Is THIS why headphones sound better than loudspeakers?

This episode is brought to you by Marantz:

🎥 Camera: John Darko / Olaf von Voss
🎬 Editor: John Darko
🌈 Colour: Olaf von Voss
🕺🏻 Motion GFX: John Darko
💰 Ad segment: Jana Dagdagan

0:00 Intro
0:59 Some background
2:26 What is reverb?
4:08 RT60 measurements
7:37 Why treat? + final RT60 measurements

👉 As seen in this video...

Room treatment by Vicoustic

UMIK-1 microphone

Vicoustic Cinema Round Premium

Vicoustic Wavewood Ultra Lite

Vicoustic Vixagon VMT

THREE videos about the 2023 Lisbon room treatment:

What is RT60?

Cables and power products by AudioQuest

Hi-fi furniture and speaker stands by Solid Steel

Darko.Audio may earn a small commission from items purchased via affiliate links, as indicated by a '🛒'.

Darko.Audio is an Amazon Associates Program member, an Audio Advice Program member and a Howl Program member.

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[UTILITARIANTVUK]

Following a long discussion with my wife regarding treating the acoustics in the room, we ended up with a new sofa and rug. 😫

[canonlon]

100% a room defines how well the speakers will sound. After moving and starting a family I switched to high end headphones system and never regretted it. Though nothing can replace a well treated room with top tier loudspeakers.

[Rick--A-F]

I love what my DIY room treatment has done to my room and how much better everything sounds now. I'm a total convert!

[keithbroughton]

There is no argument that the room acoustic signature will have a profound, usually negative, effect on the listening experience.
As a live sound mix engineer, you can imagine the varied rooms I have had to mix sound in and I can tell you it's a bear to deal with!
Some people think you can fix it with some kind of digital magic but if the room sucks, there is no magic solution.
One of the best live event spaces I have worked in is the Yokahama arena in Japan that was constructed with the idea that live sound events needed proper acoustic treatment consideration and I love working in that space.
Spend money on the room first, then buy the cool gear.

[NukenInDKuken]

I was waiting for the part of the video where we came to the conclusion that listening to headphones is better 🤙

[audiobiker]

I completely agree with you, that the acoustics of the room almost completely determine the sound quality. In my living room I have the RT at 0.28 and the sound is fantastic

[Gersberms]

Congrats, that sounds amazing. I did a project that provided me with several huge packs of Rockwool, and temporarily put them in my office. It sounded so good that I decided to permanently line them up along the wall behind me, covered with a blanket. It's kind of trashy but sounds so good, I don't want them to go!

[robertbosson]

best room treatment is to live somewhere for a few years and just being patient and letting the room fill up with stuff everywhere!

[MrZekToR]

Nothing beats stereo speakers for me. No contest.

[MsSjaakvaak]

"you're hearing more room than the speakers" also explains why DSP is so important. I did some acoustical treatment and that helped a lot, then i ran audyssey one and it sounds amazing! It's hard as an amateur to define whats reverb, whats phase etc but the sound is so much more tighter and coherent now that my cheap set sounds like 3 times it's price

[genkifd]

awesome - room treatments are super important. this is why i dont understand some objective youtube reviewers insist their rooms do not need room treatments.

[BobbyBass-xi]

Headphones are fine for travel or listening without disturbing others but nothing beats listening to my towers or standmounts. I love the soundstage and feeling the bass hitting me in the chest. Sounds more like live music which is the best in my opinion. Your room was an echo chamber so I understand that you needed to treat the room. My listening room has been treated well enough to sound great when I’m listening to my music. Be well and rock on.

[zorst]

I have carpet, I have a popcorn ceiling, and I have lots of furniture. The sound I get is amazing. I haven't treated my walls but my walls are also not designed with a box in mind. I used to think my room was awful, but with a lot of luck and effort, I've finally got great sound top to bottom of the spectrum.

[pimvanvliet]

About 15 years ago I designed our living room. Drew it up myself (I'm not a designer or architect) and put it through council. It has beautiful timber bifold windows on one side. When the room was finally finished it looked better than I could have dreamed of. I was proud.

Then I opened a window... The bifold windows are held closed by a latch that needs to be pulled up with a bit of muscle. When it opens there's a loud 'clack'. That clack echoed so long, I decided to do a measurement...with my ears. I used the stopwatch on my phone. When I couldn't hear the echo anymore I stopped the stopwatch. I got a consistent time of 2.15 seconds! I don't know how close to RT60 my ears are, but it's clear work needed to be done.

When we first moved in we didn't have much furniture and nothing on the walls yet. With just 4 people in the room you couldn't understand each other if there were two conversations going at the same time.

I used acoustic art panels with photos that I had taken myself. They look great in the room and the reverb is now tolerable. It's still not a proper listening room but by doing semi near field listening it's ok-ish.

[snowinokinawa]

Acoustic Treatment is about as unsexy a topic of conversation as it gets… yet Darko my man… your A.T. videos consistently get me flop sweating in areas I’d prefer not to admit. Furthering your #6 - you can’t hit everything in one video… I think you should run with that and continue producing more specifically targeted A.T. videos? Such as ‘Bass Traps’-why you chose the ones you did? Were you factoring in a mix of multi-subs + dsp for managing bass frequencies? or ‘Ceiling’-why Vicoustic chose that particular mix of absorption & diffusion? Why they positioned them in straight lines as opposed to absorb/diffuse blocks scattered everywhere? Luv’’em mate, keep’’em coming! Nickolas

[gabrieldangi]

Absolutely we can hear the difference in the improved sound quality of your room and stairway space. Bravo!

[MadBonkersYes]

This is precisely why the best entry-level "audiophile" setup (I cringe at that word!) is a solid DAC paired with a pair of high-quality open-back headphones. Unless you have a dedicated listening space, the average room you use for music will rarely offer ideal acoustics—unless you heavily modify it, sacrificing its functionality as a livable space.

[eddents]

You are so spot on - in that it always circles back around to the room. Any empty room with bare floors should be thought of as a bare slate that needs to be treated before you unbox the stereo gear. In lieu of a professional consultant, it would be helpful to have a generalized criteria list as how to start to "treat" getting the best bang (or best absorption) for the buck. Should you start with floors (if you want a rug(s) for the decore anyways), or start with first reflection sidewalls, or the wall opposite the speakers or the wall behind the speakers? If ceilings are low or standard height start there, but if high vaulted ceilings it's not as critical to treat them?
Most of us can't do it all at once due to budget or we have to live in the space as we chip away at treating the whole space. Sorry for meandering.
A segment on how to piecemeal treatments, beginning with what area of the room to consider first to reap the most noticeable results and then build up from there could be a useful and hopefully engaging topic to consider as a video.
Thanks!

[BruceLimozaine-cq]

Look at the shape of that room? And tile flooring. Wow

[Fastvoice]

As an owner of a home studio, a voice talent and an amateur musician I'm also a "room acoustics wanker". 😉I spent about the same amount of money in acoustic treatment as I did for the technical equipment - it's a large room though. Works for mixing, mastering but also for vocal recordings. Never regretted the expenses.