I had good luck with Ready Acoustics, I sent them a photo of my room with the dimensions and they told me what I would need. Have experimented with more or less but found their recommendation was the best sound I have achieved. Their products are relative cheap and quite attractive. My wife [ no audiophile] insisted I get some panels for the living room video system as she liked their looks. There is no charge to get their recommendations. Not connected with them except as customer. |
Try also
www.GIKacoustics.com
www.realtraps.com |
Thanks for the recomendations, gents. But I'm still curious - is there no program that will turn measurements into a "plan"? (for lack of a better word). Are treatments that vendor-specific? |
The measurement programs will give you an idea of the problems of your room, they will not tell you which product would work best or where to place them. How could they given the multitude of products on the market. That will have to be done by you, a manufacture or a custom installer. |
room treatment would apparently be one of those areas where 'art meets science'.
To get a definite answer is quite impossible. You don't know everything you'd need to know and I doubt anyone knows how it all works to get a 'DO THIS' to get THAT result kind of answer.
That there are general principles and a lot of knowns is a YES. That an equation or simple system approach will hit the 'bullseye' is probably NO.
Even designing a large concert hall or recital hall from scratch will require a bit of fine-tuning when it's done. To do a retro on an existing space, I'm thinking, would be more difficult. These guys use extensive computer modeling and have complete design and materials control....from first shovelfull of dirt to the last dab of paint.
Another helpful group is Rives Audio.
http://www.rivesaudio.com/home/home.html
My connection to Rives? I bought a calibration CD from them. It is matched to the RadioShackup analogue SPL meter. |
Another room acoustics question with no information about the room or system.
Give me more information about your room and your system and I will see what I can do to help. |
Rrog,
PM sent. I appreciate your willingness to help. But please note that I was not asking for someone to design a solution for me. I was asking how to turn an analysis into a room design. Thanks again. |
I'm in line with what Magfan said. I think you either need to outsource this or DIY and if so, get going with understanding what acoustics is about. I went for the latter as I was intrigued and enjoy understanding what is going on. There is a lot to learn and I'm only starting, but I kind of know the basics and built some treatments and made changes successfully.
If you want to understand acoustics I recommend you read the Master Handbook of Acoustics by Alton Everest (you really need this one), and Sound Reproduction by Floyd Toole (a good complement to the first one). |
As has been noted, the best acoustic designer in the world still never can tell what the exact results would be. They take theory and materials and then try to apply it. You need to do the same thing until your ears tell you it is 'better sound'. One of the most neglected areas of treatment is the ceiling of most rooms. The application of 'wave theory' is a must. Armstrong makes some interesting treatments in this area and has some great 'white' papers that explain what it is all about. |
If you desire a "cradle to grave" read on acoustics, the Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Everest might be a must read.
Minimal treatment usually involves treating your first reflections from the side walls, the wall behind your listening position and the corners of the space.
Room analysis software can be a double edged sword, way to much information to sort out what really matters along with a learning curve.
An inexpensive SPL meter and test tones can go a long way to optimize your bass response.
You should try to have the best bass response possible without treatments before you begin. (based on my personal experience)
My take goes like this on treatments;
1st - first reflections first (very predictable with a mirror and relatively easy to treat)
2nd - the wall behind your listening position (very easy to treat)
3rd - the room corners (this area is where prior analysis helps if you have to tame bass peaks/nulls and can become rather involved to achieve a desired result)
4th - more bass traps along the walls if your corner treatments did not achieve the results you needed.
The reverberation time (RT60) of the space also comes into play as you treat the room.
Its very easy to kill RT60 and deaden the space.
It can be very challenging to maintain/obtain the correct balance of absorption and diffusion while treating a room to keep RT60 acceptable.
Send your room info out to the professionals that offer free analysis.
Keep an open mind and remember that what models well on paper just might not be the final solution for your room and listening tastes.
Costs can be quite minimal if you are a DIYer and the results will redefine your listening experience. |
I'll second the consulting with a pro or two prior to throwing in a lot of money towards treating the room.
Ensuring all is set up well and the bass is as good as you can do first, is way important too.
There's tons of DIY info on rolling your own treatments here in the archives if you peruse them. ONline elsewhere too.
it'll sure pay you to do some research here, but it'll wind up being as has been offered so far... it's not an exact science.... you'll have to simply try adding this and that, and then perhaps repositioning things a bit as well.
But do heed the pro's input, and go from there.
it's almost like putting together an audio system... not too much of this or too much of that... it's a blend of items.
Albert Von S once told me to initially shoot for a 50/50 mix of absorption and difusion.
Good luck! |
I tried to take room measurements and treat my room, but without experience in acoustics the measurements didn't mean much, even after reading Alton Everest's book and visiting many websites. I finally talked with Rives (they designed a plan that I used), RPG and RealTraps. Then I went through two stages of adding room treatments. The first stage got the room to where Blues, Jazz and Rock sounded good. In the second phase I added more bass absorption along the front wall-ceiling and back wall-ceiling and diffusion on the ceiling. Now I enjoy listening to classical music in addition to the other music. The change is amazing.
After I added the room treatments in the first phase, I had my room professionally measured by an engineer using acoustical software. The engineer created a virtual room, added the treatments and got the hypothetical reverb times. Then we measured the room to validate the calculated results. The software was spot on! It also showed that I need to move my CD rack to get better balanced imaging. In a couple of weeks I'm going to have my room re-measured using waterfall plots to see the final results.
|
