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How do you enhance a bad listening room's accoustics without breaking the bank? thoughts?

I am looking at a cork wall covering product to help enhance my listening room acoustics. The room is in a condo and shares duty as an "L" shaped living / dinning room. As I have neighbor's on either side I was thinking of doing the one wall where the speakers are placed and the opposite wall where I have my sitting position (The Coach!).  I was thinking the entire sitting room wall (10x8) and the speaker area (10x8) on the opposite wall. This may also have the additional bonus of helping to reduce the noise coming from my stereo into those condo's next to me?
I was wondering what people's experience has been and successful materials used as wall coverings or panels.
pooch2
willgolf
964 posts
 
I have used GIK and Acoustimate in the past.  I have heard of supply issues with GIK recently.  I used Vicoustic Acoustic Cinema Round panels that not only look great on walls but they really helped my absorption issues greatly.  Check out their website.  I was also considering the Vic totems which act as absorption and diffusion panels.  
secretguy
1,991 posts
 
Our last house had a wall covered with cork and I'm sure that helped save the room 
jerryg123's avatar
jerryg123
3,429 posts
 
GIK is running 60 to 90 days. 
I have built my own room treatments. Done in one weekend and they look good. 
rego
378 posts
 
@ pooch2, what you are making a reference to is ' Sound Proofing ' and not Acoustic Treatment ... "  reduce the noise coming from my stereo ".
Low End will ' seep ' into your neighbors space unless extreme steps were taken during the original construction.
The best option you have - if you do not want to offend your neighbors is to keep the volume low ... even so Bass will be noticeable to an extent. 
panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
692 posts
 
Materials have some combination of the four basic acoustical properties: Absorption, Diffusion, Reflection, and Transmission. Materials vary in their performance of those properties with respect to frequency. Cork is absorptive only at relatively high frequencies but is very damped with respect to transmission. A flat cork wall does little if anything to help reflection and diffusion.

Adding a floating layer of sheetrock hung by Z-clips to the adjoining walls, and edge sealed with acoustic caulking will reduce noise transmission between units, and if possible, is strongly recommended.

Within the room, acoustical panels help control unwanted reflections via absorption, as will a heavy carpet. Diffusers, as the name implies, help scatter sound without absorbing it. Bass traps help reduce low-frequency standing waves. 

Two to four sidewall acoustical panels, 2' X 4' and a pair of bass traps would probably significantly improve your overall sound . My own preference is Acoustimac for choice, cost and customer service. 
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