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 Sonic's System

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PostSubject: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 19, 2009 4:19 am

Hi Listeners,

Welcome to the Sonic's System thread. Enjoy the chat & pictures as Sonic takes us on a journey of his audio adventures.

You can look at the archives on www.tuneland.info for more details, or simply have fun as Sonic and us enter the "techno-zone"
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 19, 2009 5:30 am

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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 19, 2009 5:40 am

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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 19, 2009 5:52 am

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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 19, 2009 6:09 am

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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 19, 2009 11:57 am

Hi Michael and friends at Tuneland!

Thanks Michael for putting up that series of pictures of my system. This series of pix show how my system has been changing over the last couple of years. And for sure the Tune is making better and better music in my room.

The last couple of weeks since I put up my genuine Shutters have been a fight. At first the shutters didn't work -- they shut (heh heh) the sound right down. But Sonic is working on it...

First, I used fewer shutters from 14 down to 8. For now the heavier version works better than the "lights". So four shutters on the side wall at ear height and four shutters on the ceiling.

Second -- Sonic found that the Shutters had to me mounted to their brackets with the right tension. Not too tight so the shutter is stuck, not too loose so that it swings too freely and rattles. It sounds best IMO when it is loose but just a little friction.

Third -- my Tune gear may have been set up to work with the cardboard shutters. With the real stuff I got to move things a bit to get the best sound. The front FS RoomTunes have been moved a bit further apart and closer to the rack. The EchoTunes in the front corners came down. The EchoTunes on the side wall and door is being repositioned. And the sound is coming together.

Fourth -- Michael suggested I put a coat of polyurethane finish on the light Shutters. I did one and put it up in the front centre over the rack.

The sound is beginning gaining dimensionality and life. But it is not there yet.

Comments and advice, Michael?

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSun Sep 20, 2009 4:19 am

Hi Sonic,

The key to all things tunable is to remember everything effects everything else. This is something that especially rings true when making such a bold step as 14 or so Sound Shutters.

Shutters literally grab the sound of the "laminar flow" that travels along the walls of the room. So what you are hearing must go through the Sound Shutters before it pressurizes your ears. The sound is directly related to what the Sound Shutters themselves sound like. To my ears (listening through yours) it sounds like your Shutters are only just starting to cure. To speed up this process may be a good idea.

How do you speed up the process? Preheat your oven (if you have high humidity preheat at 350) , turn oven off, wait 5 minutes then open the door and set the shutters on the baking rack with the oven door open. Let sit for 1 hour, then hit immediately with a light coat of poly. Repeat the baking process till you hear the Shutters produce a clean and dynamic sound.

The sound that you are now hearing comes from the Shutters taking on moisture. In your area you probably suffer with this more than other areas. The more the Shutters cure the more the sound will come to life. This will be where and when the listening will really begin. The interaction of your whole system will once again gel. While we are in the curing mode, look around the other parts of your system that may be holding moisture. You may wish to systematically start drying out your system. While you do this you will more than likely reconfigure a few things.

Temper curing will no doubt be one of the hot topics in the techno-zone. You've heard of freeze drying before (this is when you lock something in) well heat drying is the same thing only you are opening things up instead of closing them in. This is why a lot of people like the sound of tubes. Heat drying sounds very open and flowing. Your cables, transformers, caps, and certainly your panel speakers are effected big time by moisture.

It will be interesting to not only hear the shutters change but also the rest of the system.

we'll get there
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSun Sep 20, 2009 12:32 pm

Hi Michael

The sound is coming together a bit more Very Happy

Sonic tried the polyurethane finish on one light shutter. Had to use a spray can because the liquid stuff available was too thick. A couple of light coats just to cover the surfaces lightly. Then let it dry in a dehumidified closet @ around 35% rh.

I mounted this centrally on the ceiling above my rack. Over the next 10 hours of music play I could hear the system change. Now no more deadness, this light shutter seems to have turned around -- the mushy sound has gone and the instruments have gone a bit harder (!) but the transients are faster, with more plosives and snap. Yes, this is getting more like it. Listened Jordi Savall and Hesperion XX's Viva Rey Fernando (a recording of Spanish baroque music) then some Bill Evans Trio and Sonic is hearing from the system music again.

Next up, I'll coat one or two more of these Lights and introduce them gradually into the system and see where the Tune moves.

