For the last couple of days, Eli and Justyn were busy meticulously installing Vicoustic acoustical treatment panels in the garage owned by my good friend and customer Scott.

This is an update from a previous post we did a couple of months ago, when we had first installed a beautiful pair of Focal Maestro Utopia EVO Speakers. Scott had decided to transform his garage into a “man cave”, a place he could use to get away, smoke an occasional cigar, and crank up his tunes without bothering his wife.

This project started with him telling me he wanted a “simple system”. I think it’s safe to say we have gotten a bit carried away. Anyway, the acoustics in this garage were tough to say the least. The dimensions of the space were just shy of a cube, which is always challenging, especially for bass, but the real issue was his concrete floors.

It didn’t sound like a racquetball court, but it was close.

Another challenge was positioning the speakers. The listening chairs are on casters to allow for flexibility, as he occasionally still parks one or two vehicles in there. So he sometimes has to pull his chairs up close to his equipment cabinet. We carefully positioned the speakers to allow for this.

We didn’t want to carpet the floor for obvious reasons, so we decided to do the next best thing and dampen the ceiling with 72 Vicoustic premium ceiling panels. I’ve used these for years in difficult rooms, and they always do the trick.

So yesterday afternoon, I drove to his home to listen as Justyn and Eli finished the panel installation. The moment Scott and I walked in, we could tell just from the sound of our voices that the panels had transformed the room into a very natural, enjoyable listening space. The system sounded amazingly better.

We still have a bass issue, but we can fix it easily with a second JL Audio subwoofer. This will smooth out the lowest frequencies and add a lot more impact. I will post again when we have it finished.

Thanks very much, Scott, for allowing us to do what we love.

A couple of days ago, Eli and I had the pleasure of upgrading the system for one of my all-time favorite customers. Over the past 15 years, Jerry and I have had a lot of fun improving his sound system. He loves his music and is always curious about how to make it even better.

Jerry stopped in to the showroom a few weeks ago and we listened to the Sopra 3s together. He decided it was time to upgrade from his smaller Sopra No1, which he’s owned and enjoyed for several years.

One thing led to another, and I gave him a demo of our new favorite DAC, the Mola Mola Tambaqui. We also hooked up the Aesthetix Mimus, and Jerry was immediately all in.

After ordering all his new gear, we waited a few weeks to sync up our schedules for installation. I’d been looking forward to this one, his setup is approaching the best possible sound we can achieve in his room. With his listening chair just about ten feet from the speakers (which have a set location in the room), I hoped we wouldn’t lose any of that big, immersive soundstage or depth.

Eli did a terrific job installing and calibrating everything to the room. When I arrived later that afternoon and sat down in Jerry’s chair, I honestly think it sounded every bit as good, if not better, than in our showroom. This is one of those systems I wish every one of our customers could hear. You truly feel as if you’re in the room with the musicians, enjoying a private concert from the best seat in the house.

A big thank you to Jerry for allowing us to have so much fun pushing the limits of audio perfection.