Since my old dedicated room was converted to a home gym for the family a few years ago and I had to make do with a smaller room, I decided to try a different approach to room acoustics this time around. Knowing that there is no way in hell my wife would go for bass traps and wall/ceiling treatments in this new room like I had in the old one, because this room is on the first floor right as you come in the house, this is what I came up with.
Knowing I had to downsize to monitors so I would not have to fight bass bloat, overhang and standing waves with bass traps, Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors were selected for their clean bass response with no exaggeration of they can't do. Besides, they are voiced like angels by Italian craftsmen who come from the area where they know a thing or two about making the world's most sought after musical instruments. There was also a very high WAF (wife acceptance factor) involved as their baffles are covered with Italian leather and the cabinet is made of 32 separate planks of real maple in a lute shape with a sonically transparent "stretchy strings" no doubt to imitate the strings of a musical instrument. Two thumbs up from me for sonic performance, two thumbs up from my wife for looks!
Last piece of the puzzle was what to use for treatments to reduce flutter echoes and maximize the soundstage. The goal was to diffuse the sound, not absorb it since the rugs on the floor, the leather couch and chair take care of most of the echoes in the room. I decided to try the fake plants with their large pots. Once optimal response was found with speaker positioning, the plants went into the problematic corners and on side walls for those pesky echoes.
Did it work? In one word "Awesome"! For the price of one third of one bass trap ($210 for all the plants plus a few plush pillows) I have a room that sounds very close to my old one which I spent an arm and a leg for all the professional grade treatments. The plant's leaves present odd shapes and angles to the soundwaves which diffuses them enough to make a huge difference. The soundstage extends from one wall to the other, well beyond the speakers themselves with precise focus of everything going on in the recording between the center all they way out laterally. The depth of the soundstage has nice placement of instruments back to front as well.
Just like any other speaker, these SF do not like to be placed too close to the back wall and were especially finicky with the placement to side walls. 1" at a time about 4 hours worth of experimentation, yielded a fantastic placement, well worth the effort.
Just thought I would share this with you. You don't always have to have huge speakers, huge rooms or dedicated rooms with treatments to get fantastic results. Match the speakers to the room, so you don't get into bass troubles and try these simple plants that will be acceptable by everyone in the household.
Knowing I had to downsize to monitors so I would not have to fight bass bloat, overhang and standing waves with bass traps, Sonus Faber Cremona Auditors were selected for their clean bass response with no exaggeration of they can't do. Besides, they are voiced like angels by Italian craftsmen who come from the area where they know a thing or two about making the world's most sought after musical instruments. There was also a very high WAF (wife acceptance factor) involved as their baffles are covered with Italian leather and the cabinet is made of 32 separate planks of real maple in a lute shape with a sonically transparent "stretchy strings" no doubt to imitate the strings of a musical instrument. Two thumbs up from me for sonic performance, two thumbs up from my wife for looks!
Last piece of the puzzle was what to use for treatments to reduce flutter echoes and maximize the soundstage. The goal was to diffuse the sound, not absorb it since the rugs on the floor, the leather couch and chair take care of most of the echoes in the room. I decided to try the fake plants with their large pots. Once optimal response was found with speaker positioning, the plants went into the problematic corners and on side walls for those pesky echoes.
Did it work? In one word "Awesome"! For the price of one third of one bass trap ($210 for all the plants plus a few plush pillows) I have a room that sounds very close to my old one which I spent an arm and a leg for all the professional grade treatments. The plant's leaves present odd shapes and angles to the soundwaves which diffuses them enough to make a huge difference. The soundstage extends from one wall to the other, well beyond the speakers themselves with precise focus of everything going on in the recording between the center all they way out laterally. The depth of the soundstage has nice placement of instruments back to front as well.
Just like any other speaker, these SF do not like to be placed too close to the back wall and were especially finicky with the placement to side walls. 1" at a time about 4 hours worth of experimentation, yielded a fantastic placement, well worth the effort.
Just thought I would share this with you. You don't always have to have huge speakers, huge rooms or dedicated rooms with treatments to get fantastic results. Match the speakers to the room, so you don't get into bass troubles and try these simple plants that will be acceptable by everyone in the household.
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). The distance between the speakers was 122". So you are correct in noticing that the triangle is a little asymmetrical. 
