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Acoustical Foam

Curious whether others have experimented with acoustical foam. I ordered 1.75" foam tiles and foam corner kits. I have installed them tonight in the room that I'm preparing. There is no equipment in that room yet. I have 1/2 the foam tiles up on the walls. I will not be putting any on the ceiling as my wife has already commented that this is insane looking as is. I have been testing the acoustics by clapping my hands in the room before, during, and after the foam has been installed. So far, it has definately lowered resonances / echo, however, the room is not dead like a recording studio. Perhaps, once all the foam is up, an area rug is down over the wood floor, and there is equipment in the room, the room may be more dead sounding. That is certainly my hope. If it works, I will post more about exactly what I bought, the cost of the tweak, and my feedback on the cost/benefit of this change. Alot of the systems that incorporate acoustical treatments have big budgets for panels and other expensive room treatments, so my tweaks are certainly more budge oriented than aesthetically pleasing. I just purchased my first home, so my housing costs have nearly tripled. There definately is not as much money to play with these days, so I definately won't be purchasing expensive equipment as upgrades. That is why I'm trying to find tweaks that can have the sonic benefits of upgraded equipment at a much lower cost.
firecracker_77

Showing 1 response by kacz

kacz
177 posts
 
I've been using carpet pad behind curtains. It's cheap and even more dense. And the more layers you put on the lower the frequences it will catch. I only put it on one wall though for now. Makes a huge improvement though. And with the curtains you dont see it at all. You might try putting some carpet pad under the foam for even more effectiveness. That horse hair carpet pad would probably be the ultimate. But that stuff can get expepensive (not foam based at all). That's the most expensive kind out there I believe. I'd like to try that though.

Anyway just experiment. If it's a small room sometimes you have no choice but to make it almost dead. Which is fine because any speaker will be able to fill a small room and what ever comes out of your system is enough to make it lively. Just make sure you can catch those lower notes or it will be boomy and worse!

But what I've found to sound the best so far is to totally cover a wall or two. And then on the other walls use a lot of diffusion instead. Break up the soundwaves with varied hard surfaces. Right now I'm using some woven mats and a wooden screen ( that uses checkered board cross patterned wood pieces) on the side walls. Works extremely well for breaking up the sound waves (especially right next to the speakers to keep it from reflecting off the side wall) and letting the soundstage come out.
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