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSun Sep 20, 2009 12:52 pm

Yes, the tune is heading back into Sonic's system Cool . This is good news.
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeTue Sep 22, 2009 11:10 am

Hi Michael

The Tune is coming back over the last couple of days. From what I hear, the volume is getting slightly louder and the images are more forward day by day. The transients are much improved and this is with just one lightweight shutter settling in.

Been listening to some McCoy Tyner and Louis Couperin today.

Sonic's listening habit: I generally play two to four CDs per evening's listening. Usually 2 or 3 classical plus 1 jazz or traditional folk CD. Most of the time if the Tune is with me (and the system) I will listen to a CDs from start to finish. My listening volume is low to moderate, with peaks (C-weighting/fast meter setting) of somewhere around and between 78 dB to 82 dB at the listening seat depending on the type of music. Some times I go a bit louder -- rock/jazz -- or softer -- single recorder for instance.

With the room in some semblance of tune and the shutters settling, I find I can go much louder without the room over loading. I've played music with peaks past 97 dB and the room doesn't choke.

I can't wait till I get the remaining lght shutters dried out and I'll set them up one or two at a time.

Sonic also made a small pressure box (about 12" x 12" x 10") with a toilet roll tube 4.5 " from a corner and placed it on top of the CD cabinet under the aircon blower unit. The tube points upwards towards the ceiling. The tuned volume of this Helmholtz resonator is about 34 hz. The effect was subtle but it made the aircon fan subjectiely quieter and the music louder.

Sonic may bring back the bigger pressure boxes/Helmholtz resonators with a tuned volume of 15 hz and see if that quietens the aircon more or expands the rear of the room acoustically but the box will be rather large on top of the CD cabinet and may involve other acoustic issues by its size.

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeFri Sep 25, 2009 5:03 am

Hi Sonic,

I'm sure things have even progressed more since your last visit to the techno-zone.

Can you hear the curing as it is taking place?

Sounds like you listen to a reference each time you start. I like this practice. It burns the signature of the recording (in part) into your brain.
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PostSubject: Yes, some progress   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeFri Sep 25, 2009 1:08 pm

Hi Michael

I got the polyurethane coated light shutters back and I put them up after some drying. There are now 6 light Shutters on the ceiling -- 3 in-line over the rack at the Quarter-width points and 3 in-line over the listening seat (also at the Quarter-width points).

Yes, this is more like it for sure Very Happy Sonic can hear a halo developing in the room. At first the images were 3D but small and the images have been getting larger over the last couple of days. The effect of the Shutters is coming through -- Sonic can angle a single shutter and there is a noticeable difference to the focus or soundstage.

As I made minor adjustments to the FS RoomTunes, the images are gelling ore. I had decent depth before where I could hear some instruments playing behind others but with the Shutters, they are set "in a space".

Funny though at this stage, when my preamp is set at the number of clicks I used to listen at, the sound is good but uninteresting and a bit of a disappointment given the shutters BUT if I raise the volume by just 1 click (+1.5dB) the soundfield expands, images become real and voices and instruments have weight and "frame of tone" (as Sakuma-san puts it).

I thought with the Tune, it would take less volume setting on an amp to get the same or higher playback levels.

BTW, in my last post Sonic said that in one listening session the system's sound peaked at over 97 dB....yes, but I need to add the peak was a low frequency gated pulse from a synthesizer (some modern 16 tone music for synthesizers and percussion) and it was the efficient 15 inch Altec sub-woofer that did the job. The Maggies just filled in the upper harmonics. It was just one note that peaked this way and the sound was much too loud for my liking. It is unlikely the Maggies on their own can reproduce peaks like this when driven full-range, maybe give them a 500W amp they will but not with what I use to drive them.

Next up once the light shutters settle in, I will introduce a couple of the heavier Shutters to the ceiling or in horizontal mounting on the front or rear wall.

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Sep 26, 2009 5:53 am

Finishing, curing, and settling is the name of the game. Your volume will come back and probably more. Next year I will talk you into a pair of speakers Laughing then we will see an effortless system rule the room.

It will be nice to know what you will hear over the next week of curing with the current setup.
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSun Sep 27, 2009 1:26 am

Hi Michael

The sound is improving gradually. I've mounted 2 "heavy" shutters on the rear wall parallel to the ceiling and have started experimenting with angling this pair of shutters.

Michael, can you share the theory behind angling shutters?

