Measuring and analyzing data is a worthwhile and hopefully rewarding experience, but there comes a point when you realize that to the best of your abilities you've done all that you can to optimize the room's response and that the time has come to sit down, relax, and listen. Listening of course is an entirely subjective experience, but for what it's worth, here are my thoughts:

I'll be honest. All things considered, I believed my room sounded pretty good untreated. But listening to Brenda Russell's Piano in the dark , The might of Rome from Gladiator, End of the day by The Lighthouse Family and a real favorite of mine; Speedway at Nazareth from Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler, I simply couldn't get over the utterly captivating sound and unprecedented level of detail I was hearing. The stereo image was so clear and precise, bass wonderfully tight and cymbals biting sharp; I just sat there shaking my head in wonder. Whereas before the room was treated I would sometimes pick out sounds buried deep within the music, now I find myself able to pick a sound out and follow it through an entire song, as transparent as the music now is.

I really could go on and on, but won't because the more time I spend writing, the less time I spend listening! Ultimately, my experience with RealTraps can be summed up by saying that I am more or less rediscovering my entire music collection all over again, and believe me when I say that it's never been such a pleasure.

It really is difficult to find anything wrong with RealTraps as the product has clearly been well thought out from concept through design to manufacture. I have only one suggestion which I feel might increase the product's adaptability:

At present, the spacing of hole centers of the stands prohibit fixing 2' x 4' panels horizontally. If this were revised and the hole centers spaced such that an additional 2' x 4' panel could be fixed horizontally, one above the other, a 4' x 4' panel formed from two 2' x 4' panels for increased side first-reflection absorption coverage would then be possible.

There is a growing awareness of the fundamental importance of room acoustics to the audio enthusiast and rightly so. In a treated room, it rapidly becomes apparent that even modestly priced speakers can sound excellent. But, in an untreated room, a flagship pair of speakers will to an extent be wasted as the room negatively impacts unchecked upon the sound leaving them.

Is it really worth debating the audible differences, if any, between components whose distortion is measured in fractions of one percent when by comparison rooms commonly cause large peaks and enormous nulls to appear over a disproportionately important region of the frequency response? Let's get our priorities in order.

Absorption wont by itself deliver a ruler-flat frequency response. Neither will it cure all of a room's ills. But what it will do is significantly improve stereo imaging, clarity and definition far beyond what could ever be expected or achieved from upgrading any other component, and yes, that includes even speakers. Pound for pound, absorption will almost certainly return the greatest audible improvement you'll ever likely hear.

The room maybe the first thing we start with and the last thing we think about, but better to think about it late than never. If you are genuinely serious about improving your sound, you owe it to yourself to check RealTraps out. Highly recommended.