I have a Klipsch Synergy 12" sub that I just purchased this boxing day. It's a much bigger sub than what I used to have as I have only had HTIB subs. I thought it would really shake the house, but I was disappointed when I finally turned it on.

I have concrete flooring with a pad and carpet over top. The room is approximately 14 feet wide and 20 feet long. The ceilings are approximately 8 feet high.

What can I do to get the bass that you can "feel". The bass that makes things shake.

put in a "sub" floor. I would guess you would need to elevate the sub onto a wooden floor so you would get the feel and sound you want. They probably make flooring matarial just for this application.

If the room is closed off, you should be able to feel bass pressurize the room with the occassional seats being given a jolt. My couches used to move inches after some typical movie watching before I placed them against the riser.

Remember that if you add tactile response due to a flanking path, it is difficult to control which frequencies are felt, and it can be espicially distracting during music, or with dialogue.

I would try focussing first on getting the room as air tight as possible, and possibly adding some more subwoofers.

That is just my opinion however, and I am not sure exactly what kind of bass isn't being felt. You may be better off investing in some bass trapping, then simply turn up the volume a bit higher.

....

What can I do to get the bass that you can "feel". The bass that makes things shake.

Buttkickers?

(I know, it's fake bass, but works quite well.)
____
Axel

Buttkickers?

(I know, it's fake bass, but works quite well.)
____
Axel

There are fancy commercial theaters with cattering etc that look quite like a home theater that I saw. Each seat had a buttkicker. They also had tables next to them for placing the food and beverages.:D

More subs, preferably bigger ones also.

http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_41&products_id=408

or

http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/ConquestOverview.html

I don't know the FR of the elemental design sub, but I heard it was louder than the Epik simply because it uses two drivers instead of one. The Epik I know will push over 100dB at 15Hz.

Edit on experience with the ED sub:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=15473499&postcount=5319

What is your sub channel setting on your amp? That is the first place I would look along with the gain on the sub.

I'll go with the more and bigger subs as well. My room is a finished concrete room (fully carpeted, and drywall over insulated studs). I find that it actually helps make the bass tighter since the room itself isn't moving, just the air in it.

Music is very accurate and detailed, yet I can still literally get my sectional couch to feel like it's bouncing with the right movie material, and I'm just using one good big sub.

What helps too with the impactfulness is to bass trap and EQ the room as well.


Tim

I have a Klipsch Synergy 12" sub that I just purchased this boxing day. It's a much bigger sub than what I used to have as I have only had HTIB subs. I thought it would really shake the house, but I was disappointed when I finally turned it on.

I have concrete flooring with a pad and carpet over top. The room is approximately 14 feet wide and 20 feet long. The ceilings are approximately 8 feet high.

What can I do to get the bass that you can "feel". The bass that makes things shake.



Move into a trailer!:D

Lol thanks for the suggestions, I would prefer the fix to cost the least amount as possible so buying another sub is out of the question. The room is open so pressurizing might not work. It leads to a hallway which is maybe 25 feet long.

Approximately how much do bass traps or buttkickers cost? I have a pioneer VSX AH1018K and i use the MCACC or whatever its called. The gain knob is set to 1/4 and i set the SW level to 0 db even though -1.5 db was assigned as I do prefer a bit more bass.

And would basic plywood serve as a sub floor?

Zeratsu- I have a basement not set up for ht yet...currently have ht upstairs. I always figured if I were to put ht in the basement I would just lay down 4x8 sheets of plywood of the floor with 2x4's just to give the area more bang. I believe buttkickers are 500 dollars on up. You already have a sub. I do not know how big your room is but I believe it would be less to put down a plywood floor than buttkickers. Just my opinion. Have you tried a search on what to use for cement floors-their also may be a certain flooring to put down.

One thing to think about, is that you don't actually want to transmit that (subwoofer) power into 'moving' the floor. That's just wasting acoustical energy. You want to 'move' the air. Move enough of it, and you'll feel it. Oh yes, you'll feel it...:D

Yeah I owned a klipsch 12" sub I called it the one hit wonder...would get loud, and bang good, but always the same sound. I recently just purchased a sv pb13 ultra...that should do the trick for you.