In the case with the rear shutters, when angled 45 degs up towards the ceiling, the sound was clear but somewhat lightweight in tone. When 90 degs to the wall, things started improving with more girth. At 45 degs pointing down, there was more bass and mid-bass weight and punch. For now, I finally ended up with the shutters near to being parallel to the wall where there was more tone and fullness.

Oddly, on one level, Sonic felt this wasn't the best but something made me feel that if I gave it a couple of days to settle, the sound will improve a lot.

Michael, what does the effect I am getting from angling my rear shutters tell you about my room?

Sonic is glad that the system is advancing and I am past the point of feel "rats....this is a disappointment with real Shutters in use!".

I now have 12 shutters mounted -- 6 "lights" on the ceiling, 2 "heavies" per side wall, and 2 "heavies" on the rear wall. There are still 2 "heavies" and 4 unfinished balsa blades left.

An interesting point I noticed. In the volume behind my speakers towards and beyond the front wall, 4 distinct bands of depth are emerging. Sound images are layered into these 4 bands.

I also found that the tightness of the screws holding the blades to the shutters affects the sound. For those shutters hanging down or mounted vertically, I have them set loose enough so a tiny touch will cause them to swing. It sounds better this way – is this correct in your experience, Michael?

For the shutters on the rear wall, they had to be tightened so they could hold an angle. If it turns out that having them parallel to the wall is best, I’ll loosen them too.

Music heard last evening -- a CD of 18th century hurdy gurdy music, David Munrow's early music soundtrack for a film on King Henry VIII (vocals and instrumental), John Coltrane's Giant Steps and Bach's Dorian Toccata and Fugue for Organ (Richter).

The Tune is getting exciting again, yes!

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSun Sep 27, 2009 4:45 am

Hi sonic,

It is always remarkable to me to witness curing and settling. It's like one minute the sound will never return and the next it comes back with such promise. After you got your shutters and I heard what you were hearing I said oh no!! I should have gone ahead and put 2 more light coats of poly on. I'm so relieved that you were able to do this out there. I guess the good part of this story is that now you are able to see the curing first hand. Try to keep the room as dry as you can over the next few weeks.

I agree, for myself when getting the setup so that the screws are just holding things in place (this goes for the whole system) then the sound is operating at it's maximum harmonic potential. All of the energy can work together as one creating it's own balance. Tunable rooms are out of this world when set this way.

The Shutters are fascinating because they not only play a role in shaping but also a role in toning. It can be tricky to find the right places for the Shutters but the more they cure it becomes easier. This is because of the shutters give and take nature with sound waves from a vibrating point of view and also the space point of view. Sound shutters are proof that sound does not travel in a straight line but instead spreads out when it hits the wall. If you look at aerodynamic training films you will see that laminar flow stays very close to the surface and then acts like one uniform body of energy as it is shaped. Laminar flow is strong enough to hold planes in the air and with the slightest adjustment move these big objects. Likewise in a pressurized room like a listening room the slightest movement on the wall changes the sound dramatically. As the Shutter cures more of the vibration will get into the soft core of the wood to give you the tonality and the outside will harden to give you the direction or shaping of the pressure zone. Moving the angle on the Shutters to an open setting allows the sound to flow down to you faster and softer whereas angling the shutter into the zone builds up more of the laminar energy and sends it down to you with more built up pressure. You see angled away from one zone will cause the pressure to double up into the next pressure zone area which you now have chosen the size of by your placement of the Shutters.

Shutters also help you decide which of the pressure zones become the most prominent in your room. The shutters also will tell the pressure zone what to sound like. Tightening and loosening a shutter will act like an acoustical tuner for the laminar energy (sound pressure) that builds up in that particular zone. As the air pressure hits the Shutter it then vibrates the Shutter causing the waves to reform their pattern hierarchy. This sets the priority of the harmonic structure for that zone. Once you get the hang of this you can start zone shifting between the different pressure zones in the room.

Think of your Shutters as zone pressure gages if you will. They can take on more or less energy depending on their angle. This will allow the zones to interact with each other. It's kind of like inflating a bunch of balloons at different pressures and filling the room up with them, then jumping in the room. When you hit a balloon that was more full you would go flying across the room with more velocity. When you hit a balloon with less you would have more of a sponge effect and not move as far. This is what is going on in your room right now as the sound waves move around it. Once in a while during the second's cycle frequencies will spike and peak but the more your system is in tune the more you will hear pure pressure.

