John Darko
In the battle of room vs. loudspeakers, the room always wins. The odds are stacked against our noisemakers by the laws of physics. That’s according to five years of direct experience and a low-level background investigation into how the room can negatively impact the sound of loudspeakers, as supercharged by input from Jesco Lohan. Lohan is a room acoustics expert living in Berlin. Since first meeting him in 2019, I have had three rooms acoustically treated, each time with dramatic results. Acoustically treating the listening room is now the first thing I organise when moving house but please note: per the video, I’ve yet to tackle the low bass problems in my Berlin space as the bass traps required to passively manhandle 33Hz standing waves would be too large and too numerous. We all have our limits.
I have learnt enough about room acoustics that I now want to pay it forward, once again with the help of Jesco Lohan. At the end of 2023, I asked Darko.Audio Patrons to suggest questions about the acoustics of small rooms that I could ask Lohan on camera. The man has a way of demystifying many of acoustics’ knottier topics that I have yet to master. This video is the result of that Q&A.
Don’t be put off by the first 15 minutes. Hindsight tells me that starting the Q&A with a question about RT60 might alienate some viewers — but stick with it as the video becomes more beginner-friendly as it progresses. The impatient should make friends with the chapter markers.
And yes, according to Lohan, almost all of us loudspeaker people are listening in small rooms.
🎥 Cameras: John Darko
🎬 Editor: John Darko
🕺🏻 Motion GFX: John Darko
💰 Ad segment: Jana Dagdagan
🎵 Song IDs? Playlists of all music heard in this video – and other videos – can be found on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/johndarko
Further information: Acoustics Insider
0:00 Intro
1:26 Voodoo
3:57 RT60
8:04 Schröder
13:04 Bass first
16:29 Priorities
18:02 One surface
21:25 Side walls
22:30 Open plan
25:43 Curtains
27:25 Furniture
31:20 Wishful thinking
32:59 Room vs. speakers
35:30 Speaker position
40:02 Rugs
40:50 Object size
42:32 Walls
45:17 Windows
47:24 Windows again
48:31 Narrow or wide
52:24 Room Correction Software
55:22 DSP again
59:17 Late night listening
1:00:28 All speakers
1:02:29 Music choices
👉 As mentioned in this video…
All room treatment/s by Vicoustic
📖 https://audioadvice.io/Vicoustic
What are those green speakers?
🛒 https://howl.me/cl1S8kB69fo
Jesco’s website
📖 https://www.jescolohan.com/
More about RT60
📺 https://youtu.be/dp_OdILUEkA
My first room treatment (Berlin)
📺 https://youtu.be/3N-yG_Y7XEc
My first interview with Jesco Lohan
📺 https://youtu.be/cTnituQu8ig
Cables and power products by AudioQuest
🛒 https://audioadvice.io/Audioquest
Hi-fi furniture and speaker stands by Solid Steel
🛒 https://howl.me/ckbW9947Hdi
Darko.Audio may earn a small commission from items purchased via affiliate links, which are indicated with a ‘🛒’.
