Acoustic Curtains or ...

[sweeppicker]

I seriously need some acoustic treatment for my room. My Def Tech 450s are not getting justice. First off my room is a square - ****loads of standing waves, its too small, and the high freq and upper midrange sound conjested at higher spls. I will get a better rooom later but for now I need some good advice on panel, curtains, etc. Thanks

 

[Sheep]

Try reposting in the room acoustics forum.

I'm not trying to be a boss, but you will probably get more answers.

As for me, I'm hopeless for room acoustics....


SheepStar

 

[Bevan]

i'm no expert but i can pass on what i picked up from the more knowledgable folks on this forum.

the squareness of your room will cause serious standing waves(nodes), probably one massive one at the frequency where 1/2 the wavelength = your room lenth/width. the most only effective way to deal with this is to make or buy bass traps for all corners of the room. not cheap or easy. alternatively, if you happen to be using a subwoofer, buy a $100 BFD and flatten the peaks with that. much easier than room treatments but still takes a bit of fiddling.

curtains as you suggest, can be used to treat the higher frequencies. as a start i would as a wall hanging or piece of furniture at the first reflection points on both of the side walls. then a curtain at the front or back end of the room.(the live-end dead-end approach). also a carpet or throw-rug on the floor will help. that should be enough, you dont want to over dampen the room.

thirdly, and this would be particularly inportant if you are not going to equalize the bass with a BFD parrametric equalizer, is to experiment with speaker and listning possition placement. try putting speakers a few feet away from front and side walls(and different distances from side as from rear wall). try for odd divisions of the room eg. 1/3 or 1/5. likewise with lisning possition. if using a sub experiment with non-corner placements.

check out:

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=26&pagestring=Room+Setup

http://www.rivesaudio.com/resources/listening_room/frame.html

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/setup/RoomAcoustics-RivesAudio.html

cheers

b.