So yes, the tightness, placement, and curing all play a big part in the Sound Shutters ability to shape the pressure in the room. The Shutters should also be thought of as an aid to the other acoustical products in the room. Putting up Shutters change the formula of energy that heads toward the other objects in the room so it is good to consider making not only Shutter adjustments but other tuning adjustments when tuning these. This type of thinking should always be on our minds when making tuning adjustments.

great questions as always Wink
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeTue Sep 29, 2009 1:18 pm

Hi Michael and friends at the Tune

My Shutters are settling in and Sonic is beginning to be able to hear the room -- or maybe the room has become easier to hear.

For instance I can feel how much upper mids and treble is coming off the front corners. I can emphasize the strength of the front pressure zones or weaken them by angling the shutters on the side walls. Also it is possible to redirect the flow across the room from the front corners using the Floor Standing RoomTunes that are mounted behind my rack.

New Tune
Sonic moved the two Room Tunes right up to the front wall and angled them inwards slightly -- they are about two feet apart and reflective side facing towards the side walls. They used to be about 20 inches out from the wall.

And yes! the sound is more focussed, and the whole tone of voices and instruments is more real. If I turned the Room Tunes so the absorptive side face the side walls, the treble rolls off. Now this could be characteristic of the Maggies in my room. But the tune devices are versatile things. Flexibility in a panel.

It is as important IMO to control the middle of the wall behind the speakers as is the corners.

It is not a fast process to tune the room but really rewarding. My room had a slight drift in balance to the the left. Of course Sonic could use a balance control to correct it but I don't have one on my preamp. So by experimenting with the angle of the two Shutters on the side walls behind the speakers, I think I got the sound stage to balance -- given the left drift, I angled the LH shutters towards the front wall 45 degs but had the shutter on the RH wall at 90 degs. It doesn't work on every CD I play...sometimes it can go too RH in which case I suppose I do the reverse but this is not how I want to listen -- that is tuning and turning things from CD to CD. So Sonic tries to get a setting that works for the majority of recordings and set it there.

Music played in the last couple of days include Jean Baptiste Masse's Sonatas for two Cellos, Modern Jazz Quartet's Farewell Concert -- this one used to be digital-sounding and fatiguing but now it sounds pretty good and the images in the soundstage actually corresponds to how the players were positioned on Carnegie Hall stage -- Handel's Fireworks Music, some Peter, Paul and Mary (remebering the late Mary Travers) and Ives' string quartets. Strange combination but Sonic can dive into the music, hear the tunes, hear the details and not think about the equipment....but I got a tune programme worked out as the Shutters cure and settle.

The volume is still a little soft but not on all CDs. Sonic keeps saying "take it slow, let it settle" but I still have 6 more Shutters to place and this is exciting.

Sonic
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PostSubject: New Room Pictures   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeTue Sep 29, 2009 8:36 pm

Sonic,

I have been following your journey with the new shutters. Can you provide updated pictures of your room?

I have 1st generation (heavy shutters) that I am about to place in my room, but it sounds like the new light shutters would be better suited for ceiling placement with my older shutters placed on the walls.

Keep us updated.
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeWed Sep 30, 2009 1:09 pm

Hi Sonic,

I'm glad you brought up the drift in this manor. This gives us a chance to remind each other of the recording room and the mastering room. Left and right drift is in stages of recordings as well as in our own listening rooms. The more revealing your system becomes the more we can hear the process.

Very good to see you realizing the shape and sizes of your pressure zones. See how you can empty out one and fill up another one? Very cool and fun stuff.

Another interesting thing for me is to watch you switch around the different types of shutters. When I am in a room with harder walls I do things differently then when I am in rooms with lower mass walls.

I love it when you guys make things more variable. You should see my new speakers. They are like a tunable room. Every part has a tuning bolt or screw layout that allows you to tune them in more ways than I've ever made speakers before. Or should I say more than any I have ever made available.
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeThu Oct 01, 2009 6:23 am

Hi Garp

Good to hear from you again! I’m in the middle of shifting things around in my system and I plan to put up some pictures this weekend. But the configuration of the Shutters will still be similar to the last couple of my system pix on page 1 of my thread. Have a look.

