REDI Acoustics Designs High-End Listening Room for Top Audiophile Reviewer Tom Martin

Predictive acoustic analysis tools help create the ultimate audio laboratory for testing high-end audiophile equipment

AUSTIN, TX, April 17, 2024 — The Absolute Sound is one of the most trusted audiophile publications in the world, driven by expert opinions and commentary on HiFi equipment and listening practices from one of the most experienced editorial teams dedicated to the subject. Editor and CEO Tom Martin has spent decades investigating and comparing high-end speaker systems in search of transcendent music listening experiences and sharing the results of his findings with a growing audience of passionate music lovers. When it came time to create a new critical listening space to aid him in his work, Martin partnered with acoustic research and software development firm REDI Acoustics to assist in designing an acoustically accurate listening environment in which to continue his editorial quest.

Dispelling the voodoo
Martin has built and commissioned multiple listening rooms throughout his career, each one informed by the lessons learned in previous projects. He is quick to point out that although such a room is essential and perhaps obvious to his work, the impact of it on the audiophile listening experience is perhaps not as well-known as it should be. “I need an acoustical environment that has the least impact on equipment possible, or else I’d just be reviewing how my room sounds over and over again,” he explains. “It doesn’t matter how much one spends on speakers if the impact of the room is not assessed, which is something many people still do not completely understand. It’s a fundamental human characteristic where people are more interested in the new shiny equipment than the more ‘invisible’ factors like services that, in fact, can have a much larger impact on the end experience.”

“The core goal here then was to build an accurate, predictable acoustic environment for assessing high-end audio equipment. “

Befitting his years of experience, Martin is no novice to listening room design or to the impact of room acoustics on the sound and performance of speaker systems. Therefore, when it came time to design a new room to his exact needs, one of his requirements was to heighten his existing understanding of his room’s unique properties and what would be required to design the proper environment. “The science of acoustics is highly complex, but the underlying physics behind it is perfectly well known,” he explains. “The issue is more that much of it is based on a series of learned ‘rules of thumb’ that aren’t often completely understood or — worse — explained to the end user. It can often result in a lot of ‘guess and check’ that seems wasteful and uninformative, when truly there is the potential to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of sound with the proper explanation.”

“It’s not voodoo at all, as is sometimes thought, so when I started this process, it was very important for me to work with a team that could give me all the explanations — regardless of how complex they might be — to inspire confidence in the end product. That’s where REDI Acoustics comes into the story.”

Exploring the possibilities
Although REDI Acoustics initially cut their teeth in the world of recording studios, the implications of the company’s AI-driven acoustic optimization technology has not been lost on a rapidly growing segment of audiophile customers. Said clients have driven much of the firm’s latest work. “The audiophile crowd has a very sophisticated understanding of the relationship between room acoustics and speakers — sometimes even more than many recording engineers,” says REDI Acoustics Co-Founder PK Pandey. “The bespoke listening experiences they seek out however, require a more nuanced approach perhaps than the standard recording studio. This is where REDI technology can be useful to tailor a bespoke listening experience that suits their space, equipment, and ultimate end goal.”

“When it came to working with Tom, he was very interested in exploring every possibility of what could be done with his room and how best to explore every nuance of how it could work. This is where REDI shines because it is fairly straightforward for us to explore all of these iterations of the concept.”

Martin worked alongside Pandey and REDI Acoustics Engineers Rinaldi Petrolli and Artur Zorzo to explore every nuance of his chosen space — from room geometry, to listening positions, to placements for speakers and acoustic treatments. Working with Martin through optimized models built from thousands of potential solutions, the team walked him through best practices to achieve his goals for the project. “Optimization makes acoustics a truly solvable problem because the amount of iterations required to find the best version can be done quickly and effectively,” says Petrolli. “We were able to explore every possibility that Tom was curious about, and share the explanations of how everything could work. Ultimately, we arrived at a response and room performance that was exactly what he wanted.”

“There is complex physics behind all of this, but we’re able to relay it in easy to understand terms so it’s clear that there’s no guesswork involved in making the decisions of how to design and treat the room,” adds Pandey. “For Tom that’s what he was looking for — a precise, detailed approach that at the same time wasn’t time consuming and gave him a complete understanding of what was being accomplished.”

“One key feature of ROCS is being able to model many different speakers to determine how they will perform in the room,” he continued. “We have realized that this tool makes it easier for the client to make a final decision on the speaker choice based on performance, not hype. We hit that fine line between accuracy and enjoyment that allows him to do his work while still enjoying the music he’s listening to.”

“The whole process was immediately different from what I was used to — the models very accurately predicted what we got and they provided me with a completely customizable solution suitable to my end goals.” says Martin. “They were also very passionate about doing it with me, which made the experience so much more enjoyable.”

For more information please visit: http://www.rediacoustics.com/

ABOUT REDI Acoustics, LLC
REDI Acoustics, LLC is an acoustic research and software development firm founded by Dr. Peter D’Antonio founder of RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc., John Storyk of WSDG, and PK Pandey of AVN | SYS. REDI Acoustics is dedicated to designing software tools that aid in the acoustical optimization of critical listening environments, beginning with their groundbreaking service, NIRO™ (Non-Cuboid Iterative Room Optimizer).