Original poster...
I have the reverse problem; I can mostly feel the bass, but can't hear it as much. It's the room/house. I have gotten used to this "effect", and really can't do much more to the theater outside of room treatments....the room is approx. 6 feet off the dirt and I have an Epik Tower. Believe me though, this sub fully rocks and I am 98% satisfied.
BTW....I would rather have my problem than yours;)

One thing to think about, is that you don't actually want to transmit that (subwoofer) power into 'moving' the floor. That's just wasting acoustical energy. You want to 'move' the air. Move enough of it, and you'll feel it. Oh yes, you'll feel it...:D

Oh yes. :D


Tim

One thing I can do to is to get more tactile in-room response is to run the subs in the back of the room out-of-phase and apply less eq.

The other thing I can do is turn the equalizer off so my response looks more like this.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/3211972236_d6b0ae58d4_o.jpg

Lots of slam eather way. ;)

Try changing the location of the subwoofer. Nulls will tirelessly suck away your bass. Also, if a more tactile response is desired check out near field placement behind your couch. Those options will at most require a longer cable.

Also check out PEQ's for your sub like the Berhinger Feedback Destroyer, Antimode or the EQ.1 (2?) from elemental Designs. If you tame a couple of peaks than you may be able to raise the volume when you recalibrate the sub.

Finally, and I mean no offense here I just didn't notice it, have you experimented with the phase control? An incorrect setting may adversly affect your subs bass performance,

I have a Klipsch Synergy 12" sub that I just purchased this boxing day. It's a much bigger sub than what I used to have as I have only had HTIB subs. I thought it would really shake the house, but I was disappointed when I finally turned it on.

I have concrete flooring with a pad and carpet over top. The room is approximately 14 feet wide and 20 feet long. The ceilings are approximately 8 feet high.

What can I do to get the bass that you can "feel". The bass that makes things shake.
There are two types of bass you can "feel". The first is the "pressurization" of the bass waves on your body. This is caused by pressurizing the air with sound pressure. You need lots of air movement to get this effect, requiring lots of cone area, excursion and amplifier power. Multiple subs are often required to really get this effect.

The other type of bass you can "feel" is tactile response caused by shaking of the room, particularly the floor. This is fairly easy to do on a suspended, (wooden joist) floor. The sound pressure couples to the floor and shakes it, transmitting the shaking to your feet, and, through the seating, to your body. However, on a concrete floor, the huge mass of concrete is very hard to "excite" and get shaking. In that situation, you have two choices: 1. build a riser with a suspended platform; or, 2. add some kind of tactile transducer(s) to the system. (Actually, there is a third choice that is a combination of the two; build a riser/platform and attach a transducer to it.)

There are may posts about tactile transducers if you want to go that route. Use the search engine to find them. Here is a link to plans to build a riser for use with a transducer:
http://www.earthquakesound.com/IMAGEJP/HOME/PDF/Mounting-Option1.pdf

Craig

Concrete is your best mate, mate.

(You should get the feel in the seat) and if it’s down a few db don’t push it just add and add and add another of the same make and model sub that is the key to success. Concrete flooring will reduce rattling floorboards that would be even a bigger headache to tackle.

You’d have buzzing and rattling and they tend to happen in different areas at different frequency sound pressure levels. So work the problem. get a few more the same sub and yes I know it going to cost money that is how cinemas like the Empire goes beyond the most rumbling film soundtracks with x16 JBL 4645C subs for the digital LFE.1 70mm mag or Dolby stereo sub bass extension.

My floor is concentre base type I’m on the top floor and thou there are naff cavity walls where sound travels I can hear below and no doubt they can hear me and I don’t give hoot. I turn the JBL up in the day!

Try changing the location of the subwoofer. Nulls will tirelessly suck away your bass. Also, if a more tactile response is desired check out near field placement behind your couch. Those options will at most require a longer cable.

Also check out PEQ's for your sub like the Berhinger Feedback Destroyer, Antimode or the EQ.1 (2?) from elemental Designs. If you tame a couple of peaks than you may be able to raise the volume when you recalibrate the sub.

Finally, and I mean no offense here I just didn't notice it, have you experimented with the phase control? An incorrect setting may adversly affect your subs bass performance,

That’s right these little buggers are like Gremlins or Black Holes they suck the different parts of the frequency spectrum up like sponge soaking up water.

Testing and testing with single sub to get a near as possible uniform frequency response with hardly any gaps over the seating area will take you days. And chances are you’ll still have gaps in the frequency response.

Hmm, that’s right if you’re playing all speakers as whole there maybe a few that are adding negative phase and reducing certain parts of the frequency response.

