Audio Therapy New Demonstration Room

I don’t operate from a conventional shop, choosing instead to run Audio Therapy from home. We live in an old farmhouse which we purchased in the summer of 2022 and when we moved one of the goals was to find a property that was suitable to run the business from and for it not to interfere with home life.

We start looking for a new home in the Spring of 2022 when the property market was going through a crazy period, properties were selling so quickly simply getting a viewing was a challenge.  When this house appeared on the market we ended up being the first people to view it and it didn’t take long for us to realise it was exactly what we were looking for as both a family home and somewhere where the business could grow and develop. We moved heaven and earth to get the house off the market and here we are nearly 4 years later.

There was a room at the end of the house that was ideal for a demonstration room, it was out of the way from the main living areas in a part of the house where I could make as much noise as I wanted and importantly I could shut the door at the end of the day. The room isn’t cavernous, a fairly typical sized UK living room, measuring around 4.5m long by 3m wide, but being an old house the ceilings are very high which really helps make the space work.

This room has functioned well as my demo room since we moved in, but it was always in need of some care and attention, I wanted to create a space for customers to come and relax and enjoy their listening sessions in a smart, pressure free environment. As is so often the case with an older house after we moved in and started doing work outside we found a few issues that needed dealing with, scaffolding was initially erected for 6 weeks and 9 months later it was still there, that time was well spent and we left no stone unturned to get the outside right.

As a result of that timeline being somewhat extended it did push back doing anything meaningful inside the house. Once we were ready to start work internally we had a couple of rooms we wanted to tackle first, but in July 2025 I made the decision to box up all of the equipment and empty the demonstration room. It was a brave move as the room was getting used several times a week.

My initial plan was simply new decoration, a new carpet and a good chair.  I’d figured the room would be out of commission for around 6 weeks or so whilst this was done.

Once the room had been emptied, the carpet lifted and wallpaper removed I made the bold decision to rip out all of skirting boards, dado rail, picture rail and plaster coving and once this had been done it was rather obvious that the wallpaper had been holding most of the plaster on the walls so we had no choice but to take each wall back to the original brick. In for a penny as they say!

This decision was undoubtedly the right thing to for the room, plus it gave me a blank canvas creating a great looking room. I decided to completely overhaul the ceiling to create a new look for the space, this would also allow me to incorporate much better lighting to create a smart, modern environment for customers and also to help with product photography, which is becoming increasingly important.

A framework around the perimeter of the ceiling was constructed which was around 5 inches lower than the original ceiling, LED down-lights were installed all the way around this new perimeter so I can focus light on the key areas in the room. A LED rope light was installed out of sight as well as a new overhead light, the room went from having somewhat inadequate light to being rather blinding! but thankfully it’s all zoned, dimmable and easy to control.

The demonstration room already had a dedicated consumer unit, completely separate and isolated from the rest of the house, additional sockets were installed in the room to give me create flexibility over equipment placement. We also installed dedicated network with a data cabinet installed in the cupboard under the stairs, both ethernet and fibre networks were installed, designed with the assistance of Alan Ainslie from Melco/DELA, as with mains power the installation of a proper network gives the room much greater flexibility than it had previously.

The demonstration room was acoustically mapped by Acustica Applicata shortly after we moved in, I couldn’t follow the room map completely in the old room as the picture rail and dado rail prevented the installation of vertical Eco Daad acoustics traps in the 2nd reflection points and also on the back wall behind the listening position and in the rear corners, but these missing elements of the room map could be easily integrated into the new room and 11 Eco Daads were installed to complement to original installation and to complete the room map as per their original recommendations.

I’m delighted with the finished result, the room looks and feels completely different to how it did previously and the feedback I’ve received from customers (both new customers and existing ones who saw the old room) has been nothing short of fantastic. The most important consideration has always been how the room sounds of course. I was always pleased with sonic performance of the room, but since the room has been completed and the Eco Daads have been installed the performance has been elevated to another level. It’s a modestly sized room, but it now sounds like a room which is easily 2 or 3 times its actual size. Since it was completed I’ve had a couple of customers shed a few tears in the room which is always a positive sign that I’m doing something right.

I fully appreciate that Acustica Applicata won’t be practical for some customers, especially those who have their systems in a typical living room environment. But those customers who have explored it further have been very impressed with how effective it can be. I can think of a couple of customers who have big systems well in excess of 6 figures who have both said that dealing with their room as been the biggest single upgrade they’ve ever undertaken.

The demo room was created for customers to come and listen to potential new systems and components in a quiet, relaxed atmosphere. I never apply any pressure with regard to making a purchase and after a demonstration if someone wants to try something at home before they commit I will always oblige if I can.

Since the room was completed we’ve had customers listening to a wide cross section our portfolio with OePhi, Soulnote, T+A HV and Metronome having the most hours in the room to date.

Please get in touch if you’d like to arrange a demonstration, we look forward to welcoming you.