Is room treatment a science?

So in the scientific view of acoustics we have a lot of different waves propagating back and forth across the room. Our scientific goal is to minimize the cancellations and reinforcements in order to hear the original signal as clear and undistorted as possible.

Miller just described an anechoic measurement chamber. Hahahahahaha.

Anechoic means no echo. Its a fact. You could look it up. Here, I’ll do it for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anechoic_chamberNo echo. No sounds going back and forth. Now what I said: "a lot of different waves propagating back and forth across the room." Literally the opposite of an anechoic measurement chamber.  

What you just described erik_squires is literally the opposite of what I said. You literally do not know the difference between echo and no echo. Now why am I not the least bit surprised by that.....

I definitely agree with @mahgister when he says that the room's acoustic problems (peaks and nulls at the very least) can be positively influenced and very effectively smoothed out and flattened to a substantial degree actively as he says, even without ever resorting to EQ. 

That's an additional topic, but one that's definitely relevant...not nearly as unrelated as you might first think.

geoffkait,

"...test tone generator such as 315 Hz, for example..."

Is there a reason you picked 315 Hz or it can be anything else? Maybe a range that would be the most helpful? Wouldn't different frequencies act differently in different parts of the room?

The sciences of acoustics and psychoacoustics are applicable to room treatments.

I agree with @erik_squires ’ recommendation of Floyd Toole, in particular his book "Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms". Imo the third (most recent) edition is the one to get.

Another excellent source is Earl Geddes. His book "Premium Home Theater: Design and Construction" is now available for download free. Don’t be put off by the title - most of the book is applicable to high end two-channel. Just skip the chapters which obviously don’t apply to home audio:

http://www.gedlee.com/downloads/HT/Home_theater.pdf

Chapter 5, "Room Acoustics", is the most obviously applicable, and includes sections on Spacious, Localization, and Timbre.

I used to engage in armchair-quarterbacking recommendations of room acoustic treatments, until I spent some time in couple of rooms that had been treated by a real professional, Jeff Hedback. A real professional acoustician can tell you where you need diffusion, absorption, and reflection, and how much. (By way of analogy, a professional crossover designer will determine where you need inductance, capacitance, and resistance, and how much.) Jeff is still affordable and his company is called Hedback Designed Acoustics. Here is an article he wrote for GIK Acoustics, it is about much more than just diffusion, imo it’s very much worth reading:

https://www.gikacoustics.com/diffusion-by-jeff-hedback/

Duke

Duke,

Thanks for sharing the two article, very informative indeed. Anyone serious about audio should address room acoustics before they think of upgrading their components. GIK Acoustics value driven products and their true desire to help their customers is commendable.