# GIK Acoustics giveaway room



## sub_crazy (Nov 17, 2007)

I was extremely fortunate enough to win the GIK Acoustics Shopping Spree so I wanted to document what's to be done to my new room. 

This house is new for me, I just moved in about 5 months ago and had to endure the Christmas rush at the office so not much time was spent in the new house. 

I have decided to make this a movie only dedicated room, no music as I didn't want to run the projector all the time. I have 5 Triad Monitor Gold speakers behind the acoustically transparent screen for a DSX wide set-up to try and it sounds pretty good so far. The side surrounds you see are one pair of my Von Schweikert TS-310 tri-pole surrounds but they will probably be moved to the downstairs system if I wind up using the Triads in this room.

I still have a lot of work to do and of course the screen is not going to be like that. I just had to cook something up really quick as some family members wanted to see what it would be like so I was getting hounded. My Sister and brother-in-law want to have a home theater as well so I just wanted to show them what can be done and now there hooked:spend:

I am pretty open to placement, paint color and what not, haven't really had a chance to think it through much. I don't plan on making it too complicated though as I am part time into real estate so this home may be converted to rental in about 2 years depending on the market. If I knew I was going to be here long term than I would have other plans but right now it's get my 2 years in as an owner occupied property and go from there.

I am going to document the transformation of this room through the help of GIK acoustics and comment on difference room treatments can make. This will be my first use of professional room treatments so it's exciting to give it a go.

Thank you to GIK, Sonnie and everyone here at the Home Theater Shack, I am very thankful for this opportunity.

Here are some pics and my feeble attempt at a Sketchup of the room:


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## KalaniP (Dec 17, 2008)

Lucky winner!

I look forward to seeing how this thread progresses...


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## sub_crazy (Nov 17, 2007)

Thanks.

I can't wait to see what happens as well or should I say hear what happens


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## sub_crazy (Nov 17, 2007)

Got me some goodies










That is the Monster Bass traps and 244 Bass traps, I staggered them so you can see how much thicker the Monsters are. There really well made and even though I knew the dimensions in advance they just seem a lot bigger, I like:T

I also ordered 3 boxes of 2" ECOSSE, 9 yards of standard black cloth and 3 yards of Coffee colored cloth. I have a large window right at my first refection point so I am going to make a 5 foot by 4 foot panel to completely cover the window and a second for the opposing wall so that it looks uniform. 

Here is what the rest of the 2" ECOSSE and black cloth is for:



















I still need to make the 2 large panels and also mount the Monster Bass traps on the back wall. Just to test today I did pop up 2 ECOSSE panels in my first refection spots as well.

Of course I did have to give it a quick listen though and laid the Monster panels up against the back wall temporarily. I only had about an hour today so I just concentrated on music. I have to say that so far it is a big improvement especially the quickness of the bass which sounds more visceral but not boomy at all. I also noticed that I was not able to tell were the bass was coming from, it was noticeable before. 
I also found that Stereo was a lot better and I actually preferred it so muti-channel music which in this room was not the case before. I preferred multi-channel because the center image was much more defined but now stereo sounds incredible, much more articulate and precise but with a huge sound stage.

I did not have time to re-run Audyssey but I also wanted to hear the effect of the room acoustics with the same calibration. I will do a new calibration sometime this week and I bet things improve even more.

I wanted to wait until I fixed my laptop that I use for REW before applying the room acoustics but I just couldn't wait. It would have been nice to measure before and after but my ears tell me that the acoustics did improve.

Now this room is supposed to be just for movies and concert videos and even though I have listened to music in both stereo and multi-channel I still preferred my 2 channel set-up downstairs. I had to run downstairs and listen to some the same SACD's that I just demoed in stereo. To put it mildly I now know why these reflections can ruin a listening experience. Now I know I will be contacting Bryan and the fine folks at GIK Acoustics to figure out how to make my Stereo room listenable, it really is a big difference that's easy to hear. I am really contemplating moving my stereo speakers to the upstairs room now until I can figure out how to properly treat that room. If I have a chance this weekend I am going to give it a go as the Triad THX speakers now sound better for music.

I never really knew how *Big* of an effect room acoustic treatments could make. I really thought it would be a slight improvement but Audyssey and Pro would clear up all the major problems of the room, I was wrong. I still like Audyssey but the improvements were not as big as adding the GIK treatments which I will do from now on.

I wanted to thank Bryan at GIK Acoustics for all his advice and help as I was a total newbie to room acoustics and now I am a convert. I also had the pleasure to speak with Christina over the phone and via a few e-mails, she is an extremely nice person to deal with. Thanks to the owner at GIK as well, Glenn, I really appreciate the giveaway here on the Home Theater Shack.

I have to thank Sonnie and everyone here at the Home Theater Shack as well. This giveaway really opened my eyes, one of the biggest improvements I have ever made. 

I would encourage anybody to think about room acoustics before plopping down money for a new receiver or speakers if your not happy with the sound. I know I always have suffered from uprageitus but I was going about it the wrong way. I really was just ignorant as to how much of a difference it could actually make.


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