Not sure about "the best photo panels", but GIK Acoustics offers both free advice and photo acoustic panels.
Best custom photo acoustic panels
My wife wants some family photos in the living room. I think the room needs some acoustic panels. Luckily I know that some companies offer custom panels with a photo you upload to them. Anybody have experience with this type of application and recommend a particular company over the others? Any bad experiences out there where the photo came out not looking like you’d hoped for? I have very little experience with acoustic treatments and honestly don’t know where to start.
family room is open to kitchen. ~13x18 not including the kitchen (13x24ish). Living room portion has vaulted ceiling sloped only on one side with the peak at ~18ft…kitchen portion ceiling is 9ft. Two large doors/windows on one side of the long wall. Currently wife doesn’t want curtains on that wall. TV and speakers on the short wall far end from kitchen with built-in cabinets. Current speakers are B&W 685 s2’s, which are front-ported but also likely target for a future upgrade. Naim Uniti Star for amplification that unfortunately doesn’t offer room correction. So how much total area should I start with? I can put one between the two windows/doors and several on the wall across from that one. Thoughts, questions, and recommendations appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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I did this myself recently. I used AudiMute for the panels; uploaded the photos to them and they created the panels. My wife is very happy with them and that's what counts, in the living room! My space is similar - Kitchen, dining area, living room, all along a line with a peaked ceiling at 20 feet. I need more than the 8 sq ft that I've done so far, so we're looking for photos I can blow up to three by six without losing too much resolution. That's the hard part. |
@tspitzer , that's the hard part, agreed. Finding an image that the algorithms of a large format digital printer can 'blow up' effectively and look acceptable viewed 'close up'. An analogy is the highway billboard images; looks great at 50 yards. This is where 'depth of field' in the original image becomes real important. The best images are those where as much as possible is in focus without much difference between foreground and background subject matter.... I used to work in commercial graphics and signage when the tech for that printing began. It's amazing what it can do of late, but again it can only do so much with a given image. There are 'picture to poster' vendors online that you could use to print a paper 'sample' prior to committing to the final print for a reasonable cost. Black & white/grayscale images (if that's of your taste) can sometimes 'view' better than full color. Simple imagery works better for 'near field' viewing, to borrow an audio analogy.... Anyway...good luck. Post a pic of the results... ;) |
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Thanks a lot, everybody. I knew this forum wouldn’t let me down. Will check out a few of those sites/companies. The one I initially found didn’t have a preview so I was a little worried about the fit along with the pixilation issue some of you noted. Perhaps several smaller ones as opposed to one large for the biggest wall would have some advantages. My main concern is dialogue intelligibility…it seems like some shows the “background” noise seems to almost drown out or muddy the dialogue…others not quite so bad so maybe it’s more an issue with the sound engineering of the particular show. Nearing the end of a remodel for that room so tough to know for sure until things are back in place and the sound is truly at a stable baseline. Regardless, family photos and acoustic treatment is 2 birds with 1 stone so I like the idea and will update my system page with photos and link it here whenever they’re here. |