The two Shutters on the rear wall (horizontally mounted) are now Heavies and they sounded best in the end folded against the wall – that is, they no longer intrude in the laminar flow but just contribute the sound of wood to the room.

I have 6 Lights on the ceiling in 2 rows of 3 Shutters. They are at the ¼ and ¾ points of the ceiling down the length of the room and across the room the triplet Shutters are at the ¼, ½ and ¾ widths. I am experimenting with two Heavies at the ½ room length point over each loudspeaker.

The Shutters on the side walls are Heavies and mounted at the 1/3 and ¾ points. In my case, a shutter at the ½ point just ahead o the speakers didn’t work. Sound got localized round the speaker and lost halo.

Also Shutters on the front wall upset the girth and imaging. It seems a lot of sound is running across the front wall and I have moved the two FS RoomTunes right up to the front wall to control this flow and direct it forward at the centre of the room. Shutters near the front corners direct sound out from the sides and it is pretty strange to me.

The tops of the side wall Shutters are just about ½ room height. My room is almost 11 ft tall but in a room with an 8 foot ceiling, they can be mounted with the mid-point of the blades at the half-height point.

I will also try placing some shutters on the floor – likely near my listening seat to build up pressure in the weakest part of my room which is the zone near the bookcases.

The Lights do make big girth but they need to be dried out properly. When I first put them up, they were a big let down. At Michael’s advice, I spray coated them with solvent-based polyurethane and after that they sounded great. I have not coated over the Heavies as they seemed to work well as they are. The Lights acted like absorbers till they were coated.

The whole Shutter combo is working again and Sonic most happy is. There is more energy in the sound – the volume is marginally up for a given preamp setting and the tone of instruments is better framed in the music but to get here some of the other room tuning had to be adjusted to work optimally with Shutters.

Hope this is useful…more soon.

Sonic
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PostSubject: More on the Shutters   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeFri Oct 02, 2009 4:25 am

Hi Garp

Forgot to ask you if your shutters are the version with the blades pivoting in wooden blocks on the ends?

From what I know, there are several versions of Michael's Shutters that fall broadly into 3 generations.

Gen 1 shutters were made around the time when the first in wall-tuners and PZCs appeared (in the 1990s). The wood blades were fairly heavy and they mounted to the walls with steel 90 degree brackets. I don't know what the blades were made of but some users of Michael's products in Singapore say it was chipboard. Those I have seen here were white in color.

Gen 2 -- you can see these on the old Tuneland site -- check out Hiend1 and Cdimi's sites (many others too if you look around. These have wood pivot blocks on both ends. They came in a variety of finishes. There was also a single-pivot short version that could be ordered and you can see them in the upper walls of Cdimi's system.

Gen 3 shutters (2009 on) go back to the 90 degree angle brackets. These are now brass over steel brackets and the screws are brass with zinc washers.

Michael, is this a cost saving measure or does the metal brackets sound better than the wood pivot blocks?

Gen 3 is available in both heavy and Light versions. The Light versions are balsa wood of some sort. All my shutters are cherry wood finished. They look beautiful.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that the Shutters I received were not the Gen 2 ones but they are running in and my sound is changing for the better day by day Very Happy

I had to be careful threading in the screws to the balsa blades -- too tight and the thread goes and the screw won't bite anymore.

The blades should be attached loosely to the brackers or just tight enough to hold the angle you want. More than that and IMO the sound closes down.

I tried a pair of shutters on the ground on either side of my listening chair and wow! the girth was strong but I am hearing that I need more tone and energy higher up my room where the walls are harder.

Next I will try a pair of Lights at the half way point but higher up and see what effect I get.

Pics soon

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Oct 03, 2009 11:14 am

Hi Michael and friends at Tuneland!

Sonic seems to have heard a form of the Tune. Since my last post, I tried a pair of Light Shutters in a few spots around my room to see what happens and how much the envelope of sound could be expanded.

At this stage of the Tune, I found that:

1. Any shutters on the front wall…actually any further treatment on this surface with Shutters or EchoTunes …. ended up causing the soundstage to either shrink, go out of focus or have the tone frame upset.

2. Shutters on the side walls at the midpoint had either little effect or locked the sound images to the loudspeaker positions.

3. The Shutters on the rear wall sounded best folded down.

4. A pair of Lights placed on the floor just ahead of my DIY “aeroplanes” sounded promising but I felt something was not quite right.

So Sonic let it settle in for a few days – with music playing, dehumidifier going and so on.

