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Old 03-01-2019, 06:02 PM
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jimtranr jimtranr is offline
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Corvallis, OR
Posts: 1,590
Default Reconfiguring the Bedroom System with Alpha 4A Panels

In my earlier thread on GIK-treating my bedroom audio system I responded to robd2 that its almost wholly absorber configuration did not sound overdamped. But, having been infected long ago with incurable audiophilia curiosa, I couldn't help but wonder way down deep if I couldn't squeeze just a bit more "life" out of the audio presentation in the acoustically-challenged 13'x11'x7'8" room by replacing the existing traps with some of GIK's Alpha 4A diffusor/absorber panels.

So I ordered four 11.5"x45.5" and four 23"x45.5" Alpha 4As. That would give me enough, I thought, to allow me to experiment with various placement options to determine the "just right" configuration. (You see, Serge, you were right--the room is a lab, after all.) If any Alphas were left over after my listening evaluations, the "extras" would find a loving home in the living-dining-room system.

As the photos and diagram indicate, all eight Alphas ultimately remained in the bedroom.







You can see that the narrow Alphas straddle the room's three usable corners, though clearance issues precluded orienting them at a 45-degree angle. They're mounted using GIK-supplied sawtooth hangers and Home Depot-purchased L-hooks drilled into the respective walls (using a rudimentary ABC trig formula to calculate their locations). The door-mounted Alpha hangs via an exposed screw drilled into a DIY over-the-doortop fitting I cobbled together from scrap lumber.

The tops of the L-hook- and door-mounted Alphas project out farther than the bottoms. To render them "straight-firing" into the room, I inserted spongy packing foam behind the Alphas as shown below.





If you read the earlier thread, you may remember that I tried the scatter-plated 244s in both the first- and second-reflection-point positions--and wasn't impressed with what "scatter" brought to the listening table. At the time, I couldn't move the scatter-plated trap further back on the right side, because that would have interfered with access to the closet. I subsequently rearranged the location of the closet's contents so I could cover one of its folding doors without incurring a major inconvenience. That enabled me to locate the right-side Alpha 4A further back on that side "wall". As a consequence, none of the Alphas is closer to either ear than five feet-plus.

So what's the verdict?

"This is the best sound out of your systems I've ever heard. Whatever you spent on this, you did good, Jim."

Thus my wife’s evaluation after auditioning a variety of symphonic, choral, jazz, opera, solo vocal, and “big” film score program material for a couple of hours in the bedroom system's newly-revised acoustic environment. I agree with her assessment--except on one point. It's the Alpha 4As that "did good".

Put another way, my back-then response to robd2 was incorrect. What I hear now with the Alphas in place is what I'd term "greater stage presence" in recordings made with an eye (or should I say "ear"?) to capturing the "sound" of the performance venue and all the activity associated with it.

I don't mean just hall ambience, though it's clearly more abundant and "touchy-feely", with a beyond-the-front- (and in some cases, side-) wall reach that not only obliterates room boundaries but breathes a more than reasonable facsimile of fresh air. What's equally noticeable is improved vocal and instrumental articulation, whether with massed ensemble or unaccompanied soloist. The subtle, sometimes previously-masked innards of complex musical passages are more clearly discernible, and so too the subtleties of dynamic nuance. With a well-made recording, the listener winds up inhabiting a reach-in-and-touch three-dimensionality that exceeds holographic.

Turns out that getting "a bit more" life out of the system was aiming too low. Way too low.
__________________
Jim


Bedroom: Aurender N150, TEAC UD-505 (AKM version), EMIA Cu Elmaformer passive line stage, conrad-johnson MF2500, Paradigm Studio 20 v5. Shunyata Delta D6, Altaira CG hub. Shunyata Alpha XC, Delta NR v2, Alpha USB, Alpha and Venom CGC/SGC. Wireworld Eclipse 8 interconnect & speaker cables. Stillpoints footers, Butcher Block Acoustics maple platforms. Stillpoints and GIK acoustic panels.

Home Office:Windows 11 PC/JRiver 31, TEAC UD-501, Luminous Audio Technology Axiom II Walker Mod passive, conrad-johnson Sonographe SA-250, Paradigm SE-1. Shunyata Hydra (Original Version), Venom 10 NR. Wireworld Eclipse 7 interconnects. Blue Jeans speaker cable.

Living-Dining Room: Windows 11 Laptop/JRiver 29, Oppo BD-83, TEAC UD-501 DAC, SOTA Sapphire TT, Graham Slee Era Gold V, Ortofon 2M Black, McIntosh MR-77, c-j Sonographe SC-25, c-j MF2500, Paradigm SE-3. Wireworld 8 IC, Blue Jeans SC. Shunyata Hydra 8 v.2, Shunyata Delta NR, Venom NR. GIK 244 bass & scatter-plate panels.
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