Not trying to be provocative. I just genuinely don’t under why people who obsess over creating the best possible sonic experience in their homes—and are willing to spend a fortune on equipment to do so—don’t seem to care much at all about the appearance of the rooms that they’ll be spending so much time in. There are so many photos on here of dreary man caves with bad carpets and tacky furniture, many of them overstuffed with multiple sets of amps and speakers and giant cables snaking all over the floor. I love this subreddit and the passion people have for stereos and great-sounding music. I’m just a bit confused by why people who have so much aesthetic sophistication in one area seem to lack it another.
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I enjoy and appreciate great design and decor. I don’t like pretentiousness. I get a little triggered and conflicted when i see some Eames chair trope ‘designer’ aesthetic on these sub’s…nice but yawn inducingly unimaginative and uninteresting. I also trigger when i see no attention or conceptual awareness of design/soul/aesthetic…i cant even watch porn if the sofa they fuck on is shit 😆. Style and taste are priceless. Decorating with style and taste costs money time and effort. I appreciate all of that when i see it. I love my wife’s edgy cool taste and aesthetic and how we work on design and decor together in the house over time. I also think its great to have your own space in a relationship both spiritually and physically. I call that my mancave. A 4x 5m wooden cabin in the garden. It’s deliberately different to my house. Its full of hifi, av, keepsakes, childishness and general mancrap. It’s an indulgent luxury but should not be at the expense of the wider family budget imo, so i keep it simple and cheap in terms of decor. It’s got an old ebay log burner now that i fitted, carpet tiles i got for free off my mum, fishtanks and lizards. Its for me. Not for anyone else. Anyone is welcome but it’s my place for my people. I tidy it when i have a hot date/cinema night with the Mrs and improve it as spare funds allow. I watch movies with the kids. I work from it most of the time. But i like that it can be untidy, messy, eclectic and interesting and very me, and i like that another more designer, public friendly and tidy me is expressed in our house or my shoes or my choice of car.
I have one little 12x13x7.5’ room that I have to fit my hifi and all my guitar gear into. There is only 4’ of blank wall space at the floor level after it’s all in. Is what it is. I’m the only one ever in it so could care less what anyone thinks of how it looks.
Some people have to make due with the space they have. It’s one thing to spend a lot of money on gear. That doesn’t mean you’re going to buy a whole house or do expensive renovations for that gear. My “listening room” is my living room. My speakers share shelf space with my kid’s toys. It’s not a matter of taste. It’s either that or just not have hi-fi equipment.
I don’t have the 20k to finish my basement so it will have to do for now. I think most of us save and get the gear and then slow down while enjoying it before worrying about the room.
The Venn diagram between “obsessed with audio quality” and “has good taste and cares about interior design” doesn’t always have a lot of overlap. But when it does you get /r/listeningspaces magic.
High end speakers, especially horn loaded, produce a smoother response curve in rooms with a Persian carpet. Especially when paired with an MDF entertainment center that has at least one coffee ring stain on it.
The 5K Hz spectrum responds particularly well to slightly torn black Led Zeppelin wall mat posters.
The dying plant perched off to the side is the temporal bass baffle.
why is this turning me on
If your system can’t produce the sound without changing something in your room that system sucks any good system should be able to power through and sound decent or great in any situation as long as the music is recorded well
Explain that to echos and how two speakers in open air can sound fantastic, but placed in a cathedral they sound like crap.
You absolutely have to modify rooms to correct for room problems like standing waves, null nodes, etc. Speakers for the most part don’t have the problems, rooms have problems (within reason… some rooms are great, with the correct amount of natural baffles and absorbing material, some speakers are objectively crap).
You had me for a second 😂
I guess people just do the best they can. How does this look?
So cozy! I would love to enjoy music in a space like that!
There’s an inherent conflict. We have a user who trusts themselves to select and configure the right equipment for a very specific taste. And that person is unlikely to ask a decorator (who has no idea of the acoustic properties of different coffee table, sofa, rug, drywall treatments) to then weigh in on the “stuff” in the room.
Plus, like who give a shit how a photo looks… if you’re an audiophile, the REW curves / how it sounds to you are all that matter.
To each their own with their listening spaces. I personally find aesthetics within a listening space to be an extension of the hobby and the ambiance I’m trying to achieve. I feel like aesthetics also help with acceptance and integration within a shared home - and who wouldn’t want this if this allows you to listen to more music.
It’s because THAT style is modern or nice to them? Not everyone like what you like. I can’t stand US interious design at all, it all looks like crap that fell off of the titanic to me.
That’s what i am wandering all the time as well. But to be honest most Audio gear is ugly as hell, and looks like the audio engineers also designed the exterior of the device.
Most people here are Americans is why lol
You know what the problem is? If people minded their own business, instead of being judgmental the world would be a much better place. The problem seems to be you. Feel free to post your setup so someone can tear it down.
Headphone people are worse. They’ll have like 4k of headphone gear in some cramped room with a twin bed and shelves made from cement bricks and plywood.
I think the other way. I’ve seen beautiful rooms with budget LCD TVs and (God help us) soundbars.
Decorating isn’t as important to me. I could use cardboard boxes as furniture and use the money for great electronics.
