Wool Blankets as Room treatment

I just recently started room treatments and man am I a believer now. I can see how a modest system with well thought out treatments could outperform a much higher end system in a misconfigured room.

"Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind...."

A while ago I suggested to listeners to try using blankets as a way for them to hear how acoustic treatments could improve their listening experience.  About half the replies were derisive, and then the other half included people who tried it and now knew how much acoustic treatments could be worth to them.

OP:  Don't forget the ceiling between speaker and listener.  I find this really opens things up when everything else is dealt with.  An easy place to put white panels.

That is a nice looking setup.  An area rug in front of the speakers would help a whole lot; the bigger, the better.  Some kind of absorption or diffusion on the side walls would be nice too; I like diffusion with wall decorations, bookshelves, more potted plants, etc. to break up reflections into a more random pattern.  Diffusion panels from a place like GIK would be good; you can have them covered with blown up images of whatever you like.  

@soix yes good one and yes in think subtle gusseting of sound stage by dialing back the high’s a tad.

@ghdprentice still considering GIK diffusers panels on the side as they are relatively affordable.

OP,

Beautiful. I hesitate to say this… but hanging it horizontally would have had it cover more of the critical area behind the speakers.

@soix 

😊👍 Good one.

Looks a lot better than a bare wall that’s fer sure.  Any improvements in sound so far?  Don’t make any conclusions until the rug has at least 100 hours on it, ehem.

Spent better part of the weekend hanging the Pendleton Drum Keeper blanket. Pendleton wanted $300 for wood fixture but I bit the bullet and just made one for a fraction of that but it took some work 😅. Still need positioning work with the rig and maybe stain the wood fixture. Purdy happy with it. Have a look on my profile and let me know what yah think.

Drum Keeper

...occurs to me that some simple DIY of the various suggestions noted here would allow one to discover a rooms' 'issues' before dropping  major time x $'s into a solution.... ;)

An eye on aesthetics later can make for a listening room that could look as good as it sounds....mho, subject to discourse, of course.... *G* 

I have done this is my ultra high end listening room a blankets or throw rugs work wonders for a room or speakers  that are bright. I found that it is helpful to reduce the energy from the bass vibrating the dry wall ( which is what sound waves are, energy)  I used a foam mattress pad behind some of the ones I use.. 

let us know and don't believe the BS. 

Wow some great suggestion here. Thank you.

One of the things I did that helped was use QUIK-TUBE® Building Forms and covered them with dimpled fleece fabric and put those in the corners. You can see them in my profile system photos.
 

Made 4 pf them for <$100

As @kijanki said above, they will only help with a very narrow range of problems.

Quite a few materials, that are thick and heavy, that we can barely blow air through, are completely transparent to entire ranges of audible frequencies. So, those ranges of frequencies, will just reflect off the wall as if the wool is not even there.

But it is possible (and probable), that absorption is not all that is needed.

Diffusion in the right places is just as, if not more, important.

I would suggest posting your question over on the DIY Audio forums, in their room acoustics forum. Many very knowledgeable people over there, with the expertise.

My friend has a giant American Flag. I suggested he put 1/2" thick textured carpet pad behind it.

example, search Bed Bath and Beyond, many exist

Mohawk Home Felt Rug Pad 1/2" Inch Thick Plush Comfort Cushion - Grey - 5' x 7'

Wool blankets should work quite well.  One of the best rooms I've heard was one where the cement block walls were only covered in spots with decorative wall hangings and tapestries--no obvious and ugly room treatments were applied.  These minimalist treatments are akin to the wool blankets mentioned.

Among the worst rooms I heard--dry, sterile, lacking in life and unnaturally lacking in reverberation where custom-designed rooms where acoustic engineers/architects designed the rooms.  Maybe these rooms would work for sound engineers, but for home listeners I thought they were not good sounding.

I think that a lot of people who are serious about their systems end up over treating their rooms.  I would start small, like you are doing--treating the walls minimally with wall hangings.  It helps to have a carpet on the floor, or at least an area rug so that early floor-bounce reflections are somewhat attenuated.  Book cases, potted plants and other "normal" room objects that are placed to also break up reflections to make them more random would help too.  After that, you might consider corner bass traps--at least these can be not as ugly as other treatments (but, the bigger the trap in diameter, the better).  Another great room I heard was a very large space with modest amount of treatment (ASC corner and side wall traps).  The owner originally put in an extremely large number of such traps, but his dealer, when setting up the custom-made speakers, pulled out more than 60 of such traps.

