As a kid in rural Iowa I would take my guitar amp outside so I could crank it and get nice distortion without ruining my ears or upsetting my parents. Nothing can recreate that sound, specifically hearing the sound once without any reflections. No diffusion, no absorbers, nothing but raw sound. FWIW.

In my 45 years of designing and calibrating the very best in high end audio, there are a couple very important aspects of acoustics and the sound you should understand.  First thing that is the most essential is understanding the importance of speaker placement.  Speaker placement effects and determines the overall bass response ( by its proximity to room boundary’s ) but also effects midrange, and high frequency’s tone and spacial cues.  Soundstaging !  “You Cannot “ get good sound without it and you cannot get good speaker placement with ANY acoustic treatment in the room.  That’s right, speaker placement must be done with NO acoustic treatment,  you want to hear the interaction of the room and the speakers as you find the ideal speaker placement in the room. Once that is determined then and only then can you begin to fine tune the sound to your desired listening tastes.  

Next is too many people think you want an acoustically dead or damped room.  That again couldn’t be farther from the truth.  What you will realize when playing with speaker placement, AND you get closer to the ideal speaker placement in a room, the colorations of the room will start and almost completely disappear.  Your essentially tuning the speakers ( and system ) to the room !  Yes, you are tuning out the colorations of the room, NOT tuning the room to the speakers.  

Once perfect speaker placement has been achieved you will then realize you need very little to almost no acoustic treatment.  And even then you need to be very careful of the choice in acoustic treatment and placement to get the right sound.  Diffusion is best in most situations or very light weight acoustic material that does not absorb sound but very slightly delays the sound.  Absorption creates more problems that helps. The other issue with absorption is it creates comb filtering effects, which is absorption at certain frequency’s and not at others.  Peaks and valleys in the frequency’s  response.  Why in many high end sound rooms you see little to even no absorption materials.  

As for floor and ceiling issues, I do recommend a lightweight rug or area rug to address reflections between the floor and ceiling.  The ceiling does not need to be treated.  Understand that slap echo issues only occurs between two parallel surfaces, and only one of those surfaces needs to be addressed to eliminate that issue.  So addressing floor to ceiling issues the floor is the better option, back wall slight absorption, no absorption on the front wall.  If anything slight diffusion.    

Understand reflections are good, you just need to slightly delay reflections.  They enhance dynamics and soundstaging. A 1ms to 1.5ms delay is ideal.

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned but I was able to setup my first wall reflection points with a mirror and a helper. This can also be done solo if you have a long mirror. First sit in your listening position, then have your helper move the mirror left to right until you see the tweeters from your listening position. That is where the absorption acoustic panels should be placed. I’ve done this for both walls and plan to do the ceiling. It really does make a big difference.
Enjoy those Aspens.

You know Paul is an true audiophile when he hides the PSAudio logo on the wall with a diffuser...

That moment when the audio sounds so good, the room is not good enough.

3:20 Yes, they are still available. Made by Acustica Applicata in Italy. They make a real difference to the sound of the room!

Thanks!

🤗 HOW COOL 😎 IS THAT…He will be able to tour the the room and get a first hand listening 👂 experience 😁💚💚💚

Every once in awhile, after about a half hour set up, I'll take a little 12 watt tube integrated and vintage speakers outside on my open patio. Vintage used setup I paid around $300 for..it sounds absolutely fabulous with wide and deep soundstage and imaging. Better than my main stereo I've put thousands into but without treatment due to wifey. They cheap outdoor setup sounds great due to no reflections. I take that same little $300 set up into the house and the magic is gone.

I found the bass traps work wonders.  In the corner diagonally worked best.

All of my rooms have bass “boom points” and “such out” points. That’s why I had to implement subwoofers.

Asymmetrical rooms and have a great benefit think of a movie theatre vaulted ceilings and flanged walls, it’s a little expensive if you’re not doing your own work. I work as a contractor so it’s not a big deal for me, also a dedicated 20 amp circuit oversized with 10 gauge. I agree with everything Paul said from my experiences.I’d rather spend $3000 on getting a room right I’m buying a new piece of equipment.

Amroc Room Mode Calculator is a great start to determine where the issues will be then REW for room measurement is the way to go.  More traps definitely needed

I used to have a dedicated audio room fully designed and treated. Now its not possible BUT in my house now (100 years old) walls 26" thick, Floors wood, ceilings and inside walls plaster - high ceilings. Stereo sounds the best in this house - ever. Sound is a weird thing.

Some ACDA - 12 modular bass traps would be nice!

I’ve still got my ASC Tube Traps 😂

I was more interested in the treatment in the other room with the black fr-30's

The room shape plays a role in where to place the acoustic treatment. Is there any advantage of removing the corner and making it a flat surface?

What about the Dr. Floyd Toole research and his findings about the reflections being mostly beneficial in the usual living room environment? After reading his book, I'm thinking that treatment is really not necessary in most residential properties.

If you want great room acoustics, I suggest looking at Acoustic Fields products. They are in a whole other league. Their products will fix all the bass problems that other companies only claim to fix, but can't.. Even Paul admits PS Audio's room has bass issues.