member system photos???

FWIW my wife has the whole house except for the living room which I have set up as a music room and decorated it to accomodate music/audio. But - there is always a but - it has to not call attention to itself. No bass traps, echo busters, etc. As some one said, life and audio is full of compromises! :-)
Newbee (System | Threads | Answers)

That's exactly our situation: living room/audio room. Gear is in a nice cabinet off on a side wall. Carpet, nice drapes, some decorative home made absorption panels on the rear wall. No bass traps, echo busters or the like. We like the way it looks, and we like the way it sounds. I'm certain it could sound better with some diffusion on the ceiling and some corner panels.

It sounds like your son did OK in SF. Our home is a 1941 post-war cracker box in an eclectic San Fernando Valley neighborhood. We've fixed it up nicely, and have no burning desire to move as we believe we'd have to pay double to get a worthwhile upgrade.

Plato, You can comment on 'break-in' all you want, in fact both of us have already done so recently on the thread on that subject. I respect your observations. I'm referring to folks who arbitrarily deny the existence of break-in charging it all off to psychoacoustics, as if those of us who take note of the differences are some sort of delusional dolts!. That vendors might over stress the need for break in for commercial purposes doesn't mean that it doesn't exist on many products.

I disagree with you re the cost of 'proper set up' but I think perhaps your inferring that I meant some sort of absolute, cost no object, methodology, was a reasonable inference.

What I meant was paying appropriate attention to the simple selection of speakers for the room, selecting the right electronics, locating the speakers and listening position in the room to its best advantage (as like speakers and listening position triangulated and well away from wall surfaces, and paying attention to nodes, nulls, and reflection points). One need not load down a room with expensive (and ugly) bass traps, commercial reflection or absorbtion panels, etc. Plants, book cases, rugs, and wall hangings do the trick and can actually add to the WAF. And tweeks can help a lot of systems but that's icing on the cake and can be done without if budget is an issue.

Tvad, I don't envy you folks in SoCal, but I just can't resist - my kid bought a 1200 ft bare bones, non upgraded, 'ranch' in OK condition in Lafayette Ca (just outside of SF) for $650K. What a crappy deal, especially when I had just sold his grand-ma's 3300 sq foot upscale home in a gated community for 675K. Location, location, location.

I do find some of the speaker positions in member's system photos a little odd: against back walls, six feet apart with no toe-in. There are obvious improvements to be had in better speaker placement if one's circumstances allow for it.

Hey.
I like my living room and I like my stereo.
I can't afford a special room and $60,000 speaker cables, dedicated power, cryoed wall plates, etc.

Sounds good enough the way it is and I spend very little time with my ears precisly in the sweet spot.

I guess I could drop a half million on a proper setup but then someone would be posting here that is all wrong!

07-07-06: Jeffjarvis
Hey.
I like my living room and I like my stereo.

Yeah, sure...

86 that dumpy Bangkok post card view and get yourself a real audio dungeon!

:)