Acoustical treatment of my dedicated theater room - advice

[point1]

Guys,

Not sure if this is the correct forum to ask this question but I am converting my third car garage into a dedicated theater room. It is a good rectangular room and I am building a sub floor over the concrete slab that is going to be insulated with a heavy carpet pad and a carpet.

Question is I would like to hang acoustical treatment to even improve the sonic characteristics of the room itself. With my limited knowledge of accoustics, I think I am going to go with diffusers and bass traps. The walls will act as reflectors ??? (not sure if I got this correct)

I am attaching a picture with my setup and what I have planned. Please let me know if I am going in a totally wrong direction.

thanks in advance!

 

[point1]

oops I guess I can't post pictures just yet

 

[jostenmeat]

Just curious, is isolation a goal of any importance (do you live close or far to neighbors?).

Staggered studs with plenty of fiberglass will help isolate, and will help with your acoustics as well. Start pricing large bulk amounts from local sources.

The walls do act as reflectors, but that's not a good thing, at least for 99.9% of speakers made, especially with any close distance to either speakers and/or listeners. You treat these reflections with broadband absorption.

HT rooms are desired to be very dead.

Some folks deaden the entire front wall and ceiling as well. It all depends on how nuts you want to go, and what kind of budget you've got.

Diffusers need space to work effectively. I've never considered it to great extent; all I use are large broadband absorbers. I did once briefly consider acoustical cotton for a strange application.

Give a call or email to some acoustical companies like GIK or Real Traps. They should provide you with some good guidance. A couple of GIK folks chime in here time to time, and hopefully they will see this thread soon, and perhaps by that time you can post photos for them.

For inspiration, here's the only garage thread I know of.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=574704&page=2

http://www.smxscreen.com/images/IMG_5261-1.jpg

 

[bpape]

Oh yeah. Ruben's room was a blast to do. I really enjoyed working with him.

I'd agree that in most cases, diffusion isn't really on the top of the list for home theater. Broadband bass control is necessary as is good reflection control, management of decay times, and a dead front wall.

Bryan

 

[mperfct]

wow, I had forgotten or didn't realize Ruben's theater was in the garage.

One of the nicest theaters around, imho.

 

[Soundman]

For inspiration, here's the only garage thread I know of.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=574704&page=2

http://www.smxscreen.com/images/IMG_5261-1.jpg

I wish I had the funds to build something like that. That's an awesome room!

 

[Gohanto]

One of the most important things in any new setup, especially when a garage which is likely to have a high reverb time is absorption as mentioned before. The best places to have them is key though, as you do want to dampen the first order reflections. Imagine your speaker's sound as a billiard ball. It can go straight to the listening position first (direct sound), bounce off one wall and hit you (1st order reflection), or bounce off multiple walls before reaching the listening area (reverb).

http://www.hometheatermag.com/bootcamp/140/index5.html
(actually that whole article is worth a read)

Adding some absorption on the walls where the sound from the left, center, and right speakers first sound hits it is one of the easiest and cheapest fixes for any room.

I'm a big fan of diffusion in other parts of the room though.

 

[mike_wassell]

Don’t use diffusion use absorbers. Diffusion will work on the back wall, but only if you’re seating is 10’ away from the diffusion. They need space to work correctly

 

[Savant]

point,

I, for one, do not necessarily agree with the idea of completely dismissing diffusion for a home theater. Diffusion—along with (not as a substitute for) absorption—can work just fine in a home theater. The requirement for a lot of space is not completely off-base, but neither is it a hard and fast rule. While there is some dependence on room size, there are other factors to consider. While there is a tendency towards "dead" in a home theater, that sort of acoustical environment is not to everyone's liking. An accurate listening space can be achieved in a home theater with a mix of absorption and diffusion that doesn't result in "dead." In fact, I would argue that the best sounding home theaters use a healthy mix of absorption and diffusion, and aren't necessarily "dead" rooms. (And remember that diffusion doesn't have to be commercial devices costing hundreds of dollars per square foot.)

But instead of discussing general acoustical treatment philosophy, it would probably be more productive to get some specifics about your room so we can collectively offer more useful advice.

 

[mike_wassell]

check out:

http://www.auralex.com/literature/acoustology_404.pdf

and

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

 

[Savant]

check out:

http://www.auralex.com/literature/acoustology_404.pdf

and

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

I will only comment on the first link since I wrote it back when I worked at Auralex. Everything in it is appropriate...in the contexts of home studios, which was the intended focus of the piece. Home theaters are different in a few respects. The biggest difference being the distinction between six- (or more) channel surround sound reproduction in home theaters and—the focus of the above— two-channel production in home studios. While many of the acoustical concepts can be adapted for use in home theaters, that's not always the case.