Aesthetically Pleaseing Treatments?

[AndrewLyles]

Living in a small Manhattan apartment forces the kinds of comprirmises one should never have to make. I could use that cabnet for the three cans of soup I just bought, or ball up these pants and call it a closet. Needless to say everything I have must be lived with on a level more intimate than one would choose.

Drama out of the way, I've finnaly saved up enough cash to start Phase II of my system (Phase I was buying speakers, Phase III will be upgrading my components to sperates, and Phase IV is a new display), acoustically treating my box, er listening space. I have been eyeballing the GIK panels for a while because I am familiar with them from Audioholics reviews, but am I missing anyone else that makes a high quality product that can blend into the room? Or are there any tips/tricks for hiding the treatments in a "smallish" room that I should be aware of?

My goals for treating my room:
1.) Improve lower midrange comprehension (I'm hoping this will help dialog during 5.1 movies)
2.) Level out my bass response (I have a decent peak around 50Hz at the listening position)
3.) Improve the overall imaging of the system (my seating location is against the back wall b/c of room size.)
4.) Minimize the visual impact on my room somehow (The WAF is extremely high on this one...when is it not?)

Help and suggestions are always appreciated, thanks y'all.

System Specs:
Anthony Gallo Ref 3.1s: LF and RF
AGA Ref S.A Amplifier
AGA Ref A/V: Center
AGA A'Divia Ti: LS and RS
Pioneer Elite VSX-33TX: Receiver

 

[MDS]

http://www.auralex.com is another well-known company that makes room treatments. Perhaps they have something that would be aesthetically pleasing in your apartment.

 

[AndrewLyles]

http://www.auralex.com is another well-known company that makes room treatments. Perhaps they have something that would be aesthetically pleasing in your apartment.

I actually saw those up at Mannie's Music here in NYC last weekend. Some of them were rather frightening, though they only had one or two types.

 

[Warpdrv]

I don't want to take anything away from GIK, these guys have been of great help to me in helping me with suggestions in my dilemma.
Im sure you already read my post... and instead of spending the money with another company, Im leaning more towards making my own panels...

but Asthetics are also way high on my list... but I have to say that the look of the sonosuede is among the best I have seen, Im just not too keen on paying that kind of $$.. not that its an issue, Im more of a DIY'r if I can be..

http://www.auralex.com/sound_absorption_sonosuede/sonosuede.asp

good luck.. I have seen nothing as of yet that is as good looking as those panels. Im really interested in making something different, and attractive that might not be available...

Warp

 

[HiFi Jake]

Andrew,

I had some of the GIK traps, but ended up replacing them with Realtraps (www.realtraps.com), largely because I wasn't happy with the aesthetics of the GIK traps. (I also found the Realtraps easier to hang) You could probably slap a few mondotraps up in the corners and use the space behind them as a broom closet or hamper or something!

Some of the auralex things look nice (like the Sonosuede stuff), but they won't give you enough low frequency absorption, unless you get into the big ugly LENRDS or MegaLENRDS. The Realtraps will definitely help with all of the issues you list. I know they did for my room.

I've been really happy with the Realtraps (and my wife is happier with them too!), both in what they do for the sound of my room and the aesthetics. But I should also mention that their support is superb. Both Ethan and Scott over there are really helpful. I dealt mainly with Scott, and he spent a lot of time with me, asking a lot of questions, to come up with the best plan for my room, and he even came up with some great ideas to make some of my treatment less noticeable in the room, which was important to my wife. Actually, come to think of it, Scott lives in New York. Brooklyn, I think. So I imagine he'd have some good ideas for treating small apartments.