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Cathedral Sound Acoustic Panels: User Comments

Posted by tpcarter (A) on February 15, 2007 at 23:05:43

As promised, here are my comments.

DESCRIPTION: These are 11"x16"x2" cloth-covered panels designed to reduce the amount of bass "corner-loaded" into the listening room. They are meant to be placed in the top corners of the room, either two per corner or one per corner on the speaker and listener walls. Designed by Ultra Systems, they operate on a heretofore unexplored principle when it comes to acoustics -- the Venturi Effect (see Robo02's post below for details). The cost is $180 per pair. Here's a Cable Company website page with more info... http://www.fatwyre.com/tccfeaturedPanelsMoreInfo.html

THE ROOM: Speakers are set up on the long wall of a 30'x15' room with a 9' ceiling. However, half of the room functions as the living/listening room, and the other a sitting area. So, the speakers are about 9' apart, with one speaker about 3' from the side wall, and the other speaker about 12' from the same wall. Because of this split room arrangement, and the fact that the sitting area corners are so much farther from the speakers, I'm using two Cathedral panels in each corner of the listening area, and one panel in each corner of the sitting area.

SYSTEM: Audiomat Solfege Reference tube amp, Spendor SP1/2e speakers, REL Strata III subwoofer, Audiomat Maestro DAC, Vecteur L-4 CD transport, Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun speaker wire, Acoustic Zen Silver Reference II IC, and Esprit Eterna digital IC. Clarity and punch increased by after-market power cords, AC filters, and absorptive feet as well.

COMMENTS: With these panels installed, the sound in the room changed dramatically. Here are some of the changes that both I and my wife noticed...

*Every instrument and voice was clearer.
*The bass was tighter and cleaner, and yet was not diminished in its essence, only in its excess.
*The lower frequency "mud" that I didn't know existed in the room suddenly vanished. While I don't have any gauges, it sounded (and felt) like the lower 1/4 or 1/3 of the audio spectrum cleaned up and came into focus all of a sudden. And when it did, everything else became clearer as well.
*Every instrument sounded more like itself. Brass was brassier, cymbals and high hats sounded more like themselves, stand up bass was gloriously full and true without being fuzzy or bloated ... the subtleties that distinguish different instruments were much more apparent. I heard undertones, overtones, and "around"tones I had never heard before.
*There was more space and air around the sonic images.
*I heard much more musical information, especially in the lower 1/3 of the spectrum ... but even in the mid and upper ranges. Instruments and musical lines that I had never heard before were suddenly revealed, as if the "bass smoke" had lifted.
*The soundstage was more defined, front to back and side to side.
*The low frequency vibrations that were very apparent previously were reduced significantly (the coffee table and floor didn't shake, rattle, and roll anymore)
*The sound was MUCH more balanced and true.

CONCLUSION: While I haven't tried any other room treatments or bass-reducing devices before (so I can't compare), I can attest to a distinctly noticeable difference in the before and after while using these panels. There was clearly much less bass-loading (forgive my technical ignorance if my terminology is not correct), and the entire sound was more accurate and "there." I am a very satisfied customer and would recommend these unequivocably, especially since they come with an unconditional 30 day return policy.

Oh yeah, one other major benefit -- the WAF of these is extremely high; they are quite unobtrusive, even to my wife's eyes!

If anyone else tries these, I'd love to hear your impressions.

All my best,

Tom

PS: And no, I have no association with either the maker or the seller!

Here's the other post by Robo02 who works at UltraSystems:

Posted by Robo02 (D) on February 09, 2007 at 15:01:58
In Reply to: Re: Cathedral Sound Acoustic Panels...wots the deal? posted by Ethan Winer on February 5, 2007 at 14:55:06:

I work at Ultra Systems which distributes the Cathedral Sound Acoustic Panels. My hope is to clarify some misconceptions I see in this thread.
1. These are not absorption panels. They contain nothing which absorbs. They work using a couple hundred year old concept in physics called the Venturi Effect, which in its simplest form describes how the restriction of flow results in both a greater speed of flow and a reduction of pressure on the "back end." This concept is used in devices such as carburators, and is also related to the concept of lift used in the design of airplane wings.

2. This concept has not been applied to acoustics before, which is why to an old school absorption and diffusion acoustic designer like Ethan Winer it may seen strange that a small-sized panel applying this Venturi effect could do what only a giant absorbing/diffusing -type panel could do. But it's real science, and it really works.

3. It is also demonstable. The graphs referred to in the thread appear on our website here http://www.ultrasystem.com/usfeaturedPanelsTechInfo.html
and were produced independently by Rives Audio. While it is correct that the scale in the "after" waterfall plot has been reduced (to make it easier to read the data), in fact if anything this would serve to understate the impact of the Panels on the room response, not overstate it as suggested elsewhere in this thread.

Hope this helps you make sense of this new approach to room acoustics.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

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