AVAA – A user review from the high-end Hi-Fi perspective by Robert Hart
With the resonance gone, the modes controlled, the bass drum became powerful but shorter, sharper, percussive not some lingering room wobble that masked the next beat or the rest of the music.
“The sounds from bass to mid band became clearer – like I had upgraded my system with better speakers or electronics. I find the rhythm more traceable, more engaging. Tunes within the mix that had previously been lost in the jumble of the bass are now exposed to hear clearly.”
Robert Hart
Hifi Enthusiast
The Challenge: Years of Investment, Still Unsatisfied Bass.
Robert Hart had spent years building a high-end hi-fi system — the kind of investment that begins with equipment and ends with the room. By the time he decided to address his acoustics, he knew passive treatment well: broadband panels, corner absorbers, bass traps made from foam, rock wool, and mass-loaded materials. He researched them thoroughly and understood their limitations.
The core problem was physics. To absorb a 50 Hz standing wave passively, you need an absorber approaching a quarter-wavelength thick. That is 1.7 metres. No listening room has space for that. And the treatments that could fit — foam panels, thinner resonators — barely touched the frequencies causing the most damage: the booming low-end modes that made bass lines indistinct and caused him to reach for the volume control every time a track hit hard.
There was a second problem too. Covering a room in passive absorption to tame the bass would leave it acoustically dead at the frequencies where it was already performing well. He did not want a dead room — he wanted accurate bass.
The Discovery: Active Acoustic Absorption.
Searching for an alternative led Robert to a concept he had not encountered before: electronic bass absorption. The idea — that a powered device could remove unwanted bass from a room without affecting other frequencies — seemed counterintuitive at first. He was an engineer by background, however, and once he understood the physics, it made sense. This was not phase cancellation or EQ. It was acoustic impedance control: a device that behaved, at specific frequencies, like a hole in the wall.
The device was the PSI Audio AVAA. He contacted the PSI Audio agent, who arranged a home demonstration. Two AVAA units were brought to his listening room. In a few hours, moving them between positions and comparing with them switched on and off, the results were immediate and unmistakable.
The Result: Three Units. One Afternoon.
Robert ordered three AVAA units. The results, he writes, continue to astound him. But the changes went beyond what he had expected from bass treatment alone.
8 → 1 Eight parametric equalisers replaced: after installing three AVAAs, a room measurement showed the room flatter than he had achieved with all eight EQ filters combined. Only the 15 Hz filter remained necessary.
Three AVAAs were ultimately installed — one at each of the primary pressure maxima in his room. Two units had already demonstrated the concept clearly during the demonstration.
Volume adjustments needed when bass-heavy tracks start. Previously, he would reduce the volume whenever a track hit hard. He no longer does.
The expected improvements were there: bass lines became more controlled, room modes no longer overwhelmed the low end, and resonance times dropped measurably. But what surprised him most was the effect on the rest of the frequency range.
Records he had previously avoided — music where the bass simply overwhelmed his room — came back into rotation. His relationship with his system changed.
His Own Summary: From Closed-Back to Open-Back.
For anyone familiar with the experience of removing closed-back headphones and hearing a room for the first time, Robert Hart’s analogy will resonate immediately. It is perhaps the most precise description of what the AVAA does to a treated room that appears in any PSI Audio customer account.
His Own Summary: From Closed-Back to Open-Back.
For anyone familiar with the experience of removing closed-back headphones and hearing a room for the first time, Robert Hart’s analogy will resonate immediately. It is perhaps the most precise description of what the AVAA does to a treated room that appears in any PSI Audio customer account.
About Robert Hart.
Robert Hart is an engineer by training and a long-term hi-fi enthusiast. His review was published in full on the PSI Audio website and covers his research journey, the demonstration, his placement methodology, and his acoustic measurements in detail. He uses three PSI Audio AVAA units in his listening room.