Start with bass traps to get the low end under control first. This should be the first step in treating a room. Measure the room as is and then as you add treatments so you aren’t just guessing. You really can never have too much bass trapping. Go as big as you can everywhere you can.

@james633  Yeah not going after anything really sophisticated.  Room is just a big echo chamber now and just trying to achieve subtle improvements on bare painted drywall and not make is look like a recording studio.  

I like the idea of the GIK diffuser panels alongside the wool blanket.   Proly do the wall behind the rig for less than $1K

Only in the highs and at what frequency I am not sure. If you have slap eco go for it. But honestly most treatments should be broad band at least 6’ think. You can heavily treat a room without it being too dead. The key is to treat the full spectrum and not just nuke the highs. Under 60hz is very hard to treat and that is where subs and room correction come in IMO. 

@jbuhl , yes, you will get some attenuation over 250 Hz or so. I would liken it to pissing into a forest fire. A HiFi room is for sound, appearances are secondary, although it is possible to make a very nice looking sound room. Put 4" acoustic tile at the first reflection points then hang your wool in front of it if you can't stand looking at acoustic foam tiles. The tiles cost about 30 cents each. Amazon sells it, but I prefer these people  https://www.thefoamfactory.com/acousticfoam/acousticfoam.html

Pendleton, Mexico. Pendejo.

Most excellent fusion brand name...😂

PENDEJO BLANKETS shall soon save the day!! Solve all acoustical problems for these lads!!

P.S

A blanket is a poor choice for wall treatment.. if you just want your walls to be aesthetically pleasing,  get some nice artwork and forget treatment (don’t fool yourself).

Check this page.

Been using Pendleton blankets across a low wall for years.  Acoustic treatment that looks great, and can be grabbed if the heat goes off!

Just let the room resonate like a room should.

Just make sure to play your music loud enough to scare the moths away.

I use mine as cover for the flat screen.  Damping the reflective surface changes the presentation. 

Pendleton, Mexico. Pendejo. 

@viridian .  They just opened a store here in Boulder and I went in and tried on a shirt.  Still very high quality garment with a nice fit.

@dweller .  If I do it I am going to order the blanket and the fixture from the store.

BE CAREFUL! Only buy Pendelton from factory website or Amazon. I bought from a "Pop-Up" ad (which looked legit) but the bill said something like "Murphy's Feed and Farm Implements" some where in New England. Use caution.

I use a very heavy, tightly woven “Oriental”? Wool rug behind my system (see my virtual system). It does an excellent dampening job. I own a Pendleton blanket. I would think it would take about three thick to be very effective. 

@bjesien aaah.  Looks like you can get that off the amazons purdy cheap.

@jbuhl just to be clear I meant egg crate packing foam. We are probably on the same page, but if you use egg cartons take the eggs out before you spin Big Daddy Kane.

Best of luck!

@bjesien 

I like the egg carton idea. 

You can use the "egg carton" foam or some other unsightly material behind them to add value.

When I pull my wool lululemon hat over my ears I notice mids are much flatter than others. 

I just posted a photo in my virtual system: jbuhl’s main system. There was a large painting back there. You can see my corner treatment. There is area rug just below the frame you can’t see. I was going to hang another wood framed painting but now considering the wool blanket idea.

How about the wool blanket in the middle with Gik Slat diffusers in either side of blanket?  

If you like the look of the blankets hung like tapestries, then put insulation panels or diffusers behind the blankets.

Absolutely! :)  Certainly better than nothing at all if you have bare drywall.  A combination of reflection and absorbers is usually desirable.  Also GIK and others make panels you can have art printed on them.

Check out on second page sound absorption vs frequency.  I have 2" thick 817 panels (never installed).

It will help with slap echo, but it will do nothing for mid and low frequencies.  Put wool blanket over your head while playing music - what you can hear will be reflected from the wall.   Even 2" thick double density (heavy), acoustic rigid fiberglass panels works only from about 100Hz up.

Looks like there are a few threads regarding this....