Help with acoustic panels

[Hostility]

Well im at the point where most of my upgrades are as far as i want them to be for now as i live in an apartment. So my next task is some more/ proper acoustic panels. I have 4 DIY ones i made a few years ago. I will snap some pics and post them up after. Being in an apartment limits me to what i can really do. So far i have 2 panels behind my mains and the other 2 behind the couch. Now if someone can help me find some info on proper placement that would be great. When i first put these up i believe my gf held a mirror at each main and i sat in the middle of my seat and put the panel on the back wall where i seen it in the mirror. Now sure if this is proper or not, but i would like to do more to help my room. I just added a great gamma to my sub that sits on carpet and concrete floor.

 

[Hostility]

This is looking from 1 corner of the room (taken with iphone). the solid door goes into bedroom, the door to the left of it goes into the rest of the appartment/common room that leads into shared laundry. And as you can see far left is the bathroom and on the other side of that wall is laundry room.

This is looking from the opposite corner, the other door closed is just a closet.

Now when i watch movies loud, landlord is not home (when they are we watch at a reasonable level) and i close all doors.

**p.s sorry for the mess, gifts all over from xmas

 

[Hostility]

i found this to be a good read : http://usheraudiousa.com/files/Speaker_Placement_r3.pdf

And from reading that, and going by rule for longwall it works for me. But when i do measurements for rule of fifth, the distance from my mains tweeter to tweeter, and distance from tweeter to LP, The distance from tweeter to LP is about .5 ft more then tweeter to tweeter. So should i be pushing the speakers towards the center more and toe out more? I like more of a broad sound stage so i have aimed the speakers to hit the LP of each beside me (i sit in the middle of the couch and each speaker is aimed at the seat cushion beside me) all speakers are symmetrical to the wall behind and their toe in.

 

[GIK Acoustics]

Hello!

It seems you're off to a good start with the positioning of your current panels. Adding on to your current treatment, I would suggest bass trapping in the corners of the room. Note that there are 12 corners in a room, not just 4! So if some of the doors make it impossible for traps in the wall/wall corners, get the ceiling/wall or floor/wall corners trapped.

 

[Hostility]

i was thinking about doing the corner traps but im trying to put least amount of holes in the wall, so im not to sure how i could hang them or mount without putting multiple holes in. Ill try to find some reading on ways to do that, thanks!

 

[GIK Acoustics]

If you take a look at our website, something like the TriTraps or Soffit Bass Trap are nice since they are free standing and don't require any screws into the wall. Perhaps you could build/purchase something like this for the corners?

Likewise, if you needed to put them in front of a closet door, they are easy to move out of the way.

 

[jostenmeat]

i was thinking about doing the corner traps but im trying to put least amount of holes in the wall, so im not to sure how i could hang them or mount without putting multiple holes in. Ill try to find some reading on ways to do that, thanks!

The suggestions given to you, they wouldn't actually work in that room, would they? Outside of the possibility of where the subwoofer sits?

Anyway, if you were wondering about trapping in corners above the floor, suspended somehow, with less offensive holes, please look into Ooks. I'll never use anything else again, including for artwork, calendars, you name it. Coincidentally, I first learned about them from Glenn Kuras. Check them out at HD or BBB, or buy them blindly from Amazon and the like. The hole that is left behind is very small, drywall is enough to hold even rather heavy weights, and you'll get the pin into the sleeve on your first try (not always the case for me with some cheapo art hangers with nails). The way my GIK traps are, you wire up the hooks at the outer edges, and hang that on a corner mount/hook, AFAIR.

 

[Hostility]

i wasn't per say looking to trap my corners, but to make sure my orig. panels are properly positioned, and if i could utilize more, where would they be placed. I do only have a few places to mount things in my living room, but im trying to do what i can.

 

[agarwalro]

Here is a great article on room treatment optimization, Bass Integration Guide – Part 2.

 

[Hostility]

wow thats a long article!, ive got some reading ahead of me, thanks!

 

[Hostility]

was chatting with my gf last night about my room treatment, I think what im going to do is, take my 2 panels behind my couch and make them into 2x2's and place 3 each behind a head rest on the couch and then stack the 4th one ontop of the middle ( make it look pretty for her), then was thinking putting a 4x2 panel above the tv on the wall. Now would i benefit from having a panel behind head LP head? also above the tv? Or only REW can tell me this? I was also thinking of getting some acoustic foam and putting it behind and above my computer monitor, just curious if thats worth it or not, as on both sides i cant really get my 1st reflection points on my side walls. I know the foam isnt as good but it should be better then nothing? I was trying to tell her this last night and she said "you dont need to its fine" lol

 

[GIK Acoustics]

was chatting with my gf last night about my room treatment, I think what im going to do is, take my 2 panels behind my couch and make them into 2x2's and place 3 each behind a head rest on the couch and then stack the 4th one ontop of the middle ( make it look pretty for her), then was thinking putting a 4x2 panel above the tv on the wall. Now would i benefit from having a panel behind head LP head? also above the tv? Or only REW can tell me this? I was also thinking of getting some acoustic foam and putting it behind and above my computer monitor, just curious if thats worth it or not, as on both sides i cant really get my 1st reflection points on my side walls. I know the foam isnt as good but it should be better then nothing? I was trying to tell her this last night and she said "you dont need to its fine" lol

Sitting right next to a wall can give you some notches in the frequency spectrum. The reflections off the rear wall will arrive at your ear right after the direct sound, and will phase certain frequencies very easily. Panels behind your head will, as you suspected, absorb these reflections. So in short, yes, panels behind LP will be beneficial.

The foam might help but I don't see it doing much other than absorbing a small amount of high frequency reflections. Panels at your first reflection points or corners would be a more beneficial step forward, though.

 

[Hostility]

damn, ive had a panel either side of my head, and nothing behind me, ive been missing out lol. As for the foam, like i said i cant put a panel in some places, so instead of nothing, i figured foam would be better then nothing? Also i cant really do bass traps in my corners. I only have 1 corner. I found a local company selling foam traps. So my question is, is it worth me putting into 1 corner? and is it worth me using a foam trap? I can get 9" from corner out, or 12" from corner out (thickness). Like i said before is it better then nothing?

 

[GIK Acoustics]

It depends on the problems you're having. If high frequency flutter echo is a problem, then foam would help. If you're having problems in the bass regions, foam would likely not do too much to help.

You do have wall/ceiling corners you can mount panels onto - there are 12 corners in a room, not only 4! And all/any of them are beneficial.

I would be weary of foam "bass traps". We've always been skeptical of their performance so we decided to put them to the test against a standard GIK 244 Bass Trap in the corners of rooms. We found the foam bass traps didn't do much of anything below 250 Hz at ALL. You can see the test results here: Comparing Foam to GIK 244 Bass Traps

 

[stanleyg]

You can easily purchase 2 panels behind the couch and make them into 2x2's and place 3 each behind a head rest. You can also put a 4x2 panel above the tv on the wall. They are being used for decorating your homes in many of the cases.
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acoustic foam panels