Kanso Audio's Room

Borderdog

Borderdog

New member
Joined
Jun 20, 2013
Messages
41
Location
The Beautiful Chesapeake Bay of Virginia
Hey guys/gals(?),

You already know I build Kanso audio stands/racks, but i thought I would share my room with you.

I'm really big into room treatments and feel that the room is the biggest factor in getting great sound.
In all my years as an audiophool, I've found a great room trumps everything. I can make a correct room with modest equipment trump any mediocre room with outlandishly priced equipment. (It all comes down to physics). When the room is right,the subtleties between equipment, cables, etc., become even more apparent.

I have really good equipment, but I don't change/upgrade much anymore; I like where I'm at. The boundaries of my room are now nonexistent, I can concentrate on the music instead of the equipment. It's a very nice position to be.

My room is 15'W X 19.5'D X 8.5'H.

So. instead of posting a whole bunch of pics here, I'll give you my photobucket link.
Peruse all the different albums under the Library. Some are password protected and the password is either Borderdog or borderdog. I can't remember which.

Many of these pics are from a few years ago, so they don't show the trim around windows with the completed paint work. But' I'm always changing the colors anyways.

Also be sure to look at the Real Borderdog's library....he's still my favorite topic..lol.

Borderdog56's Library | Photobucket

Let me know if this works.

Aaron, the Secondary Borderdog
 
Yes it works. Nice pics, and I guess that's the original borderdog in the pic.
Did I miss the turntable? Lol.
Nice setup . Hard to see on a phone ill check em out later on. The big screen.
 
I don't have a turntable; even though I design turntable stands. I do understand the physics of the interaction of the room and a TT!
I've gone totally digital in the last 6 years...but that doesn't mean I don't understand the dynamics of a TT.
I have heard both incredible analogue and incredible digital, so I'm basically unbiased.

I lost my whole collection of vinyl a few years back. (I had it in storage while moving and somebody broke in and stole everything). So I went CD's and digital, because it was easier to replace that way.

After I ripped all my CD's to hard drive and created my library, I just do hi-res downloads now.
A great percentage of my 16/44 CD collection is MFSL, Audio Fidelity, DCC, MasterSound, and many of the Japanese Remasters.

But, I'm thinking seriously of a Kuzma Stabi/Stogi.

Aaron
 
I'm trying to stay under the 5K range for TT, tone-arm, cartridge.
Talking to some of the experts in analogue like Mike Fremer and some others, they all say it's a hard combo to beat under 5K.
But it's very susceptible to in-room vibration, which I've got covered with one of my wall mounted TT shelves.
 
Aaron, thanks so much for sharing with the rest of AS your wonderful room! You know I think it's gorgeous, too!

The room is beautiful and you guys recognize that because it's all hand built by Aaron. The bass traps, the side Helmholtz Diffusors, the wooden slats in the ceiling, all placed at an angle and covered by acoustically transparent Gildford of Maine clothe, so the sound waves don't see say a 9' foot ceiling but a 10 or 10.5' ceiling with diffusors underneath, and the staggered bookcase in the rear offering shelving space and acoustic diffusion all in one. And it all looks beautiful! I can see those side diffusors done in clear (knot-free wood) and stained to a beautiful warm color on my walls!:exciting:

Besides his own room, Aaron also showed me one of his clients rooms and the beautiful acoustic treatments custom made for that room. It was amazing especially considering the space challenged room. Aaron takes great pride in his work, and it shows in the smallest of details. Aaron's work is really impressive, especially his audio furniture. I'll speak more about that when I post some photos from the CAF show.;)
 
socfan12 said:
Aaron, thanks so much for sharing with the rest of AS your wonderful room! You know I think it's gorgeous, too!

The room is beautiful and you guys recognize that because it's all hand built by Aaron. The bass traps, the side Helmholtz Diffusors, the wooden slats in the ceiling, all placed at an angle and covered by acoustically transparent Gildford of Maine clothe, so the sound waves don't see say a 9' foot ceiling but a 10 or 10.5' ceiling with diffusors underneath, and the staggered bookcase in the rear offering shelving space and acoustic diffusion all in one. And it all looks beautiful! I can see those side diffusors done in clear (knot-free wood) and stained to a beautiful warm color on my walls!:exciting:

Besides his own room, Aaron also showed me one of his clients rooms and the beautiful acoustic treatments custom made for that room. It was amazing especially considering the space challenged room. Aaron takes great pride in his work, and it shows in the smallest of details. Aaron's work is really impressive, especially his audio furniture. I'll speak more about that when I post some photos from the CAF show.;)
Click to expand...

