DIY Roomlens report - Paul Tobin - Tweakers' Asylum

Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

DIY Roomlens report

139.134.218.71

I have been listening to the DIY Roomlens' for two weeks and thought my impressions may be of interest.
I followed JR's instructions (thanks Jon!) and scaled my lenses to suit my taller ceilings.
I used 2m lengths for the pipes as the PVC tubing came in 6m lengths.
Likewise I used Jon's stuffing instructions but ratiometric. Gaps between pipes were standard. Bases were two layers of 19mm 'craftwood'.
By way of background I should explain that my room (rectangular with 11ft ceilings), had no acoustic treatment prior to the insertion of the Roomlens and was on the live side.
The system for the purpose of evaluation consisted of Rotel RCD971/Plinius 8150/Proac Response 2 / Wireworld Eclipse interconnects and Goertz MI2 biwire speaker cables.
The system had been carefully tweaked over the years by fiddling with speaker placement, component isolation and cable changes etc.
Let me say first up that the insertion of the Roomlens (I used the placement instructions from the Argent web site) was far more than a mere 'tweak'. These things transformed the sound in my room! The soundstage broadened and deepened and instruments and voices snapped
into focus. Transients became sharper and the sense of air around instruments improved.
More importantly there is just a far greater sense of excitement and cues that real people are playing and singing - the sound 'charges' the room.
I am sure that my room, which had no treatment prior, may benefit more than one that has had some other form of treatment. Still this is an amazing improvement for about AU$130.
I would suggest to anyone who has not addressed this issue - do it. This is a far,far more fundemental improvement than is possible by playing with isolation devices and cables.
I am frankly baffled as to why they have the effect they do! I dragged the first one I made into my room, sans stuffing or feet, placed it in the mid position between and behind my speakers, and spent the next 2 hours spinning discs in amazement. (the middle lens is fundemental to the effect - remove it and the sound muddles and the 'live' effect vanishes).
I'm not sure that the stuffing has a great effect as a fair degree of improvement is produced without it. I did not experiment with this parameter.
Thanks to Jon and all who provided information on their projects.
Oh, and special thanks to Argent for coming up with the idea!!

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

Topic - DIY Roomlens report - Paul Tobin 05:27:01 01/26/00 (18)

Not bad, are they? :-) - David Aiken 01:05:20 01/27/00 (15)

Paul and David, a question.... - Bill Z 10:16:37 01/27/00 (12)

Re: Paul and David, a question.... - Paul Tobin 19:52:20 01/27/00 (1)

Thanks to you both... - Bill Z 09:41:14 01/28/00 (0)

Re: Paul and David, a question.... - David Aiken 15:25:33 01/27/00 (9)

Looking forward to seeing them, Dave nt - dave c 21:43:46 01/27/00 (8)

It's just 18 metres of drain pipe in the living room :-) NT - David Aiken 00:02:46 01/28/00 (0)

how come these postings are dated 27th, its 29th here in Australia, I've also had emasils today from USA dated 27th. What is going on? nt - dave c 21:45:42 01/27/00 (6)

Are you sure?...It's the 28th here in Japan and US is a day behind, which I believe is where AA's server is at...(nt) - Joven 00:33:36 01/28/00 (5)

I have had emails turning up as much as two weeks after they were sent. Australia still seems to be a day adrift, or is it everyone else??!! nt - dave c 15:39:09 01/28/00 (4)

the above posting was sent at 10.39 (approx) on 30th Jan, but check the recorded time/date nt - dave c 15:40:45 01/28/00 (3)

Carol has just told me my watch is showing the wrong date....;) nt - dave c 23:34:09 01/28/00 (2)

Welcome to Yesterday....(nt) - Joven 06:32:44 01/29/00 (1)

actually the day before yesterday.......nt ;) - dave c 13:44:24 01/29/00 (0)

Re: Not bad, are they? :-) - Paul Tobin 04:50:30 01/27/00 (1)

Re: Not bad, are they? :-) - David Aiken 15:31:34 01/27/00 (0)

Re: DIY Roomlens report - Joe 07:45:27 01/26/00 (1)

Re: DIY Roomlens report - Paul Tobin 17:59:29 01/26/00 (0)

You can not post to an archived thread.