If the room is closed off, you should be able to feel bass pressurize the room with the occassional seats being given a jolt. My couches used to move inches after some typical movie watching before I placed them against the riser.

I would try focussing first on getting the room as air tight as possible, and possibly adding some more subwoofers.

To make it airtight means running around with touch looking for gaps if light can get though so can air!;)

What can I do to get the bass that you can "feel". The bass that makes things shake.

First, try putting the sub in the corner. Then try listening in other parts of the room just to see if you get full bass anywhere. If you do, then your sub is okay and getting bass traps is the best next step.

--Ethan

My 13x22 closed room has just pad and a thick carpet over concrete- I have plenty of bass with the small SVS. The main culprit is subwoofer placement- I can null out half of the subs energy at the listening position easily with certain placement. You can try the sub near-field to find out what it can really do.

My 13x22 closed room has just pad and a thick carpet over concrete- I have plenty of bass with the small SVS. The main culprit is subwoofer placement- I can null out half of the subs energy at the listening position easily with certain placement. You can try the sub near-field to find out what it can really do.

I guess it would travel though the carpet just like attaching a long piece of string to the sub and pulling it tight you’d feel the low frequencies tingling though the string.

You can try the sub near-field to find out what it can really do.

+1. This is well worth a shot.

My HT room is on a concrete slab, and when the sub was in the front corner, I could hear it, but there was no "the room is shaking" stuff going on.

On advice from Dr. Hsu in some of the paperwork that came with my sub, I placed in laying down behind my couch (its a TN1225 cylindrical sub), which is close to the rear wall. Holy Crap! There are moments in certain films where the couch feels like it is coming off the ground. No exaggeration.

If your room allows it, definitely try a near field placement.

Brian

I'll test around with the sub placement as I have a pretty long cable anyways. Does it really matter if the sub isn't getting conditioned power from my power centre?

There's no way I can get the room airtight and I really can't buy another sub. Flooring however may be a possibility...

I'll test around with the sub placement as I have a pretty long cable anyways. Does it really matter if the sub isn't getting conditioned power from my power centre?


Power conditioning shouldn't make a difference. Sometimes people will get a ground loop hum depending on their cable/satellite system being improperly grounded but there are ways around that as well. Also, some have been concerned that perhaps a power conditioner may not provide a full amount of current to the sub amp (I do not know if this is true in all cases, I think it would have a lot to due with the sub amp design, the power conditioners design and capability and the current draw from the other devices on the conditioner).

reading through this thread is just another reason I am glad my HT is on the main living floor, which is above a full basement. So basically my sub is on a suspended wooden floor. It is an Ultra, and it rocks my HT room :eek:.

Zeratsu,

I have a HT with similar proportions to yours encased in concrete, carpet over pad, which is open to a larger area which is then open to a spiral stairs to the upstairs and the Sub-12 is more than capable of providing that bass "feeling" in that room. I suspect as others have mentioned you need to experiment with positioning a bit.

In an effort to upgrade my 4 diy sealed 12" dayton RSS315HF subs sharing2000 watts from a Crest CA-9 amp I purchased the Sub-12 new for $250 for the sole purpose of providing me a baseline minimum level of performance for a commercial sub. Though the sub isn't effective much below 30hz, the first comment my wife made after throwing on the first movie (she didn't know I changed the subs) was how her arms were vibrating during certain LFE's. I think that was the first time she's ever acknowledged LF effects in two years. I'm actually quite surprised at the room shaking and often times visceral bass that comes from this little feather light sub.

Where do you have your sub placed? I went crawling around and I get the most bass it seems at the base of my wooden stairs which is to the right of my couch and is about a few inches off the ground.

my rec room sits on a concrete slab with carpet over it. I use a svs ultra. I am not sure what you mean by shake the room but I can hear and feel the sub, it depends on the frequency it is called upon to reproduce. It could be a placement issue.

Hello Zeratsu

I got the same problem. Accordind to SVS, a single BP12Plus/2 should have been sufficient for my room (1800 cbft). In my older house, hard floor, it was amazing! Then I move to a bi-level, with my theater down below on carpet over concret ant was never the same. Anyhow, bought a second PB12 plus/2 and thing did got better. But I never went back to the exitment of the hard wood ( second floor level). Concrete do sound better but the exitment of tactital sound is no longer there except maybe except a few exception. I now have 2 PB13Ultra. Better sound again but to tactil. My bass is right now 8-9 db heavy.

