Advice

[Pim]

I should not say it but the order of magnitude improvement you can make is: room treatment > changing your speakers > moving to a 250.

Jean-Marie

As of two nights ago I would put setting up your listening seat and speakers to work in the room you have as the first priority. 

I have what I would call a terrible room. When it was empty I could hear the echo of opening a window latch for 2.15 seconds repetitively. Now we have lots of furniture and wall decorations (some proper absorbing posters) it is still no where near an ideal room.

I've been playing with where I put my ears and speaker setup for as long as I've been in this room and two nights ago I hit the jackpot. It sounded so good, I was literally laughing out loud and astonished by what my little speakers were throwing towards me. There was even some thumping bass. I have never heard that from my Dynaudio C1's. I never expected it either because they are after all just small two way speakers.

For years I've been a big fan of Jim Smiths 'Get Better Sound'. It's a $35.- book that talks about setting up your listening seat and speakers and other bits and pieces. Jim can also be hired to do the work for you. From what I've read on forums so far the usual way it goes is like this; someone buys Jim's book and starts playing with set up. He then gets to a certain point of musical engagement and that's it. It's those who are looking for more who hire Jim to push their system up to the next level. It seems that whatever people have done to their system, Jim always seems to be able to push it up another notch. 

I think the other night was my first ever insight into how much better a system can sound when everything is in it's best spot. The sound you get when your system has been set up by the master of setting up. 

This all in a room that, even though it has some room treatment, would be identified as a poor sounding room by just about anyone on this forum.

So there you have it; Set up> Room treatment > Changing speakers > move to 250.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think set up could be so good that room treatment becomes less important.

Yes you are right. I had hastily lumped together setup and treatment, but you are right, treatment comes only after you have a good setup. 

And a good setup can do wonders, especially by reducing the impact of the room if you are listening in near field or quasi near field. 

By the way, near field is a great solution if you have a difficult room that you cannot treat for any reason. 

So I’m not surprised that you came up with something really good. For most of us the place where the listening spot is cannot be moved arbitrarily in the room. 

Personally, I’m considering myself very lucky because was able to setup my living room taking into account my system with a high degree of priority. 

Jean-Marie

I have to say I never believed it was possible to take the room out altogether, but it seems it is.