GIK Acoustics panels....

[TimF]

I finally got around to installing my GIK Acoustics diffusion/absorption panels after testing and playing around with location, number of panels etc. These are from their Impression Series of panels, various panel designs and colors to choose from. Makes a nice artistic solution as well as acoustic treatment built in.

These came in a box of four, so I have two extras that I have also been playing around a bit as floor standing panels behind and angled in towards the listening position. Still playing around a bit with it, in my open floor space, the two on the wall are doing it up quite nicely. I played with two versus three, over time found that three panels in that space was just too much sonically, as well as visually.

Highly recommend GIK overall, nice panels at fairly reasonable prices, treating the room/walls is every bit as important, if not more so, than most any component swap or change. IMO of course....

 

[jblnut]

This is my next project. Thanks for sharing your implementation with us!

Jblnut

 

[peerson]

They look nice. Do they work? Are you using any Bass Traps?

 

[TimF]

Thanks all. Peerson, yes they do work, smoother response overall, better staging, and they eliminated peaky treble due to the blank wall there prior to the panels. And no, not using any bass traps, I am not so sure that my room requires any. My space is very open, the long wall the speakers sit along and are roughly four feet off of, is about 28 or so feet long, and the room is about 17 feet deep. What is interesting, some of the bass basically just follows along the walls and collects slightly at each corner of the room, but it is far enough away from the speakers and listening position to bother anything. I did try some absorbers to the sides of each speaker position angled out slightly from directly against the walls. It changed things slightly, but honestly, cannot say it was good or bad, just different.

The Venus has solid bass to right at 40 Hz and trails off with usable bass from the rear port to roughly mid thirties or so. It is all that I require, and find these speakers quite easy to site without any big issues in bass or treble response. At any rate, I am sure more experimenting will be done in time, and I am planning to probably measure the room just to see what the plots look like at some point, but to be honest, it sounds pretty good the way it is.

I still have two more panels as spares at the present, and have experimented some with them as floor standing, movable panels. Again, some differences here and there, and will probably play some more in time.

 

[Wildcat]

Nice! I've seen their panels at the audio show--very nicely made, attractive and they work well.

 

[totem]

Appears these have the ability to both diffuse [ redirect ] and to a certain degree
act as absorption bass panels. Very attractive design.

What is the depth of these?

 

[Wildcat]

I don't know what depth @TimF uses, but this series of panels is available in 2", 4" and 6" depths, as well as corner traps.

https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/impression-series/

 

[TimF]

I don't know what depth @TimF uses, but this series of panels is available in 2", 4" and 6" depths, as well as corner traps.

https://www.gikacoustics.com/product-category/impression-series/

Mine are the two-inch panels. They work really well for my situation. My main goal was to not attenuate much, yet provide more diffusion versus the bare wall slap I was getting. One thing with omnis is that one can easily over do absorption and then eliminate most of the goodie that an Omni provides. One still wants to use the wall, not eliminate it. Like most things, moderation and balance.

Since the above picture, I have now moved my Holbo turntable and Croft phono stage to the top shelf, everything now situated on the one stand, might have to update the pics at some point.

 

[TimF]

Updated pics of Holbo air-bearing TT now situated on stand with the rest of the gear. Really enjoying this turntable! Looking forward to a cartridge upgrade this year at some point, probably a nice MC and SUT for it.

 

[Wildcat]

Ah yes, I remember the pics of the Holbo in the turntables thread. Glad you're enjoying it!

 

[TimF]

Ah yes, I remember the pics of the Holbo in the turntables thread. Glad you're enjoying it!

Yes, enjoying it quite a bit! While my digital side of things is my primary source, there is great pleasure to be had from the analog side as well! Will be working on some more things on the analog side early this year hopefully, probably a MC cartridge, investigating that at the moment, and a SUT for it as well going into my Croft phono stage. All in good time....whatever that is, haha!