I also have my room with lots of accoustic panel and some DIY Bass trap (eventually I will get the the real bass trap from Ethan since he help me out with my DIY a year or two ago).

Somebody (Sorry, Little time and I"m very slow to type) in this tread mention a sub-floor. I agree with this idea!

I just like to know what everybody (Can't spell right now. Sorry I'm French and should be in the tread cruising wile drinking) thing of this idea!

Built a small sub floor under your main seats. Something like an inch and half tall.

Just an idea, but it might work. Anythought would be welcome from me and any fellow like me who have a concret floor.

Sorry for my spelling, worked 14 hours today, had few beers and my French background is not helping me right now.

Darthray

Where do you have your sub placed? I went crawling around and I get the most bass it seems at the base of my wooden stairs which is to the right of my couch and is about a few inches off the ground.

I put the sub along the back wall to the left (when facing back wall, to the right when seated) of the upper tier seating. Click on my "My HT" link to get a visual.

the answer is simple - you bought the wrong sub for your space... a Klipsch sub will never give you what you are looking for. You need to buy a JL fathom or a velodyne dd118 if you want the best performance.

It seems one of the subs in the back of the room was out-of-phase and was resulting in my measurements to read slightly more smooth. Checking the back row revealed that. Now having two subs in the back and two in front looks exactly the same as having four in the front and without the huge peak from 22Hz - 50Hz. I could not ask to feel more bass with my four 12" subs, and I have never heard better. +5 reference shakes my legs, arms, and back against the couch. I say forget the sub floor and get a better sub or subs!

Two Epik Conquests WILL do the trick...that is if you can fork out the shipping costs. Heck, even ONE Conquest would do the trick....

I am on a slab also, and my MFW15 pressurizes the room nicely, I can feel the sub under my feet, and the furniture feels like it has bass kickers in it........

You need a "real" sub.

I am on a slab also, and my MFW15 pressurizes the room nicely, I can feel the sub under my feet, and the furniture feels like it has bass kickers in it........

You need a "real" sub.
Can you take your MFW-15 "upstairs"? I think you would be amazed at the difference between a concrete slab floor and a suspended floor.

Craig

So would raising the sub onto a wooden base provide any help?

So would raising the sub onto a wooden base provide any help?Yes

Yes

Really? I figured if you just raise the sub onto a wooden base you will have to deal with any sympathetic resonance issues from the base as they arise yet not gain any "tactile" improvements. Unless you are referring to any gains from floor reflections?

Really? I figured if you just raise the sub onto a wooden base you will have to deal with any sympathetic resonance issues from the base as they arise yet not gain any "tactile" improvements. Unless you are referring to any gains from floor reflections?Yes it is important that the base of the wood is not resonating like a drum or vibrating in sympathy with the sub. That is for the floor reflections and gain, yes. Not suggesting a passive resonator or anything such as that.

So would raising the sub onto a wooden base provide any help?

Raising the *seating* onto a wooden platform would help, especially if the center of the platform is not in contact with the concrete floor.*

Placing the sub on a wooden base might cause the wooden base to resonate, but that won't do anything for the tactile response you want.

Craig

*Build a frame out of 2" x 6" lumber. Use 2" x 4" joists mounted at the top edge of the frame. Place plywood on top and set the seating on it. The joists won't rest on the floor, and the "riser" or platform will resonate and give you tactile response. If you don't want it so tall, use 2" x 4" framing and 2" x 2" joists. That'll resonate even more.

Yes it is important that the base of the wood is not resonating like a drum or vibrating in sympathy with the sub. That is for the floor reflections and gain, yes. Not suggesting a passive resonator or anything such as that.
Raising the sub won't give you any gain. In fact, moving it away from a boundary, (the floor) will actually decrease the coupling and lower the level slightly. It definitely won't improve the tactile response of a concrete floor. A concrete floor has way too much mass to "move" it.

Craig

So I guess I'll be raising the seating position...

My sub is currently in the front left corner but it's beside two mirror sliding doors. Would an empty corner be the best location? Also does soft furniture have an effect on the bass "feeling"?

I too just purchased a SUB-12 this past tuesday and I also have a concrete floor (w/ laminate on top. I have no problem feeling it especially in the lower freqs on the floor (1st test was the iron man breakout scene). Have you tried different placement and reciever settings?

what receiver settings do you have and where do you currently have it placed?

Funny thing happened to me today.

Last night I was watching "300" at near reference levels (-07 on my AVR that's been calibrated, and sub is about 7db hot after correction).

Today my neighbor that lives 75 feet away told me he "felt" vibrations, then he went outside into his driveway (which is probably at least a good 60 feet from my Epik Tower) and he said he could "literally feel the earth moving" at his feet. :D

I have to say that's definitely the effect I was going for. Oh and my sub sits on a Great GRAMMA which is on carpet above concrete.

-Chad

So I/we might be going in the right direction with a small riser under the siting position.

Ray

You need a raised sub floor (no pun intended). You can use a product like Dricore (http://www.dricore.com/en/eIndex.aspx), Subflor (http://www.subflor.com/ADVANCE/home.asp), or DeltaFL (http://www.deltafl.com/).

So I/we might be going in the right direction with a small riser under the siting position.

Ray

That works, as long as you fill it with insulation. Hey I moved all the subwoofers to the corners gaining +6db (equalized) and optimized my other speakers positioning. Sitting on the riser isn't as bad when you equalize the seating area. It sure helps having these new bass traps on the walls and in the front corners. The bass in the front of the room sounds stereo now. Can't say I cared for feeling the stereo bass but it's kind of neat with the surrounds. As long as I keep my head off the back of the couch for some occassional blasting in my back from the mouths of the Helmholtz resonators that are attached to the riser , it feels pretty cozy. I have thought about placing some damping material over those. If you recline you don't even worry about any unwanted tactile response inside riser.

Hi,

Decoupling the furniture with isolators like the ones used and sold with tactile transducers might help. After all, it helps with the transducers so it should also help with tactile vibration when the furniture is excited by the subwoofer. Inexpensive and easy to try.

-Randy

Funny thing happened to me today.

Last night I was watching "300" at near reference levels (-07 on my AVR that's been calibrated, and sub is about 7db hot after correction).

Today my neighbor that lives 75 feet away told me he "felt" vibrations, then he went outside into his driveway (which is probably at least a good 60 feet from my Epik Tower) and he said he could "literally feel the earth moving" at his feet. :D

I have to say that's definitely the effect I was going for. Oh and my sub sits on a Great GRAMMA which is on carpet above concrete.

-Chad

Just so you know Gramma doesnt do anything for you. Its to eliminate resonance which only happens to subfloor or wood floor. Over a concrete, its useless.

You need a raised sub floor (no pun intended). You can use a product like Dricore (http://www.dricore.com/en/eIndex.aspx), Subflor (http://www.subflor.com/ADVANCE/home.asp), or DeltaFL (http://www.deltafl.com/).

DeltaFL is the cheapest if you have a good size for treatment. Remember to have plywood on top of DeltaFL then carpet it

Just so you know Gramma doesnt do anything for you. Its to eliminate resonance which only happens to subfloor or wood floor. Over a concrete, its useless.

Sure it does. It raised my sub up about 2 inches which helped my port clear the fireplace bricks :D

Lol thanks for the suggestions, I would prefer the fix to cost the least amount as possible so buying another sub is out of the question. The room is open so pressurizing might not work. It leads to a hallway which is maybe 25 feet long.

Approximately how much do bass traps or buttkickers cost? I have a pioneer VSX AH1018K and i use the MCACC or whatever its called. The gain knob is set to 1/4 and i set the SW level to 0 db even though -1.5 db was assigned as I do prefer a bit more bass.

And would basic plywood serve as a sub floor?

Sorry bud, but changing your sub IS the least cost route. There are plenty of way better and much more powerful subs out there than the one you have for a fraction of the cost of the other suggestions people have given you.

Any room treatment at all would yield little to no change and would cost thousands of dollars. Any less than that would definitely do nothing for your current setup. The thing with room treatments is that the higher end the equipment, the more change will be noticed.

Besides, a 12" sub is hardly a sub in the first place. I doubt it could hit even 20Hz without severe distortion, let alone "feelable" bass at 10-15Hz.

If you really are tight on money, just move the sub to within 5ft of where you sit. That's about the best you can do at this point.

The thing with room treatments is that the higher end the equipment, the more change will be noticed.

I'd argue exactly the opposite. :D

Seriously, it's much better to have mid-level gear and speakers in a well treated room than $250,000 worth of stuff in a room with no bass traps or other treatment.

