Vick,
If you think the Bent TAP~X represents great quality and value, have you heard of the other giant killer of a passive preamp, the Lightspeed? It's hand made in Australia, costs about $400 and I can vouch first hand for its quality. I used to have a First Sound preamp and the Audio Aero Capitole which I compared with and without the First Sound in the signal path. Like you said, the active preamp added dynamics and bass weight compared to the CD/Pre going straight to the amp. The Lightspeed is extremely transparent. There is a very long thread of it where some have compared it to the Bent products, FYI.

Please let us know what Rives recommends. I for one would be interested.

kevinzoe December 27, 2011 01:52

Vick ~ one other thing, I'd recommend you read, well, study is more like it, Dr. Floyd Toole's book on room acoustics and the physics thereof. Highly recommended.

kevinzoe December 22, 2011 02:27

Vick,
You raise a good point about trying to find resources to help you understand the acoustical measurements. Unfortunately they aren't too abundant, or at least what I could find. You might try Googling the following: Acoustic Measurement Standards for Stereo Listening Room
Written by Jeff Hedback and Nyal Mellor.

Regarding GIK, yes they can be helpful. I have several of their products that I'm weaning out of the acoustical goodie bag of tricks I own. While their Tri~Traps product is triangular shaped to fit snugly into a corner, you are better off pulling it away from the wall several inches (I use between 6 & 8 inch air gaps) to extend its absorption properties to lower frequencies. They are resistive~type absorbers that work best where sound particle velocity is at its maximum which is at the 25% point of a frequency's wavelength. So for a 500 Hz frequency, the air space should be just over 6 inches [ 1130 / 500 * 12 * 0.25 ]. Using your measuring tool, you should be able to measure before and after effects of varying the air space depth.

Having said all that, I might imagine that bass modal peaks aren't too bad given your large L~shaped room, windows, and openings to other parts of your home that allow bass to be "siphoned off." i would take acoustical measurments first before placing any order with GIK to see if and what the frequency problems are. If the problems lay in the low bass region ( less than 100 Hz) then bass traps from GIK won't cut it; you would need several of them to make for a very thick trap to do much good which quickly imposes itself on floor space and visually too. A better approach would be to use multiple subwoofers and parametric EQ. A broadband trap on the left wall first reflection point is still a good idea for the middle and higher frequencies to attenuate them akin to your right wall being farther away than the left wall.

Good luck and keep us posted.

kevinzoe December 22, 2011 02:02

Vick,
Regarding your interest in room treatment as the next 'phase' in search of sonic euphoria, do you own an acoustical measurement tool? For Windows, tools such as Dayton Audio OmniMic or XTZ are great at measuring what your ears are hearing. I found the tool invaluable, especially when I evaluated 99 (yes, you read that right) candidate locations for my two subwoofers.

With your right speaker being so far away from a side wall, have you considered thick absorption on your left wall to emulate the same kind of effect for your right speaker? You don't want an early reflection off the left wall and no reflection or very later reflection from the right wall.

Again, fabulous gear! Keep your day job! ;)

kevinzoe December 19, 2011 02:55

Vic - Fabulous gear! All top notch stuff. Just out of curiosity, what size room are the speakers in as I might imagine they'd likely benefit from having room around them to 'breath' so to speak. I've not heard the Evolution Acoustics speakers but they look impressive.

kevinzoe December 17, 2011 02:04