FUSION-BAD, built by Mike, UK

Copyright 2020 © Troels Gravesen

FUSION BAD, Hypex 251’s, Hampshire England.
Dear Troels,
Many people say it, but it should be said again, your work and website are inspiring and a great contribution to all of us who like to make some things for our audio enjoyment.
You have been immensely helpful and quick to respond and patient throughout my journey to date. Very many thanks also for that!
By the way, locked down under Covid 19 here in the south of England your site provides very enjoyable reading as always, please publish everything new that you can!
So, some months ago I completed the build of my version of your Fusion BAD, Hypex 251 on the bass with high level input from my Prima Luna valve amp and your helpful support to get it all working, and that from Michael and others at Jantzen. A pair of Hypex modules that stubbornly refused to programme, was eventually fixed by good support of a software patch from Hypex amid the revelation also that different versions of their software also had different gain levels.
It is all as per your plans, slightly different overcoat cabinet in oiled walnut and rounded corners on the grille frame, the cloth just takes lots of stretching round it, the crossover lives in a drawer in the back of the small stand base.
The Fusion BAD sounded great from the start, being a significant jump forward from my ProAcs, having deep and precise bass that is simply not there in the ProAcs, imaging and realism that is excellent for me and just enjoyable to listen to.
All my family commented on the sound and particularly the out of the box imaging.
But also, the sound continued to step forward.
I tried different tweeter attenuation as you suggested but I am now back with the original.
I had to rediscover something which I now find is also clearly explained in your pages, but I did not read clearly enough before I started.
The room also matters a great deal, maybe some rooms are a lot easier on the audio than others, maybe my previous setup did not reveal the room problems.
You say it clearly, 50% is the room, and to start with I did not do anything about that!
I think my room is quite difficult having quite a low and angled ceiling as it is a loft room, so experimentation and treatment with limp mass absorbers, diffusion and absorption in various areas have allowed the speakers to perform more and more.
Of course, this room treatment work is also ideal for diy construction, there is lots of information on the net, and loads of reading and support available from many areas, I liked the work done by Artnovion.
I should probably have started with the room first! – I still have work to do on the finishing and tidying up of everything.
Then I learnt a little about EQ and have made some significant improvements to the listening experience with EQ in the Hypex modules. I measured everything in many different arrangements with REW and eventually adopted an EQ set-up in the Hypex modules that works well for me for now. Of course that may change later as well.
You also mention that sorting out the bass can improve the performance across the rest of the frequency range, and certainly that’s true for me, improving the room and EQ has allowed the speakers to perform better and better. I found some very useful support on the diyaudio forum when I was trying to learn a bit about EQ.
So, lots of time for all that and listening whilst ”locked down”, the sound is to my ears realistic and dynamic and enjoyable, brings a smile out regularly.
Here attached pictures of my version to go with the story which I would be delighted if you added to your pages should you wish. You can see the slightly different outer cabinet details I adopted and the crossover in the drawer in the stand.
Best wishes and many thanks again,
Mike