The 12 inch thick GIK are good below 50 hz according to their website. I haven’t measured but if you remove just a couple of the 8 blocks you can hear the difference immediately. The room gets bright sounding fast if some are removed. My wife can sit in the next room while I’m playing around 85 db with and still have conversations.
Yes I’m using the Aurender as a preamp for now. The only thing I miss that a traditional preamp has is some tonal control.
I miss the loudness button my Luxman integrated amplifier had.
I have had my eyes on a Luxman c900 but I’m having a hard time pulling the trigger because I’m not sure it’s the best use of $$. Plus they have a new model coming out soon and I’m sure way more $$$.
The acoustical panels are the new stackable panels from GIK. They are bigger than I probably needed but I like the idea of them being portable. So they could be moved around and pulled away from the fire place.