Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 12 of 12

Thread: First Experience With Room Acoustics

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Charter Oak, Iowa
    Posts
    579

    Default

    Cool pics Tom, you have a very nice home theater. Thanx for sharing them. It appears you have paid considerable attention to the acoustics of your room. Overall how pleased are you with the results of the treatments that you have used. Which of them made the most difference?

    Randy

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Erie PA
    Posts
    158

    Default Tweaks

    Thank you Randy, you are very kind... everyone has to make do with the space / room they have and make the best of it. Fortunately, I have a rather large basement family room I can work with... 24' X 24'.

    I started tweaking in order to 1) improve the sound of my system and 2) keep the improvements under the wife's radar - the blips caused by large purchases (like the recent HDTV) sometimes aren't worth the battle... but even she agrees the new 50" HDTV is simply AWESOME! Yahoo!

    The suspended ceiling still vibrates when the sub really gets rumbling, but the side drapes and the DIY 'bass traps' in the corners BOTH really helped in clearing up the overall sound... A LOT. My current speakers have rather forward treble, so the side drapes helped take the edge off a bit... but still not where they need to be and that is where I'm hoping the new front 340's come in (hope I like them!). I tried backing the drapes with batting, and it made the room TOO dead, so I went with the single layer drapes. I spent quite a few hours listening and experimenting until I reached a happy medium.

    The bass traps REALLY helped... moreso than I ever imagined possible. Before my system was somewhat muddled sounding - and not just the bass, it was smearing the entire soundstage. I first got started on the bass traps when I played pool or exercised in the back half of the room, I noticed the bass was over-emphasized & boomy in some areas, and nearly non-existent in others. Hmmmmm. I did some research about standing waves and read about bass traps, the John Risch

    http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/twe...ges/15737.html

    and Ethan Winer articles etc. and found that the simplest way to go was the Risch 'quick & dirty recipe' - the rolls of pink insulation bundles. Since I had the room for this approach, I gave it a whirl.

    The bass traps seemed to clear a lot of that muddled sound up... the bass was much more even throughout the room, and TIGHT sounding... and the soundstage cleared up DRAMATICALLY! I was shocked at the improvement for a relatively small price! The tight thump / kick of the sub is amazing compared to what it used to be like. I have 5 rolls of fiberglass insulation bundles throughout the room, plus the white felt covering just to make them blend in a little bit better with the decor (most people don't even notice them)... so it wasn't too bad expense-wise. Perhaps $150 or $175? Something like that, I don't recall exactly, but somewhere around there. And the fun / excitement of researching it and doing the tweaks... money well spent.

    If you enjoy tweaking, I highly recommend doing some research on the DIY room treatments and giving it a try... one of the more economical and dramatic sound improvements I've come to realize in the 15 years or so I've been into home theater.
    Last edited by tjennings; 09-24-2005 at 12:13 PM.
    -- Tom --
    My HT

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •