Late today FedEx delivered a pair of 2'x4' full-range 244s intended to replace the 244s I borrowed from my main living-dining-room system to try out on the front wall of my bedroom system. Before I replaced anything, however, I opted to use one of the new 244s as a horizontal stand-in for the pair of 2'x2' 244s (I shorthand them as "224s") I've ordered to treat the massive reflective surface of the lowboy dresser positioned ("jammed" is more like it) between my Paradigm Studio 20s. This would allow me to get a feel for the extent, if any, of sonic improvement I could expect with the 224s in place.
The panel's trashy-looking "stand" is a temporary jury-rigged variable-height collection of wood scraps to be used until I build a pair of oak stands for the 224s. To minimize SBIR, I settled on a final height that puts the top of the stand-in 244 flush with the dresser's top.
I left the second "new" 244 out of the room entirely while I conducted listening tests. For the comparisons, I started by listening with the stand-in also out of the room and then in front of the dresser.
My first audition was a 24/176 file of Eije Oue conducting the Minnesota Orchestra in the third movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's
Symphonic Dances (Reference Recordings). Without the stand-in in place, the movement (in which Rachmaninoff bats the "Dies Irae" around in a variety of incarnations) sounded as I had come to expect with the bedroom walls and first and second reflection points treated--open, with a discernibly wide and deep soundstage, firm bass foundation, detailed mid and top end, good imaging, and good dynamics with nothing seemingly "glued" to the speakers themselves.
Now let's see what, if anything, happens with the stand-in installed. I click on the third movement again in JRiver, flop quickly onto my listening position on the bed...and WHAM! The presentation screams "palpable presence" with a more expansive soundstage with better-"lit" and -defined rear corners, more intra-soundstage "space" that translates into more-perceptible layering between orchestral sections, more liquid mids and highs, and bass definition that thumps the gut. The speakers have "disappeared" even more than before. OK, enough with the hyperbole. Let's just say I was floored and leave it at that.
For the next with/without comparison, I selected something from another Keith Johnson recording--"Beckus the Dandipratt" on the Malcolm Arnold
Overture outing. Same outcome, except the venue is different, and that's immediately discernible.
Since I got off to a late start, I'll have to do more listening comparisons tomorrow. But it already seems clear that treating the dresser's reflective mass, especially given its proximity to the speakers, was the essential next step in getting the room "right."
(For those who wonder, BTW, why two 224s instead of a single 244 for the final configuration diagrammed below, it's a matter of livability. We still have to get into the dresser drawers regularly, and moving one 224 out of the way is...well, you get it.)
A big thank-you to Brian Pape for his guidance on this phase of the project. The 244 is the right way to go.
--Jim