Popcorn Ceiling vs Smooth

I had a smooth ceiling in my living room where my stereo resides and had a popcorn ceiling put in instead. I could hear no difference in the sound.

You should get some diffusion of the higher frequencies with a pop corn ceiling but unless you have really high res stuff, an optimized listening room, really well developed listening skills, and are a bit on the anal side of neutral, you would probably hear no difference. :-)

Is there a fashionable modern form of popcorn ceiling? I have not seen it but perhaps there is. I would have a hard time wanting popcorn these days due to dated appearance.

I suspect it would have a sonic impact only if ceiling is low, and even then it would be tradeoffs.

If you go smooth and find the room too lively, you could mount small decorative carpets on the wall. Or find other means - throw rugs, upholstered furniture) to control it.

From an aesthetic point of view the smooth ceiling will be more attractive. Acoustically speaking there may be a negligible difference between popcorn ceilings and smooth ceilings. Be sure to test for asbestos if you decide to smooth the ceiling as it was often used as a binding agent for popcorn ceilings.

I recently moved and during the process of searching for a new apartment over a five month period I looked at a great number of places. Room acoustics was not the highest on my list of priorities, but one place I visited noticeably stood out as having the best room sound in terms of lack of echo and best speech intelligibility. It had smooth ceilings, wall to wall carpeting and crown molding. I believe that the crown molding was an important factor as many other rooms had similar dimensions, carpeting and a mix of smooth and popcorn ceilings.

I've read that others have also noted a positive difference in room sound when adding crown molding so it's a factor to consider if your room lacks it.

Ceiling mostly affects the sound isolation from other rooms. If that's not your concern, you shouldn't worry. It's more depended on walls and position. If you're planning to sound-proof the room, than flat ceilings are much easier to work with.