The shoe rack


My sanctuary before

I posted earlier about using a shoe rack for hi-fi. The project took a little longer than expected due to a little change of plans. I've decided to take the opportunity to darkened my room staging area a little, as a psychological inducement for added enjoyment. I realised this from my home visits, that the rooms I enjoyed most are the ones that had dark paint schemes.


My sanctuary after, note the "shoe rack" defusers?

The shoe racks are incorporated on to the speaker back wall as the role of acoustic difusers in areas that were previously untreated. I did mock trial placements all over the place and found the optimal placement. Also surprisingly, the depth of the difusers can also make a difference to the stage shape!, as in convex, concave or just plain flat depth(as seen from plan view of room, refer to sound stage chart below). My previous stage shape(before treatment) was B2. As the shoe racks came with various lengths legs, I used those to manipulate the stage shape. I finally settled for the flat depth, A1, which I felt was most natural. To achieve that, I used the longer legs on the four back wall panels, and shorter legs for the side walls. Check out the pictures. For concave stage shape, simply use the longer legs for the inner middle panels and the side wall panels and the shorter legs for the outer back wall corner panel. I don't think there are hard and fast rules, just try to your heart's content!


Sound stage chart, courtesy of joamonte of http://www.echoloft.com/ forums

Along with my recent purchase of the AQ Sky interconnects, the results were nothing short of stunning! I can say that I've lost some of my room's sonic signature. The highs are now intoxicatingly smooth and at the same time extended. The mids are open yet full bodied, as the difusers in theory should not affect the bass, but it's surprisingly more detailed now, but that's probably due to the AQ Sky perhaps. Most notable improvement is the staging and imaging department. The stage is now more of an open space like 3 dimensional, as oppose to the previous more 2D projection. The imaging is improved as each instrument and vocal now all have a space of their own, within the sound stage.



The view from another angle

The difuser panels have help me to further connect to the music. Improved upon audiophile checklist and most importantly bring my family together in helping out on the project, especially my other half with thanks.

Next I'll be trying out another extended tweak on the the difuser panels. Stay tuned!

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey,

Where did you get such inspirations?

Anonymous said...

Panzer,

Useful ,informative and practical.

Will try as per your advise....

Anonymous said...

Like the color of your new room..How do you stiock the shoerack on??

Anyt experience in doing DIY basstrap in Malaysia??

thanks in advance.

hifikaki said...

Panzer,

I'd love to listen to your transformed setup!

Unknown said...

my gwad... you are fast!

Panzer said...

sid,

I love to use things that are easily available, and most importantly easy to work with. I dislike custom solutions because they tend to come with a penalty called "the price tag", Ha! Ha!

I was doing my weekend chores, which is groceries shoping. When I saw those shoe racks in Tesco, it was one of those "Eureka" moments!

KK Loh,

Hope you'll get as good an experience, if not better than me. Good Luck!

BB Chow,

Thanks for the compliments, the shoe rack legs have M6 screws pre drilled in to them. I just bought some M6 size wall plugs, did some markings, and drilled 24 M6 holes in to the walls. Install the wall plugs, then used the pre drilled screws on the legs to turn them to the wall by hand. I then bought some extra M6 screws to screw the panels on to the legs which have screw holes pre drilled too. All very easy.

See my two, 3 compartmented book shelfs laying on either sides of the wall coners just directly behind my speakers? I've already got all the parts and ingredients ready to construct bass traps behind the speakers. Stay tuned!

hifikaki,

You are welcomed to come by anytime.

built62,

I could've been faster still! However, too much to do too little time.

Anonymous said...

Pnazer,

I really admire your tenacity in reaching audiophilia nirvana.

I don't think my wife will let me put anything on the front wall of my system. Anyway, I am never a great DIY guy.

I much prefer to play with speaker placement and tweak the system to max the sound of my system.

kiarch said...

Panzer,

What a wonderful job you have done to your soundroom. If I may, I would love to come for another listening at your convenience.

If I may allow to suggest something which you might want to experiment in your spare times; IMHO, the LP shelf you have behind your speakers are counter-active to your acoustic efforts. I would suggest, if any shelvings are at all necessary to be sited within the listening room, ought to be away from soundfield of the speakers. Stack-up behind you if you must but never in front of the plain of listening position.

The 2 Flutter Echo panels are problematic as it is, if you think it solves your problems, it presents other set of sublime problems. Do watch-out for the mid-high frequency and as it would established a "sonic-hold" thereby upsetting even soundstage spread; this is particularly obvious in classical rendition. Its polystyrene material with spray tile paint if I am not mistaken, use a good hack saw and cut it into equal halves, stack them up so that it forms a tall panel instead of a square patch.

The above are only my suggestions, you are free to ignore and I would not be offended. As it is, I am more pleased than not you are willing to explore into room acoustics.

Best, Jo

Panzer said...

Ken,

Anything for perceived sound improvement, That's the fun.

Jo,

Thanks for the pointers. I really appreciate your input. Will certainly try out in due time. And finally, you're welcome to visit anytime. Just give me a call.