And this evening, Sonic listened to Music of the Gothic Era – David Munrow, Herb Ellis & Joe Pass Duets and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring – at pre-amp levels a couple of clicks higher than what I usually listen at (but still at natural and sensible levels described by the great Peter Walker. That’s about 78 dB C weighting average levels on the Rat Shack).

For the first time, I consistently heard the choir and the orchestra expand beyond my walls. The orchestra was HUGE….instruments and ambience came from a space that was larger than my listening room in all directions except the floor.

With the David Munrow CD, on some tracks with choir I could hear a large harmonic expanse then when just two voices sang accompanied by a fiddle, the soundstage shrank. This is IMO the way it should be. The Tune tracks the program material unlike some omnidirectional speakers that give you a huge sound with the same size for a symphony orchestra and a solo voice.

From what I understand you said Michael, I should keep listening and let the settling go on for months. The volume will come up and the harmonics will fill up. Right now, the Shutters and Sonic’s re-Tuning have taken the tune and music quality in my room beyond the best I ever remembered with the cardboard. Yep…it is possible to hear violins, percussion and celli through a wall.


Is Sonic’s system recreating live music? For sure not…I could do with:

1. Better transient leading edges – the sound is big but doesn’t have the best snap of live music. This sound is slightly slow like some tube systems.

2. Moving the whole soundstage, especially the images in the middle closer to me and more upfront.

3. Getting the same energy, tone and ambience at lower preamp settings

The system and room has more potential but Sonic’s got a much better sound now with the Shutters.

Pictures coming up.

Sonic cheers
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSun Oct 04, 2009 8:00 am

Hi Sonic,

It's fascinating reading your posts. Your doing a very good job of putting us in your room with you. One of the things that I hope people take away with this is the fact that every room so different from every other room. Having a tunable room I'm able to recreate many different sounding rooms. It makes me realize that if we focus on a template setup we might miss the boat in your own rooms. Your showing us how unique your room is and you are also showing us that if we spend time studying the nature of our own room than we can build our listening relationship with our system to the point where the room listens to us and we listen to the room.

When I design or redesign any product my goal is to make the product more tunable than the last generation. With the Sound Shutters it is easy to see the progression.

Generation 1 Shutters were built with hemlock LDF (low density fiberboard). The boards were cured with our somewhat signatured curing method. Listeners at that time had no idea what a pressure zone was so there was very little effort put into the product from a tweak point of view beyond dividing the room up in a mathematical territory.

Behind the scenes, I was using shutters as a way to correct unreasonable room walls and floors. I knew that many people either lived with plaster, double dry wall, or concrete walls. These walls don't have enough give to reproduce frequencies with a natural harmonic pattern. Because of this the development of musical notes suffered greatly. note: measuring frequencies has nothing to do with note development. I mention this because we have been falsely taught that we should measure rooms flat for top to bottom. This is misleading because you can have a flat responses and still not have harmonics. Harmonics are what makes a note's character belong to itself. Meaning a guitar needs to sound different than a piano playing the same note. We can have a room that is flat head to toe but not know how to distinguish between individual notes. This is what drives me crazy about over dampening. Over dampening is just frequencies not music content.

Generation 2 came along at a time where there was a better understanding of how tuning was to be achieved. We (listeners) as a whole grew from an RTA to using our ears. This is a big step for someone like me because I could start putting attention in products that require voicing. For example, the PZC is still light years beyond the average acoustical product. Even the most advanced acoustical product doesn't touch the flexibility of the PZC. The Sound Shutter was ready to grow passed just a glorified room divider. The Generation 2 Shutter was a real tweaking devise. It was able to be tuned in mechanically as well as the spacial benefits. I was very pleased with the jump between generation 1 and 2.

Generation 3 Sound Shutters are yet another animal. With generations 1 and 2 the shutters were sprayed or dipped. This isn't a bad way to do things it's just more, you get what you get, as opposed to us taking the time hand sanding and hand finishing. I will someday maybe go back to a Generation 2 tweaked out a little more, but in the meantime tunee tweakers can enjoy more sound for the money with the hand crafted Shutters.

