I’m nothing more…..How to find first reflection point.
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
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- 33 posts total
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! |
Small room acoustics can be the rabbit hole to end all rabbit holes. I wasted a lot of time and money on this, until I finally followed some really good advice that I will now share with you. Download and learn to use REW (room equalization wizard). REW will allow you to optimize your speaker position and your listening position to achieve the flattest frequency response you can achieve without added treatments. This should be done first. You will find that the cookie cutter recommendations, (golden triangle etc.) are not optimal. Once your speaker position and listening position are fixed, next you will want to address early reflections using the impulse data obtained via REW scans. This will allow your system to fully reach its potential in terms of the spacial presentation. Only then should you consider further optimization using room treatments and multiple subs. Good luck! |
+1 @brownsfan – Listen to him. He's taught me an immense amount and I'm eternally grateful! |
Here’s one way to go: Purchase the Housecurve app through the app store. Run a sweep from your sitting position with your smartphone. It will read the room frequencies. Capture the image from Housecurve and upload it to ChatGPT and ask for suggestions on how to improve the room response. Should you decide to follow the suggestions (encouraged as a place to start) run a sweep again after you make the adjustment and fine tune. It most likely will get you in the ballpark - of course letting your ears guide you, but I’ve found it be a pretty powerful tool to begin with.). Good luck and share pix. |
- 33 posts total

