruce Jacobs from Still Points told me to put them on rear wall in the center as a starting point and that they are most effective there for whatever reason. Highly recommended in my opinion. Money well spent. They are also really well made and nice looking - in my view.

Tima and Bavarian05, thank you for taking your time sharing your thoughts on the Aperture setup. Much appreciated.

I have 4 of these in my room. The difference they make is astonishing. My roommate who was not an audiophile before we started living together is maddened by how dramatic of a difference such tiny and inconsequential looking device can make. Having them in the wrong spot by even a foot is noticeable.

My placement: 1) Dead center rear wall between the two speakers at the high of my main (750hz-20khz) drivers.

2&3) At the primary reflection point on the side walls, inches matter.

4) behind primary listening position.

I want 4 more.

I am not as wise, or articulate as some of the prior posters, but I have three in my 13.5'* 23'*9 ft room and the results are well worth the investment, I see myself getting at least an additional one for the rear. I have no technical explanation to offer on why they work so well, but hearing is believing.

In fact putting one on either side wall, opened up the spatial spread in a manner which I would never have believed had I not heard it myself.

Hi Tima.

I just took delivery of ONE apeture panel a few days ago and noticed a big difference, especially in bass control.
Im thinking of getting either 1 or 2 more.
I dont expect the improvements to double with each panel added but considering you have 6, I wanted to get your opinion as you experimented.

Beautiful set up BTW.

Hi Mark

Thanks.

I started with 6 (on loan) for experimentation and I tried all sorts of placement and combinations. It's been a few years and I don't remember the effects from each combination. However I can share my opinion - every room is different - in general:

I think the bare minimum is two, located one each somewhere behind each speaker or alternatively, two vertically in the middle. I can't say whether the impact is doubled or not, but it is definitely significant - it was easy to hear the improvement with each Aperture I added.

More are better, up to a point. It certainly is possible to over-damp.

Two - as above.
Three - one behind each speaker and one in the middle -or- one in the middle and one at each sidewall first reflection point.
Four - one behind each speaker and one on each side wall at the first reflection point.
Five - same as Four + one in the middle between speakers.
Six - same as Five + one behind the listening position.

When I say "behind each speaker" that means within, say, a one-and-a-half foot spread to either side. Here's where experimenting helps. Same for height - you'll definitely want to experiment. The 3M Command Strips help for experimenting; I actually bought a few extra along the way. It took me a long time to commit to hanging them on the wall with the included Z-hangers. And I admit that, to some minor extent, aesthetics was a factor - I wanted a nice even arrangement.

Depending on your room and speakers it may be that 2 each on the side walls at first reflection will help. That was not the case for me.

I currently have 11. As shown is picture above, 6 behind speakers, 1 on each sidewall. Not shown are the 3 spread evenly across the back wall. Those back 3 have less impact than those in front, but they do help pull the soundstage a bit more into the room - that is, more depth. You can kinda see them in the picture under my profile.

Probably more than you wanted to know! It was fun trying different positions, but I took my time across a couple months and took notes. They are easy to move around.

Imo, the overall results are not small. The Apertures transformed my room and my listening experience - I would not give them up.

I have 5 Apertures, in the arrangement described for "five" in the previous post.

I went from 2 to 5.

I tried one on the rear wall, behind the listening position (paired with two behind speakers, and two at first reflection points...then paired with two stacked middle and two behind speakers...then with two stacked middle and two at first reflection point).

I then tried all five on front wall in various configurations.

Ended with two behind speakers and one in center of front wall, and one at each first reflection point. The difference was significant and the best combination for my room. Due to doors, etc... I have the two at first reflection points on Aperture stands for easy movement to the reflection points and it works very well.

I've settled on 3 for my system, 1 centered behind my speakers and one beside each speaker.
Nothing, and i mean nothing has made a greater leap forward sonically than these panels.
For $2400, I got $25,000 worth of value.

Good job Mark, big gains for smaller outlay!

These testamonials truly speak to the importance of acoustics; typically they have a greater sonic impact than a new DAC or cables, preamp or cartridge. If you have not given your room its due, you don't know yet the capabilities of what you have, and, you won't get there if just keep buying new electronics.

And here's another 'secret': the same holds true for vibration abatement. Consider platforms that are colorless, that allow the native characters of your components to speak for themselves, rather than trying to tune or adjust their sound to something they're not.

Hi Tima.
What do use in your system?

Hi - I use Silent Running Audio's Scuttle-3 rack for front-end components and their Virginia Class platforms for my amps. Results are impressive.

Thanks Tim for pointing me to this thread. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I just ordered 2 Apertures from Ivan and can’t wait to start experimenting with them. Luckily they are easy to move around.

You're welcome, Paul. Have fun placing your new Apertures!

So I’ve been experimenting with the 2 Apertures II that I have. My new listening room is it’s beginning stages so I’m still finding the best place for my speakers and subwoofers.

I started with the Apertures at the 1st reflection points on both sidewalls and listened for a few days. As much as I enjoyed the placement something just wasn’t right. As I stated above the room is new and it could be anything at this point that’s not right.

So after the few days I placed 1 dead center on the back wall and 1 dead center on the front wall behind the speakers. Now we are cooking with gas, what a huge improvement. Much more focused and layered. I don’t even want to move them, but after a few days I will try something else.

In the mean time I just ordered 2 more Apertures from our fearless leader Ivan. :banana::banana:

There you have it! The one on the back wall should pull the sound stage a bit further toward the listener - or that's my experience. With four, you'll have several combinations to try. Experimenting with Apertures is fun to do.

I just installed a pair of these, and they have made a huge improvement; thanks Ivan.

It absolutely pulled the soundstage closer without changing the depth. It’s amazing how much the Aperture’s affect the sound presentation (in a good way) even with slight changes.

Hi Cathy, where do you have them placed?