Absorption, Diffusion or a combination of it all?

Love this topic as it’s not as common but extremely important.  Working with the folks at GIK (or other acoustic expert) is key.  REW has been a very helpful tool along with my ears, and the USB mic was a worthwhile investment as I’ve used it multiple times over my three year journey in treating my room.  I cannot recommend it enough. And the GIK folks will use those REW measurements to help diagnose your room and suggest treatments.  My listening chair is only 2’ off the back wall so pure diffusion wasn’t recommended.  I’ve read elsewhere that pure diffusion on the back wall isn’t beneficial unless your listening chair is 6’ or more away from it.  GIK  instead suggested their combination diffusion/absorption Alpha series panels, as I had low frequencies that needed to be tamed along with me trying to make my room sound bigger,  My last and final addition was adding 3 x Q7D diffusers to the front wall and a pair of wall hung monster bass traps directly behind the speakers.  My small square room has never sounded better.

Having a good mix of absorption and diffusion is certainly essential. Also consider DSP based room correction technologies which operate in the time domain. Dirac Live helps listeners correct for one of the weakest components in the audio chain, the listening room. Dirac Live not only corrects the frequency response, but also the impulse response of the loudspeakers in a room, yielding improved imaging and timbre, better clarity, tighter bass, and less early reflections, as well as reduced resonances and room modes.

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If most listening is below, say 85 db, are room treatments still as important?

85 decibels is a sound level equivalent to that of a food blender. Uncomfortable and only tolerable for a short time. Most listening levels might not even be that loud.

Having said that, peaks can still get fairly high above the general listening level, so treatment is still wise.

Maybe not as important, but crucial.

Taking time to research. I’m using the panels that I already have to experiment. I’ll play with REW soon. We’ll see what it does.