--Ethan

and would cost thousands of dollars.Unless they are free. :)

I'd argue exactly the opposite. :D

Seriously, it's much better to have mid-level gear and speakers in a well treated room than $250,000 worth of stuff in a room with no bass traps or other treatment.

--Ethan

As would I, but what I meant for every dollar spent on room treatment for a mid level setup will be that much more emphasized on a higher end setup. Cost/value ratio, of course falls in the favor of the mid level setup because there's only so much room treatment possible whereas gear just seems to keep getting more expensive. In other words, the value of room treatment has a much steeper drop off than audio gear, ie $5k to $20k jump in room treatment will not be as noticeable as $5k to $20k jump in gear. However, the initial cost of any room treatment that would be noticeable at all starts at several hundred dollars, which in the OP's case would show a much smaller improvement than just spending the money to get a better sub. My main point is that in the OP's situation, the best dollar for dollar value would be to invest in a better sub that is unless, of course, he is able to get his hands on free room treatment which makes the whole thing moot as free stuff is always better than having to spend money.

As would I, but what I meant for every dollar spent on room treatment for a mid level setup will be that much more emphasized on a higher end setup. Cost/value ratio, of course falls in the favor of the mid level setup because there's only so much room treatment possible whereas gear just seems to keep getting more expensive. In other words, the value of room treatment has a much steeper drop off than audio gear, ie $5k to $20k jump in room treatment will not be as noticeable as $5k to $20k jump in gear. However, the initial cost of any room treatment that would be noticeable at all starts at several hundred dollars, which in the OP's case would show a much smaller improvement than just spending the money to get a better sub. My main point is that in the OP's situation, the best dollar for dollar value would be to invest in a better sub that is unless, of course, he is able to get his hands on free room treatment which makes the whole thing moot as free stuff is always better than having to spend money.
I have read and re-read your post several times, and I still don't understand your point. :confused::confused::confused: $5K to $20K jump in room treatments??? I did all my room treatments for well under $5K. You could almost do an anechoic chamber for $20K, (although I doubt you would enjoy the sound of an anechoic chamber!)

Nonetheless, I agree *completely* with Ethan that a modest system in a good room will virtually always outperform an expensive system in a bad room. I define a "good" room as one with broadband bass traps in the corners, absorption at the speakers' early reflection points (a so-called "reflection-free" zone), and a low RT-60 overall. If you place even a modest, but well-designed system in such a room, it will sound much better than a very expensive system in a highly reflective, long-decay-time room.

Of course, (obviously), if you want to optimize the sound of an expensive, high-end system, the best, most efficient $$$ should be spent on fixing the room acoustics.

In the end, please see my signature. :):):)

Craig

I have read and re-read your post several times, and I still don't understand your point. :confused::confused::confused: $5K to $20K jump in room treatments??? I did all my room treatments for well under $5K. You could almost do an anechoic chamber for $20K, (although I doubt you would enjoy the sound of an anechoic chamber!)

Nonetheless, I agree *completely* with Ethan that a modest system in a good room will virtually always outperform an expensive system in a bad room. I define a "good" room as one with broadband bass traps in the corners, absorption at the speakers' early reflection points (a so-called "reflection-free" zone), and a low RT-60 overall. If you place even a modest, but well-designed system in such a room, it will sound much better than a very expensive system in a highly reflective, long-decay-time room.

Of course, (obviously), if you want to optimize the sound of an expensive, high-end system, the best, most efficient $$$ should be spent on fixing the room acoustics.

In the end, please see my signature. :):):)

Craig

That's because you keep thinking I'm comparing room treatment to audio equipment when I'm really comparing the EFFECTS of room treatment in different level setups. For example: A $5k room treatment will show a much bigger effect when it's done on a room filled with $20k worth of equipment as opposed to a room filled with $2k worth of equipment.

If that is still unclear, I'll try this a different way. Let's say the SQ of sound in a room could be quantified by a single number then the difference of that number between a treated room and an untreated room we can call delta. The delta of the room with $20k worth of gear would be larger than the delta of the room with $2k worth of gear.

Sorry about the misunderstanding though. It seems I usually have a hard time conveying my thoughts into intelligible communication.

Edit: After reading your sig, I can think of a better analogy. If the good setup were a Porsche and the cheaper setup were a Hyundai, every change in road conditions would be much more highly amplified by the Porsche.