Grimani Systems CEDIA 2018 Show Report

Check out Anthony Grimani's column in the May issue of Residential Systems... "I am standing in my backyard in disbelief, looking at the partially complete fence that I asked a contractor to build to keep the ravenous Northern California deer from eating my priceless heirloom tomatoes. These deer are gymnasts. They can jump over a 6-foot fence from a standing position all day long, especially if a salad buffet is open on the other side. My disbelief comes from the fact that the fence ended up being different from what we agreed upon. The contractor had showed me a picture on his iPhone that was exactly what I wanted: a nice, simple fence. What he built was totally different…time to disassemble and start over. What went wrong here? It wasn’t communication. We were clear about what was to be built, and he even proposed the design! The problem was documentation. In my haste to get back to the office to continue designing the world’s top home cinemas, I failed to draw the agr...

Dave Upton gives a great review of our SpringTrap bass absorbers! "MSR Acoustics is a name you probably haven't heard of, but given the products they produce, it wouldn't surprise me if that soon changes. The guys at MSR have some serious experience in their resumes, with Tony Grimani coming from a background in the industry and having held positions with Dolby Labs and Lucasfilm . MSR takes a unique approach to designing acoustical treatments, and intrigued me with their unconventional SpringTrap offering... We've all heard it, read it, and said it a thousand times: the room matters just as much, if not more than the gear you're using. Unfortunately, most of us don't take this sound advice (I'm on a roll folks, forgive the puns!) and do something about it. In the case of MSR and their acoustical treatment products, I think they have a truly innovative, unique, and well-engineered product in the SpringTrap. This is not snake oil folks....

I'm here in Dana Point, California, doing phase one audio calibration of a dedicated private cinema in the Emerald Cove neighborhood of this upscale community. This phase is all about initial configuration, testing, and debugging of all the audio components in this 7.1 channel system with eight ceiling-mounted subwoofers.  I'm also finishing up with a basic room tuning equalization and will finesse that after the internal finishing of stretch fabric and drape is completed. This room needed a rather large sliding door along the right wall in order to keep a sense of openness to the space and to reduce anxiety over claustrophobia. A motorized drape with combination of absorptive and diffusing strips will be added in a few weeks. So far so good. Caught a few small mistakes, like L-R channel reversal, polarity of back set of side surround speakers (there are two pairs for soundfield evenness), and the obligatory HDMI configuration and reliability challenges. The integrator...

PMI designed and engineered a practice and recording studio in a luxury home in Northern California. The dedicated space inside the home needed complete sound isolation so the client could play, practice and record music without sound leaking into the rest of the house. PMI specified suspended walls, a sound door, and a range of acoustical panels and treatments to make the room sound great for its many uses. The plan drawing below shows one of the walls where we specified SõN™ Acoustic System Modules by MSR Acoustics - and to the right of that is the finished space showing the same wall in its final state, complete with Pete Townshend decorated acoustically transparent curtain using the high-quality printing process from the Salon Acoustics ™ line of decorative acoustical panels. For more information on PMI projects and services, please visit our website . For information on acoustical tuning systems and treatments from MSR Acoustics, click here .