What do you think will help guys

[dem beats]

OK... what is it that acoustical treatments do?

What is the material. I know it would be one of the best things I can do for my room and I have access to just about as much comercial grade super industrial deadening the kind with pyramids on it.... An enginear friend of mine blasts objects with sound untill they break and has quite a bit from his work laying around.

Is this the goal of acoustic treatments? To reduce/stop reflections? Maybe to break apart the highs ...difuse if you will instead of absorb?

I plan of putting up pics of my HT soon.. I'm just really really lazy!

would it be worthwhile do you think though.. I am so happy recently with the sound but something it hits me wrong, and i need to seal a door that vibrates from bass.. I hate doors.... so it got me thinking about room treatments. The room is a basement with concrete walls.. What should I look for while listening?

I'm really looking for something I can put up that will move with me when i buy my own home with the lady. WAF is a non point. I want it to lok nice but i dont' need it to be stylish or whatnot. My HT is my room MY ROOM gosh dang it!! Everywhere else... well
what can I do.

I just don't have the funds to work on my DIY sub set up and really want to work on something... I'm also waiting on the place I baught my gear from to work with me on a new receiver option.

anyway thanks all... I got an itch and need to scratch.

 

[DrunkenWolf]

I bought some panels from http://www.gikacoustics.com/ and with A bass trap in each of my front corners and a acoustic panel at the first reflection point I noticed a greater separation of sounds-the most obvious was a bass note on a hip hop track which turned out to be two bass notes that blended together before I installed the treatments. Everything, from the lows to the highs are crisper. These are also the least expensive treatments I could find. To do it yourself you need some wood, nails, owens corning 705 or 703 fiberglass, and some acoustically transparent fabric. There are DIY bass traps instructions all over the web.

From what I've read there are a couple of main goals-first to flatten the response of the room; second to reduce reflections. The second can contribute to the first since I suppose it's the reflections that can create the uneven response in the first place. I'm not an expert at this though. As for what to look for-listen for bass that seems to hang out for a little bit too long-it's hard to describe the improvement to the high end from treating, but you can't miss it.

There's a crowd of acoustic zealots. I'm close to joining that crowd after the improvements the treatments have made. This is the single largest improvement in sound I've experienced from an upgrade-at least as major as a speaker upgrade-and if you have high end speakers you are not really experiencing their potential without treatments. If you're on the fence wondering if it is worth it-it is.

 

[Glenn Kuras]

I bought some panels from http://www.gikacoustics.com/ and with A bass trap in each of my front corners and a acoustic panel at the first reflection point I noticed a greater separation of sounds-the most obvious was a bass note on a hip hop track which turned out to be two bass notes that blended together before I installed the treatments. Everything, from the lows to the highs are crisper. These are also the least expensive treatments I could find. To do it yourself you need some wood, nails, owens corning 705 or 703 fiberglass, and some acoustically transparent fabric. There are DIY bass traps instructions all over the web.

From what I've read there are a couple of main goals-first to flatten the response of the room; second to reduce reflections. The second can contribute to the first since I suppose it's the reflections that can create the uneven response in the first place. I'm not an expert at this though. As for what to look for-listen for bass that seems to hang out for a little bit too long-it's hard to describe the improvement to the high end from treating, but you can't miss it.

There's a crowd of acoustic zealots. I'm close to joining that crowd after the improvements the treatments have made. This is the single largest improvement in sound I've experienced from an upgrade-at least as major as a speaker upgrade-and if you have high end speakers you are not really experiencing their potential without treatments. If you're on the fence wondering if it is worth it-it is.

Dang what more can I add to this?
I will just add that not only are you trying to flatten the response in the room but bass trapping will also help with ringing that can cause that muddy/one note bass sound.

Glenn

 

[dem beats]

I love it when comapny reps join threads!!!

I will want to pick your brain, and it may lead to me spending a few cents with you...

