Is there a more confusing and less understood aspect of quality audio reproduction? In this brief article I will cut through the tech waffle and get straight to what you need to do now to improve the sound quality in your listening space.
Empty rooms sound bad! We all know this if you have ever moved into an empty house. As you move your furniture in it sounds better. This is because nasty harsh reflections off bare walls just bounce around with nothing much to stop them or break them up.
You can just put more ‘stuff’ into a room and to some degree the acoustic qualities will improve. Unfortunately there is a catch as a random approach like this will almost certainly end up with an unbalanced sound. Either too much absorption or uneven amounts of absorption is the likely outcome. For those with a minimalist design ethic the likely outcome is a lack of absorption AND a lack of diffusion or at least scattering of sound waves.
Oops I just made this all complicated when I suggested I would give a straightforward solution to acoustic nirvana…