Before all the deep pockets chime in I’m going to represent the budget end..
Search Amazon for Acoustic Panels..The ones I ended up going with are 1/4" thick,made from a composite polyester fibre & felt,NOT CHEAP FOAM..I used 12" x 12" size for the upper ceiling to wall transitions & 4’ x 2 ’ panels for the walls..I left some open areas on the walls so as to not overdamp the room...TOTALLY eliminated the horrible echo/reverb I had..Cost me a total of $350.00 to do the entire room..
You can spend a LOT more but I doubt you will get dramatically better results...
Room Treatment Help
I just moved to the DFW area and drew the short straw for the wife assigned small 10 x 12 x 9’ soon to become, dedicated listening room. It’s in dire need of treatment as there’s a weird resonance, echo sound when clapping your hands. I’ve tried LRS + and open baffle speakers (Spatial Audio Lab) with a nice tube pre and both tube and ss amps. I’m just not happy with the room acoustics. I know I need help and realize small rooms are inherently tough to get good sound. My question is, where in the world do I start? GIK, Primacoustic, Acoustic Fields (Dennis Foley- this guy makes sense) etc? There are tons of YouTube vids out there, I’ve probably watched most of them but the topic is as confusing as trying to come up with end game components for an audiophile. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and experiences as they are highly appreciated!
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@freediver I’ve actually got ATS Acoustic panels in my cart. Haven’t pulled the trigger yet. There’s 2” and 4” thickness? No clue to what “actually will work in my room. Really nice job on your room. Looks sharp! And it sounds like there’s a definite room improvement. |
IMO,the problem with the ATS & similar panels will do nothing to eliminate the eco/reverb,which is likely coming from the ceiling/wall transitions..If you put the ATS panels right in the wall corners it will help but you really need to address the entire surface area in the room where these transitions are located... |
what you need to do is not just jump into buying treatment. first is RTA with REW and a calibrated mic. do iterative speaker placement with your speakers and take RTA to determine what has the best balance and listen to confirm. Only then can you know what kind of treatment you need Also, @keeferdog, speak to Vespers of Warp Academy here |
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Measure the room before making any purchases. IMHO @freediver panels could address some frequencies but for bass problems you need other products with much more mass. On a prior home (room was 10x11x8), I “removed” the corners with PEG board and filled the empty space behind with Corning pads. Then covered it with speaker fabric. I used a thick pile carpet with double padding on the floor and wrapped 6 Corning pads with fabric for first reflections. It sounded great. |
Generally for Absorption a Rockwool with a Compression of 35Kg per m3 is ample to tame reflections. A simple framing and a cheap fabric covering on both faces as the initial design will create plenty to start to manage the energies present that are influencing how the End Sound is perceived. Symmetry is usually important, so Two Panels - Four Panels - Six Panels will be the requirement if more Panels are introduced. I like a Floor to Ceiling Panel when used in the Room Corner, set up to triangulate the corner as the Panel being offset from the Wall absorbs reflected energy bounced back. This is not achievable when a Door is in Room Corner. A 'L' Shape Panel is required, the Door will need a Panel attached to the Room Side Face of the Door and above the Door and the perpendicular wall will need a Panel placed. The Width of all Panels used at Room Corners as a Triangulation need not excess 900mm. The Door Panel width should be mimicked by the Panel used on the Perp' Wall. A Wall Panel need not be more than the Height of a standard widow in a Room, expected to be approx' 4ft -1200mm as the largest dimension. The Wall Panel width can be 1ft - 300mm made with a little more robust framing as it will be hung of the wall not in direct contact, as in the Corner a space between panel and wall has benefits for capturing bounce back energy. A Window can have a Acoustic Material used for the Curtain. A Curtain Rail can have a simple design for a secondary rail suspended from it, which can be used to hang a One Panel or a Few Absorption Panels on. Reflective energy that benefits from dispersion can be picked up on, when the placing of absorption panels is showing benefits, that show the experimentation has been worthwhile. I have a dispersion on the Wall behind Speakers and behind the Listener, laces on the Walls Centre, both at a 50/50 Split of Width and Height. On the Side Walls I have split the two used absorption Panels with a spacing of 1ft - 300mm and used a dispersion panel of the same width to infill the Space. A Dispersion or Absorption Panel can also be suspended from the ceiling if energies are not being fully captured. The Flooring is one of the easiest to treat. A soft furnishing can be placed if there is a hard surface finish in use. If a Carpet is used, this can already be quite an effective at absorption, maybe too effective? There is no reason to spend much more than a $150ish as the preliminaries to create absorption, there is a lot to be achieved with this outlay. The costs will increase if the Panels are wanted to be kept, then the Panels will need a improved bracing to produce an increased rigidity to the framing. When aesthetics are to become the next stages of consideration, where there may be much more attractive Acoustic Fabrics being selected to cover the trial panels, these Fabrics can cost close to $30 per yard/2. |
if this is a man cave and you’re willing to do some DIY. Get two cases of 703 Owens Corning rigid fiberglass panels. I was able to get mine from a local insulation distributor. Fir Stripping for frame and colored burlap fabric. Some mounting hardware off of Amazon. Truly, a difficulty scale of one on a DIY project. Do some basic research on where to place. I would look at doing both 4 inch and 2 inch panels. It’s important that the fabric use select you can breathe through it. That is why burlap is suggested because of its ability to breathe.You may need to do some fine-tuning here and there, but you were going to have to start here in the first place so, square one it is. |
For the multitude of individuals with an interest in Audio, All decisions made come with a element of unknowing, hence trialling is the most valuable approach, as the experiencing is everything to assist with making a fair evaluation. No one has to be pay to acquire experience, making time is the key to the door. Spending is easy and for many the simplistic method adopted to avoid acquiring new experiences, especially ones that can prove to be valuable and indelible. " Act in haste repent at leisure " is the way to part with ones coffers and make another more satisfied with their side of the arrangement. The OP is well informed of how they can learn more about what is occurring in their listening space, be it there own endeavours or pay to get given a data produced by a visiting service that might mean very little to them. |