Anyone with speakers do anything for the space to gain more performance out their system. how did you go about it, store buy or DIY acoustical treatement ?
egg crate foam, hang moving blankets, bookshelves filled with vintage playboys stereophile magazines, chachkies , sofas, family pets/children/the misses.
Because of the shortage, act of god, HDMI implementation and rise in retail price ive shifted my focus on room treatment in my micro home theater L-shaped 16X16X9ft 5x8 nook tile floor and a slap echo. So far put in rug couch two recliners and in the process of lining the walls with velvet curtains.
Plan on making some acoutical panels but little concerned about using rockwool insulation for the panel and the bass trap.
While searching for sound absorbing material, how about using bean bag stuffing made from cubed memory foam sandwiched in cotton batting inside a 4-6in wood frame covered with fabric.
Am i being to nanny and just use the rockwool which is the common ingredient in DIY acoustical treatment. Also should i replace the area rug of the shag variety and double the pad.
Thanks saw that, his panels are 2in. to be effective they say the material needs to be 4in or greater in depth. Going DIY the stuff on amazon is out of stock, still trying to figure out how to a filter for minimum exposure to the mineral wool.
Bass will be the biggest problem in the room. You need to treat that first so that everything else will fall into place.
I wouldn’t place much credibility on the video linked above. They completely ignored treating any low frequency energy which is the main problem. Why would you treat something that isn’t the main problem?
Those will do nothing for you. Sure, it may absorb a certain range of frequencies but looking at the bigger picture I don’t think it’s worth it.
I suggest watching acoustic videos from Acoustic Fields by Dennis Foley. He shares a lot of the knowledge he’s accumulated in the 40yrs he’s been in the industry. No bs just straight facts and data. Here’s one video he did recently…
The problem with that though is that you’re redirecting sound unpredictably. You’d simply be guessing at that point. Thanks for the correction though I should have said scatter.
And another problem with the pic you attached is it mentions bass trapping being the most effective in the corners. That’s a straight twisted half-truth to get people to buy corner traps. An axial mode, which are the strongest, is produced by two parallel surfaces not corners. Treating corners is probably the least important since that’s only dealing with about 10% of the problem.
The only way to do this properly would be to either use a SpeakerManagement system and do the 3-hights 9 point routine with the measurement mic or spend ALL the money on NTI Audio (or similar) mobile analyzers.
Why would you want to scatter sound unpredictably? Wouldn’t you want predictable results to address the actual problems of the room?
Regardless, using egg cartons and books for diffusion seems pointless because you’re only diffusing a very narrow range of frequencies that likely won’t benefit the acoustics. I don’t understand why you would, unless I’m missing something?
Thanks for the feedback all. Watched videos on theory treating room for recording and playback. The consensus seems to be for recording go to town and deaden the room. playback particularly home theatre a combination of absorption and diffusion is the way according to audioholics. They have a whole series on room acoustics.
I wonder how the two methods of acoustics compare. Dennis Foley’s approach is very different from Grimani. I’ve watched both of their videos and I tend to agree more into Foley’s approach. I feel like Grimani’s approach is just scratching the surface while Foley’s is more full-proof.
Ill have a look at his videos, even among the audioholics group there is difference of opinion.
What ive observed in my rooms. I can only guess the crap in the living room is helping the acoustics along with the opening at the rear. The space sounds nice to my ears with the cheap 2.1 system. If the space was empty assume it would have the same echo as the theater.
Just to add to that, you can also put your sub on some platform with wheels and go section by section. This helps you learn a lot about your room. I haven’t done it myself, but I think it’s a good idea.
Or you can save a lot of money and hire a professional too. I personally would want to get it right the first time. I’m definitely nowhere near qualified to do it myself.
Go with me on this, have a theory that a bed is like a giant acoustical panel. My theatre is in a bedroom which is identical to a guestroom, the guestroom seems to have less of an echo or boomy bass.
What do you guys think about there is more critical tuning involved for two channel than multichannel ?
It’s the same as with egg cartons/books…the frequencies a bed absorbs is very narrow and won’t have a significant impact.
I think both are. The room only sees the energy outputted by the speakers and nothing else. You’re still going to have to treat everything regardless. In home theatre, however, you introduce more problems in the room because more speakers equals more problems. That’s just the way it is and there’s no helping it.
its miserable, i should just crank the volume. Lol
