John Darko
My Lisbon listening room measures 7m wide x 4m deep with a 3m ceiling. The loudspeakers fire across the room to put the main listening position 2.4m back from the loudspeaker plane. In the rear left corner, the room opens to a hallway that leads to the kitchen and a stairway that takes us to the front door. To the rear right, the room opens to a stairway that heads upstairs.
These hallways/stairways remain open a) to maintain proper airflow for heating in the winter and (especially) cooling in the summer and b) to increase the effective volume of the room for fewer bass resonances.
Local company Vicoustic has treated the room for reverb issues…twice. The first installation in January 2023 reduced the RT60 above 300Hz from one second to a shade under half a second. A second round of treatments – that included the staircases – dropped the RT60 further to a much more agreeable (to me) 250ms. That was January 2025.
The RT60 measurements were taken with a UMIK-1 room measurement microphone placed at the listening position with a CAHAYA microphone stand.
What about the frequency domain? The UMIK-1 was used to measure the frequency response of a full-range loudspeaker – the Vivid Kaya 90 – in this now fully-treated (for reverb) room. The Vivid recently supplanted a pair of Wharfedale Linton.
Note: this is the ‘sound’ of the Vivid floorstander as measured at the listening position. Therefore, it shows the combined frequency response of the Kaya 90 and the room.
The region of floor bounded by the couch, the front wall and the loudspeakers’ outer edges is covered in a (now discontinued) VINDUM rug from IKEA. The sofa is a 2-seater IKEA Vimle in black/blue. The rear height of this couch (83cm) determined the lowest possible placement of the acoustic panels (100cm) on the rear wall. This 100cm height was then mirrored on the front wall for visual continuity and to allow the placement of hardware between the loudspeakers without obstructing the TV, a Samsung ‘The Frame’.
A pair of BAGGBODA shelves in white houses the electronics sitting between the loudspeakers.
Joining the amplifier to the loudspeakers is a set of AudioQuest’s Type 5 loudspeaker cables and interconnecting the electronics are AudioQuest’s Yukon in balanced and single-ended variants. A PowerQuest 707 conditions the power.
The black mushroom lamp comes from Amazon; the wooden headphone stand is the Halo from Denmark’s Workshop 66.
However, the BAGGBODA will only reliably support components weighing up to 20kg before the bottom shelf starts to bow. For heavier amplifiers, streamers and DACs, I use a 3-tier Solid Steel S3 hi-fi rack, which runs on castors.
The ‘subs bench’ in the left-hand corner of the room is a Side Table from Zara Home. On top of the lower mid-century modern trolley in the opposite corner – a thrift store find – sits a high-end CD transport from Pro-Ject called the CD Box RS2 T.
Next to it, a green LED cactus from Ale-Hop. The pink LED flamingo that sits on the floor comes from the same place. The two ‘HEART’ frames are a pair of 1988 12″ single sleeves from the Pet Shops Boys.
Let’s talk vinyl. The turntable being used at the time of writing is the SL-1210GR from Technics. (The MK1 version, not the MK2). Fitted to its tonearm is a Concorde Century from Ortofon. The third-party isolation feet come from Isonoe. Shining light down from above is the Reliable UberLight Frame and the turntable weight is the MDMA from H.A.N.D. Hifi.
The CD shelves are IKEA’s Gnedby. The curtains are also from IKEA: the disappointing GUNNLAUG. These, along with the various other furniture items and room treatments, will stay fixed throughout the year whilst the cast of loudspeakers and electronics will slowly rotate as review samples come and go.
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