Well, I’ve been in the “quiet room” since sometime in June (not living in there, just listening several hours a week ***).
We’re already in a quiet neighborhood. With the house quiet, a/c not running, windows closed, no TV, talking, etc. it’s good for music listening. Then go in the quiet room and shut the door and it’s weirdly dead, still, silent. Clearly there is in our homes, even when quiet, air movement that we hear. Startling when we don’t hear it. Now I haven’t got an anechoic chamber here; if someone talks in normal speech right outside the door, I hear talking but can’t make it out. But it’s significant, I can “feel” the difference in here.
So how is it for listening to open back headphones? In a word, wonderful. Everything I already enjoy in hi-fi, true timbre, touch, texture, is vital, alive. Differences between recordings and between gear are greater. I’ve still got a bunch to do with furnishings, treatments. I set up table-top, like we do at our meets. Not photogenic, but form follows function, everything backed in with short cables, easy gear swaps.
A couple things came up right away. The two Acopian power supplies against the wall (12v 6a for Mac Mini, 24v 1a for uDO Dante interface), reflected a hum that I never noticed before. A segmented office type absorber took care of that. And, you think open back cans don’t reflect off walls and change things sonically? Well, when I leaned back to the wall in my chair, it did for sure. Thus, the furniture store-ish burlap/woven wall hangings is a quick n’ dirty solution.
So, worth it, worth the $? Well, I can only describe the magnitude, the value of the upgrade as equal to any of my best component upgrades ever. And, unlike gear changes, no part of it is a down or side grade or trade-off, it’s all good. All listening, all the time, to all music, is better. Of course, we were having a bathroom and this room done in the basement anyway, so the materials & labor cost for insulation, pipe wraps, putty pads, 5/8 sheetrock, Kilmat, insulated exterior door, dedicated outlets, maybe $2k max over what we were already spending for the room anyway.
So, for me, a staggering value with no downside. And for anybody that looks into this stuff, it’s not all or nothing. For example, just replacing a standard door (hollow core, gaps all around) with an exterior door fixes one of the worst sources of adjacent noise. There’s lots that can be done to improve our rooms for open back headphone listening!
