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PSI's AVAA Bass trap review

Purité Audio

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Thomas savage

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No in room measurements...oh there is, kind of but I can't make head nor tail of it.. Seems like waffle to me.

The conclusion seems to be , spend £5ooo plus in order to take out two bass traps... :rolleyes:

How are these better than a well setup multi sub system?


They seem like a very expensive way to gain a minimal benefit.
 
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Cosmik

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The last few paragraphs sum it up for me. It'll never be possible to just listen to music with such a system - there'll always be something to tweak.

If the aim is to 'remove the room', would simply sitting closer to smaller speakers do the trick?
 
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Sitting closer would but won't do anything about standing waves.
Keith
 

Cosmik

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Sitting closer would but won't do anything about standing waves.
Keith
Just a question of proportion of direct to reflected sound. If you put your ear to your speakers, you won't notice any standing waves in the room. Sitting closer to smaller speakers is part way to that.
 
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It really depends upon the amplitude of the standing wave, in my room the +20dB peaks were easily discerned even sitting close to the loudspeakers.
Keith
 
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In that room, reducing the amount of energy via EQ has worked really well.
We are going to have PSI here, I will give the AVAa traps a trial in an untreated room and report back.
Keith
 

Kal Rubinson

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If the aim is to 'remove the room', would simply sitting closer to smaller speakers do the trick?
Why not go all the way to isolating headphones?;)
 

Cosmik

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Why not go all the way to isolating headphones?;)
Yes, I mentioned that in another thread on room correction, but someone said they didn't like the 'in head' experience. However, with in-ear measurements and appropriate DSP that needn't be a problem either.
 

Fitzcaraldo215

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Yes, I mentioned that in another thread on room correction, but someone said they didn't like the 'in head' experience. However, with in-ear measurements and appropriate DSP that needn't be a problem either.
This would be my choice:

http://www.smyth-research.com/products.html

But, what it does is mimick the room in which it is calibrated, in addition to calibrating your head transfer function, both via the in-ear mikes. So, you still need a good room and system setup during calibration to get it right. Maybe Amir would start selling tickets to folks to let them calibrate in his best room?

Actually, it will store a library of different rooms you have calibrated it in for selection.

Kal reviewed it, as has Gary Reber in Widescreen Review.

Sorry for the OT digression.
 

amirm

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Why is the graph so fuzzy???

616psiaudio.fig2.jpg


I can't read any of the axis labels. Squinting anyway, the improvement in very low frequencies (at the beginning of the graph in orange) is significant. It essentially flattened the response from 30 to 50 Hz. This is darn near impossible with a few absorption panels.
 

Kal Rubinson

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Why is the graph so fuzzy???
It looks like a low-res screen grab. Most of the graphs in Stereophile are created by the editor from datafiles (his or from other writers).
 

RayDunzl

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I can't read any of the axis labels.

The graph in the rag has only dB and kHz (sic).

Left axis is 1dB steps 65 to 85 dB, and bottom is 10 to 1000 Hz.

The panel below that would seem to be several measurements in REW of which 3 are selected to display (not included in the print version).
 

h.g.

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Thanks, that helps with where Bob Katz is coming from and adds one or two things to the plot which was shown earlier in the other thread.

The overly smoothed plot is annoying because it distorts what the devices are doing. I suspect people might be a bit happier if they could see what they are actually doing to reduce the actual peaks and fill in the actual dips without the smoothing doing it as well. Particularly below 80 Hz where the passive treatment is not going to be effective. Hopefully you will show us more informative plots when examining what your PSI devices are doing in your room and save smoothing away the peaks and dips for the final marketing plot?
 

h.g.

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Thanks, that helps with where Bob Katz is coming from and adds one or two things to the plot which was shown earlier in the other thread.

The overly smoothed plot is annoying because it distorts what the devices are doing. I suspect people might be a bit happier if they could see what they are actually doing to reduce the actual peaks and fill in the actual dips without the smoothing doing it as well. Particularly below 80 Hz where the passive treatment is not going to be effective. Hopefully you will show us more informative plots when examining what your PSI devices are doing in your room and save smoothing away the peaks and dips for the final marketing plot?
 

dallasjustice

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Here's more measurements taken by Nyal Mellor from a client's room. He took more measurements than these. I just took the best one and overlaid it with the off position. These results seem to be consistent with Bob Katz's results. IMO, these are modest improvements when compared with what a pair of subs can do. However, it seems to make alot of sense for the audiophile who fears DSP or doesn't want to load the room up with fiberglass panels or expensive modex plates. ;)
best vs. off avva.jpg
best vs off waterfall.jpg
 
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