Hey Allen,
Thanks!

The Poly-Helmholtz Resonators on the side-walls were originally experimental. The size of the resonators was based on the "room"; volume vs. surface area had to be calculated. To save money on an expereiment, and rather than spend 2K on the hardwoods, I used some spruce stud lumber I had on hand and made the slatted verticals from that. (The labor I charge myself is pretty minimal..0).

I set up the framework (very precisely) for the resonators just in case they really did work, so I would not have to do that again. I used the spruce lumber I had on hand to save money. I set it up so the I could take the spruce off easily.

Well guys, these resonators/diffusers are so amazing that I ordered a bunch of Birdseye Maple to replace the Spruce, I'm going to do a special dye and finish on the Birdseye Maple to match my dream speakers, which are the Dynaudio C2 Signatures in the Mocha finish. Then I will do a fit'n'finsh that is out of this world. When I'm done, they will look like the wood sculptures I intended in the first place.

Right now I'm using Dyn Special 25's. They are monitors and probably the most fun speakers and biggest PIA I've ever heard, but I'll keep them forever. Even if I get another pair of speaker, I'll never sell my Special 25's...they're that good!

Anal Retentive,
Aaron
 
I especially like the diffusers on top of the rack in this photo! :D What a great shot and an equally beautiful room.

IMG_2118.jpg
 
I like what you did with the wood slats. nice touch. I'm guessing there is sound absorption behind the wood or is it just being used as diffuser?
Borderdog said:
Hey guys/gals(?),

You already know I build Kanso audio stands/racks, but i thought I would share my room with you.

I'm really big into room treatments and feel that the room is the biggest factor in getting great sound.
In all my years as an audiophool, I've found a great room trumps everything. I can make a correct room with modest equipment trump any mediocre room with outlandishly priced equipment. (It all comes down to physics). When the room is right,the subtleties between equipment, cables, etc., become even more apparent.

I have really good equipment, but I don't change/upgrade much anymore; I like where I'm at. The boundaries of my room are now nonexistent, I can concentrate on the music instead of the equipment. It's a very nice position to be.

My room is 15'W X 19.5'D X 8.5'H.

So. instead of posting a whole bunch of pics here, I'll give you my photobucket link.
Peruse all the different albums under the Library. Some are password protected and the password is either Borderdog or borderdog. I can't remember which.

Many of these pics are from a few years ago, so they don't show the trim around windows with the completed paint work. But' I'm always changing the colors anyways.

Also be sure to look at the Real Borderdog's library....he's still my favorite topic..lol.

Borderdog56's Library | Photobucket

Let me know if this works.

Aaron, the Secondary Borderdog
Click to expand...
 
Big B said:
I like what you did with the wood slats. nice touch. I'm guessing there is sound absorption behind the wood or is it just being used as diffuser?
Click to expand...

The Poly-Helmholtz Resonators do a few things. First, since they are semi-circular, and a circle has infinite tangent points, you have infinite reflections, therefore total diffusion. They are wide enough to catch the 1st reflection of the near speaker and also the 1st reflection of the far speaker.

The vertical slats are spaced about 1/4" apart. At the back of the cavity I have 2" of 703 rigid fiberglass insulation. This helps tame the upper bass frequencies (80-160 hz), but still give diffustion for the midrange and treble. So they are very broadband.
My corner bass traps, which are a sealed membrane design take care of the two lower octaves of bass.
My speakers are rated at 35hz but I'm flat to 30hz in my room. I hardly ever use my subs, except for certain orchestral or organ pieces.

My room is probably 65% diffusion and 35% absorption, so it's very lively without any comb filtering effects.

My soundstage goes beyond the physical boundaries of the room!

Aaron
 
Hi all, call me a satisfied customer. I converted my 11.5' x 25' den into a dedicated home cinema and used Aaron who expertly built it from scratch following a Rives Audio analysis done by Chris Huston, Led Zep recording engineer back in the day.

Aaron also built a beautiful 8' wide rack in Mocha for all the equipment and a center speaker stand to match the Mocha speakers. As i said to him many times, "JOB WELL DONE".

Aaron, feel free to elaborate.
 
Aaron that's a great looking room question do you have a matching diffuser on the other wall like the one in the photo.
 
Thanks Aaron
So what do you do if the room doesn't allow for matching both walls is the a way to work around it and still get good results.
 
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