Room treatments and acoustics…. How to begin?
Hello,
I have spent the past year and a half going to town. I have mindfully and exuberantly engaged with every aspect of my system, with one exception… acoustics and room treatments.
I have a 14’x18’ x8’ high living room that is also my current listening room. I live in New York City, queens, and am an architectural designer with some fabrication ability. I am just beginning to get privy to how to approach acoustics and room treatments and find it fascinating. I would very much like to do the following:
-maximize the room acoustics in my living room, while maintaining or enhancing its visual appeal
-begin learning about acoustics as a whole, so that I may lean into designing architectural spaces intertwined with hifi listening..,, ie: large volume chamber woofers and open baffles incorporated into the architecture, even speakers partially or entirely cast into the floor walls or ceiling.
how to begin?
thanks for your insight and inspirations, fellow obsessives…!
r
I am going down this route right now. I got some measurements using REW and now it's time to start experimenting with absorption and diffusion panels. @tcutter why do you recommend absorption? Any and all help is appreciated and good luck to the OP.
Kindest Regards, |
For those who suggested GIK. I had sent photos and room dimensions to GIK. I will admit I received a massive email back. Was it a plan? Not really. There were a suggestions but I found it more conceptual than here is a photo, buy this and place it next to that. Am I thinking of this wrong? I did exchange a number of clarifying emails, maybe I am missing something (always possible) but I think I would have expected/hoped for something more concete? Appreciate any comments - I ask this, because like the OP I want to know where to start. And I did start at GIK, which was your suggestion...thanks! |
@whyrichard I would humbly suggest educating yourself first, and a great place to start is with Dr. Floyd Toole's book - it's essentially a text book about the physics of small room acoustics. Learn the concepts, understand that not all reflections are equal, understand why symmetry is important and that asymmetrically shaped rooms (like your system photo shows) needs asymmetrical treatment plans. Learn about early reflections, decay times and frequency response, and learn to take acoustic measurements using OmniMic or REW or others. Then learn how to interpret the measurements or send them to me to decipher for you. Or send them to GIK. There is so much to learn especially if you plan on leveraging your architectural background for room design purposes. It's a journey so pace yourself . . . |
I’m nothing more…..How to find first reflection point. |
My room is similar in size. I bought GIK alpha panels. I ended up with a lot more than I thought I would. I used the Vandersteen bass cd and a radio shack meter to see that I had low bass nulls after finding the best speaker/listening locations, so I started with their Soffit model stacked floor to ceiling in the corners behind my speakers. That was a noticeable improvement. Then, after watching a lot of their videos, I added 6” Alphas to the first and second reflection areas on the side walls. I still can’t get over what a difference that made to clarity and imaging. I then discovered the bass null was being caused by the rear wall so went with a mix of bass traps on the rear wall and that smoothed things out a lot. My last add was some more 6” Alphas panels to the side walls at my listening position to help with side wall bass null. They have a bunch of new products that are thicker than what was available in the past so you should be able to get some good results. Pick a color combination that you really love, because you just might end up with a room full like me. The panels with the 2D Alpha front kept the room lively, but got rid of the slap echo that was bothering me. Have fun! |
