Hi-fi tweaks: The simple £50 change that will make your hi-fi system sound a million dollars

A room with hardwood flooring will benefit greatly from having rugs placed between the speakers and the listening position. Picture: Scott ReidA room with hardwood flooring will benefit greatly from having rugs placed between the speakers and the listening position. Picture: Scott Reid
A room with hardwood flooring will benefit greatly from having rugs placed between the speakers and the listening position. Picture: Scott Reid
“In my mind it’s a fundamental part of the system building process.”

Audiophiles are a strange breed indeed. The sort of fanatics that will think nothing about blowing a few thousand on the latest bit of kit that promises just a little more detail, a little more bottom end (bass, to the uninitiated), a little less of the annoying mush that can blight one’s favourite album.

They inhabit an audio universe that is only too eager to tap into this craving for high-fidelity nirvana. Hence the presence of the £250,000-plus power amplifier, the £100,000 speaker cable (yup, such a thing really does exist) and the five-grand network switching box. And, who am I to question this seemingly crazy, and certainly wallet-deflating, journey to perceived sonic bliss? Truth be told, I am just as guilty as the next “hi-fi buff” for going down the great big audio rabbit hole.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I may not have spent such giddy amounts building up my set-up but at times it feels like I might as well just hand over my monthly pay cheque to my local hi-fi dealer, who, it must be said, has always been thoroughly knowledgeable, understanding and supportive - never pushy.

Cushions are an extremely effective way of treating a live sounding, reflective listening room, giving the music greater focus and balance.Cushions are an extremely effective way of treating a live sounding, reflective listening room, giving the music greater focus and balance.
Cushions are an extremely effective way of treating a live sounding, reflective listening room, giving the music greater focus and balance.

Thing is, I don't regret a single penny of the considerable expenditure. “Upgraditis” - that never-ending hi-fi journey - is surely one of the more benign addictions out there. And, ultimately, it is, or certainly should be, just a means to an end. That goal being the music itself.

It doesn't matter a jot whether you've spent a lifetime and probably a small fortune assembling a vinyl or CD collection numbering into the thousands (guilty) or simply fire up a flat-fee music streaming service (Tidal or Qobuz with their emphasis on sound quality being preferable to Spotify), listening to your favourite piece of music on a really good, carefully assembled, hi-fi system can be a life-affirming, jaw-dropping experience. The closest you will ever get to hearing the real thing, only in the familiar comfort of your own living room.

And therein lies what is easily the most overlooked yet most easily rectified weakest link in the reproduction chain - besides ageing hearing, perhaps. The listening room. The four walls, windows, floor and ceiling that interact with the soundwaves that emanate from your no doubt very expensive loudspeakers in all sorts of good and bad ways.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

If, like me, you inhabit a property built in the past couple of decades or so, that listening area is likely to be pretty compact, feature hardwood or laminate floorings rather than carpeting, contain large expanses of glass and possibly feature some plasterboard walling. It's a recipe for disaster when it comes to sonic neutrality yet, perversely, nearly every glossy hi-fi ad shows the latest bit of kit plonked in just such an environment.

Piles of magazines or paperback books can also be useful to dampen the listening environment.Piles of magazines or paperback books can also be useful to dampen the listening environment.
Piles of magazines or paperback books can also be useful to dampen the listening environment.

Now, I'm guessing that most folks will have, at a bare minimum, a sofa of some description, maybe the odd saggy cushion, perhaps a centrally-placed rug and maybe even some curtains or drapes. This is a good start and those curtains are absolutely essential if your room features full-length French doors or any floor to ceiling glass.

But this still leaves you with a relatively untreated, largely undamped listening area. Things are going to sound somewhat unbalanced, particularly at the higher end of the frequency spectrum. Left as is, that splashy, hard treble is going to mask everything else, including the crucial midrange where much of the important stuff and the vocals reside.

Many hi-fi enthusiasts will have been blown away with a demo in a store's carefully constructed and laid out listening room only to be underwhelmed when they get their new unit home and fire it up. They may well go on to tinker with various cable changes and speaker positionings (though this remains an essential task to get the drive units pointing in the optimal direction and to avoid bass boominess). Some may be convinced that the only course of action is to spend another few hundred/thousand on yet another "upgrade".

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I've been down this route, believe me, and would no doubt still be spiralling towards financial oblivion if I hadn't stopped to address the elephant that is the room.

Now, in an ideal world, we would all employ the services of an acoustic engineer to transform our living space into something along the lines of a recording studio or concert hall. A no-expense-spared commission that would likely involve many room treatments, fancy stick-on panelling and the banishment of anything detrimental to the perfect sound. You'd end up with a room akin to hi-fi heaven but not one that you, or the rest of the family, could do much else in. Nor would you have any money left to do the one thing that you ought to be doing - exploring new music.

So, my advice is to do what I did when I found myself banging my head against the (plasterboard) wall - deal with the simple things, cheaply and effectively. Strategically placed soft furnishings and a couple of additional smaller rugs either side of the main one, roughly towards the outer edges of the speakers.

By far the most effective sound dampener is the humble cushion. Try a few scattered behind and crucially to either side of your central listening hotspot. I found quantity and positioning more beneficial than out and out quality. You'll likely need at least half a dozen and bargain store/supermarket ones at a fiver or so each work just fine. Experiment with the placing of them. Those small rugs can be had for about a tenner a pop. You may find like me that going on to have another couple is advantageous - those wooden floors really are a listening room nightmare.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Another couple of cost-effective treatments I would recommend are those snake-like, stuffed draught excluders, which work well towards the corners of the sidewalls, while some decent-sized canvas prints can help too, hanging up both on the front and rear walls. Glass frames are typically too reflective, acoustically. And do not underestimate the effectiveness of paperback and soft covered books and magazines - generally placed to the sides and rear of the listening position.

Books aside - assuming you already possess a few, but just need to reposition them - I reckon that, depending on cushion/rug requirements, this simple DIY room treatment exercise should cost as little as £50 and no more than £200, even with some extra floor coverings and a few cheap canvas prints. Just be careful of overdoing it. An over dampened room can be just as undesirable, robbing the sound of life and fizz.

I appreciate that some of you will already have discovered the benefits of spending just a little time and a bit of spare cash on the above measures but I’m equally amazed at the number of music and hi-fi loving friends who haven’t. In my mind it’s a fundamental part of the system building process - think of it as another component in the chain. Get it right and, like me, you will find yourself revisiting some favourite albums, and buying a whole load more.

Scott Reid is a business journalist at The Scotsman and previously worked in the hi-fi industry from 1982 to 1997

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.