To answer the bracket question, which is better the wood or the brass plated? With the gen 2 the wood sounded better and with the gen 3 the brass sounds better. The dipped gen 2 had a harder surface than the gen 3 does (while curing). Then gen 2 had more of an accelerated curing process while the gen 3 is done slower with more layers. If I ever go back to a gen 2 I will use more coats and more than likely a brass bracket, but this is always something that gets determined by listening.
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeMon Oct 05, 2009 10:30 am

Hi friends at Tuneland

Here is a pix of my latest set up.

Sonic's System Sonicspic

This is what I have been describing on this thread, how this arrangement of Shutters has taken my system a couple of Big Steps forward. Garp, I hope you find it useful as you plan your own set up.

They may be fiddly to set up but once those Shutters start curing, they are worth every cent.

Sonic
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PostSubject: Re: Sonic's System   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeFri Oct 09, 2009 1:13 pm

Hi Michael and friends at Tuneland!

The Shutters in Sonic’s room are settling and curing and the sound is getting more real and whole. My room is quiet again but this time in a “live” way, not the “dead” quiet that I heard when the Shutters were first introduced into my room. I can hear the soundfield is now larger than the physical dimensions of my room.

Here is a pix of the Shutters on my ceiling


Sonic's System Sonic1



I have tried angling them a bit and this is about the most beneficial setting.

One thing Sonic is learning is that while cardboard shutters are a good guide, the real Shutters sound very different (and better when they dry out) and a Tunee may have to revisit some settings that did not work with the cardboard shutters to make sure all bases are covered.

In the last week, I been experimenting and as the tunes settle, I’ll describe them here. Sonic is changing the position of the FS Roomtunes placed behind the clamp rack, possibly move the DIY “aeroplanes” too because of an imaging problem that has been with my system for some time.

What I mean is Sonic can still hear there is some middle image recession – where voices (particularly in rock) is at the front wall instead of near the plane of the speakers. Sonic finds this intensely irritating – instruments just behind the speakers and the main/lead vocal at the wall. Ridiculous! This is very common in audiophile systems and it is like listening from cheap seats behind the band. Some call this depth….but who am I to criticize and Sonic could be wrong. But this recession doesn’t happen with the big horn systems I have been listening to recently.

Let’s see if I can Tune this out.

Also recently, Sonic has been reading about a fascinating Japanese amplifier designer – Sakuma-san. This gentleman has some unique ideas. Very unique. He owns a restaurant in a town a couple of hours out of Tokyo. His audio systems are in his restaurant. He listens only in mono. He uses Altec horn, Tannoy and a Lowther in a beer keg! His amps are direct-heated, single-ended triodes devices with lots of interstage transformers.

He describes sound in terms of “Frame of Tone” and “Energy”. He says in the right system you can hear the philosophy of life of the performers. I am told (I can’t read Japanese) that he speaks of the “spirits” of different tube types. He regards building an amp as an act of meditation rather than a technical endeavour.

How like the Tune in some ways! I haven’t heard his systems but I can identify with something in his thinking. With the Tune and my system, I think Sonic can grasp what Sakuma-san is getting at. Frame of Tone and the soul of the music that is playing.

This evening, Sonic listened to Handel’s sonatas for violin and harpsichord, Copland’s Red Pony and Norman Blake’s Slow Train through Georgia. And though Sonic’s system has far to go, I am beginning to hear something deeper that rides within the music.

Sonic
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PostSubject: The Wood of my Dreams   Sonic's System Icon_minitimeSat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am

Hi Michael

I think I’ve found the wood of my dreams! OK, it is actually one of your woods….

As I was tuning around, I went through my collection of woods from the Magic Wood pack I bought some time ago.

In it was 3 types of wood: a soft white pulpy wood, which I have come to refer to as Magic Wood, an orange striped wood which you said could be Brazilian Pine or Western Dried Cedar, and the third wood is light but very hard wood that is light earth brown with almost no grain.

This pix shows all 3 woods together.

Sonic's System Sonicwood

I took 4 blocks of the third wood and I placed it under a PZC just to see what would happen. Up till now I only used the white MW under my PZCs and RoomTunes.

WOW! The PZC switched on! It was like it was idling before and now it turned on and lighted up!

I can here what the PZC is doing and how it affects the room. I got a few more blocks and placed them under the MTDs of my 3 PZCs and what a difference. The PZCs now act as a much better barrier against the bookcases. The air round each PZC and my chair has come alive.

What do you think is going on here?

What wood do you think this could be? Sonic wants more of it.

I think the Tune will progress very fast in my room now.

Sonic
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