But as I said I have pretty much unlimited suply of this deadening foam.. it reminds me exactly of the stuff in a studio on the walls... it's just ugly as it's industrial. You scream at the wall and there is no sound comming back.. always freaks me out... lol

So would this be the proper/similar type of material to use, or that is used for room treatments. Could I use this material and reduce my costs on room treatments? Only needing something to difuse high hz waves at certain points? I would use your product or this at points that would cause reflections at the listening position then correct? I read all the articles from AH here and it was either over my head. I head the word bass traps allot. Are those usualy the triangles in the corner? How does that help, it would make sense as all those right angles would make for nasty reflection points, but wouldn't there be allot of canceling anyway?

I'm sorry if I seam at a loss here, for some reason understanding sound goes quite a bit over my head and I'm not used to not being able to understand things. I feel a bit like a monkey doing a math problem?

Thank you both for so much info.

Drunk,
I did read yoru thread. That sounds incredable. It takes bravery to say you listen to hip hop/rap around here man! I['m glad you saw such an improvement too!

 

[bpape]

Foam IF made right, can be used for reflection point treatments. Normally, IMO, you'll want to go at least double the thickness that you would with 703 or mineral wool to get the same bottom end absorbtion (and don't expect much below 125Hz unless you go a foot thick - seriously).

Bass absorbtion tends to be efficient in the corners because they're at the end of all 3 room dimensions. However, there are other places in the room where they can be very useful:

- Over your head if you have height related modal issues
- On the rear wall of the room behind the listening position to minimize the null off the back wall in the lower frequencies.
- Behind speakers to deal with SBIR related frequency response anomolies
- First reflection points to make sure you're killing down into the vocal range (male voice can easily get into the 200's of Hz.)

The trick in treating a room is balance. We want to hit a target range of decay times based on a combination of what the room will be used for and how large it is. Just putting up a lot of 4" or 6" panels is better than putting up a bunch of 1" panels - but it's still not necessarily the optimum solution. In fact, you might well be spending MORE money than you need to and getting results that are not as good as they could be.

Bryan

 

[dem beats]

Foam IF made right, can be used for reflection point treatments. Normally, IMO, you'll want to go at least double the thickness that you would with 703 or mineral wool to get the same bottom end absorbtion (and don't expect much below 125Hz unless you go a foot thick - seriously).

Bass absorbtion tends to be efficient in the corners because they're at the end of all 3 room dimensions. However, there are other places in the room where they can be very useful:

- Over your head if you have height related modal issues
- On the rear wall of the room behind the listening position to minimize the null off the back wall in the lower frequencies.
- Behind speakers to deal with SBIR related frequency response anomolies
- First reflection points to make sure you're killing down into the vocal range (male voice can easily get into the 200's of Hz.)

The trick in treating a room is balance. We want to hit a target range of decay times based on a combination of what the room will be used for and how large it is. Just putting up a lot of 4" or 6" panels is better than putting up a bunch of 1" panels - but it's still not necessarily the optimum solution. In fact, you might well be spending MORE money than you need to and getting results that are not as good as they could be.

Bryan

SBIR?? I'm sorry I'm such a newb...

These foam squares reflect just about NOTHING. I will ask about how they absorb bass.. but my guess is it does well. They use it in rooms with massive drivers to enduce extreme low hz audio and dampen sound in rooms with vibration machines pulling 10+G's I beleive I will see if my friend can get the paperwork. I have to say yours look beautiful in comparison, and I actualy like the look of the difuser panels.

 

[Johnd]

SBIR?? I'm sorry I'm such a newb...

Speaker Boundary Interference Response...way above my head.

 

[bpape]

It's not a newb thing at all. Most people don't know about this - I should have explained earlier.

Bass radiates as a sphere. When your woofer is moving, sound is going forward and all around the speaker. Some of it is going to come off the wall behind the speaker and come back to mix with the direct signal. Some frequencies (based on distance vs wavelength) will mix in phase and you'll get a peak in response. Some will mix out of phase and you'll get a dip in response.

Treating the wall behind the speaker absorbs some of that to minimize the intensity and amplitude of the peaks and dips. The trick is to know what material properties you want. You may not necessarily want to reach all the way down in some circumstances. It all depends on how the seating distance and position interact with the speaker position and interaction with the front and side walls. You can actually use SBIR to your advantage by inducing opposite response characteristics to compensate for issues at the seating position.

Bryan