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  Listening Room Finally the listening room is finished - at least the two channel part of it - and we are now using the room to finish the work on the new PS Audio power amplifier and preamplifier. The results have been gratifying. This is one of the better sounding rooms we have ever had. The finishing touches Note in the back of the room there are three ASC Tube Traps. One on each side wall to the left and right of the Revel Ultimas, and one on the ceiling just in front of the Revels and in the center, just behind the ceiling trap. These three Tube Traps were all that we needed in the way of room treatment. Not too bad! 
When we finished the construction, placed the carpet in the room, added the books to the shelves, there was a very nasty slap echo heard when you stood right between where the speakers are now. To eliminate the echo, we stood in the center where it was strongest, and had an assistant move the first Tube Trap along the side wall until the echo was minimized. We repeated this process on the second wall, and then the ceiling.Using this simple method, we have completely eliminated the slap echo from the room. Subs Our intention is to place one subwoofer in each of the lower corner wells below the books. For the time being, we are using a single Genesis Servo 15 subwoofer in the right corner. This sub, set so it's low pass filter (how high the sub goes) is only 35 Hz, and its high pass filter set to 16 Hz, is quite impressive. Can't wait to add the other three when time allows. Cables etc. At the moment, we are using a single pair of Lab speaker cables connecting the VT100 MKII to the Revel Ultima Salons. You can see the arrangement pictured above. The VT100 is powered by a P1200 Power Plant, and a single P300 Power Plant is powering the Sony SACD player, and the PS Audio preamplifier (a work in progress). The corner traps The corner trap idea has worked well. As you might recall in our discussion about the corner traps in prior weeks, the traps are designed with a few purposes in mind: standing wave breakup, diffusion for the higher frequencies, and a clever home for the subwoofers that takes advantage of the corner's ability to act like a horn at lower frequencies. One of the unexpected problems we encountered was rattling. Paul's collection of RCA dogs (Nipper) and other memorabilia rattle at low frequencies, as do the wall sconces and some other mystery items in the room. Anxious to finish our work on PS products we have yet to take a great deal of time to try and ferret these problems out, but they are on the short list of things to work on when there's time. The end results We've been privileged to have a few sound rooms in our day, but this one is special. It is a real joy to listen to - almost a sacred place at this point. Paul has his lab about 10 feet from the listening room, and the ability to create an electronic piece or work on a prototype, walk a few feet and listen to the results in a fixed environment is nothing short of awesome. Sonically, this is perhaps one of the best experiences we have had. The only drawback is that, many times, we find ourselves completely wrapped up in the music - so much so that work doesn't get finished. -:) But oh the work we are able to complete in this room......look out! There's plenty of cool stuff on the way! This could be dangerous. Next up on the series As time permits we'll walk you through the setup of the speakers which, much to our surprise, wound up being quite far apart. In fact, farther apart than any other pair of speakers we have setup. So much for predicting the future accurately! In addition, we will continue this series as we add the multichannel elements into the room. Start at the begining of the project |
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