Acoustic Panel questions: how to and why?

ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Quick preface: I have a small room, about 2000'3, that is lively in mid to upper frequencies. I have not tested yet with REW, but my Umik1 will arrive later this week. (Along with my long awaited towers.) My endgame for this room is approaching, and pending the testing I will do, I am considering building some panels to help attenuate that liveliness.
I'm in the camp of only treating the room after all else is in place. This is not something I am considering lightly, rather if I do it... I want to make certain its done right!

That said:
I am considering 2-4 panels. 1 pair at the first reflection points. Possibly 1 pair behind the speakers.

I've seen a lot of information about building them... easy enough, but a couple questions remain.

Considering I am looking most likely at frequencies, say 1500Hz and up, is there a correlation between the thickness of the panel and the frequencies they work on? (I know if I was trying to absorb LF, I would need 4".)

I've seen many mentions of space behind the panel, between insulation and wall. I have not seen any designs for this.
What is the benefit/how does it work?
How much space to insulation thickness?

I've also seen it mentioned about using slotted panels or pegboard in front of or behind the insulation as part of trapping certain frequencies... but this seems to be rare info that I could not corroborate... does anybody have any insight about this, please?

Thanks in advance!
 
M

Mike-48

Audiophyte
I can't help with the DIY part, but I would advise not using pure absorption anywhere other than the first reflection points (and some users prefer some diffusion there, too). I have had best result with combination absorber-diffusers behind the speakers (except bass traps in the corners). You might even want to use pure diffusion behind the speakers, if that wall is at least 6 to 10 feet from you.

Stepping back, the three goals I hold in mind for treatment are (1) absorbing first reflections; (2) eliminating slap echo, everywhere in the room if possible; and (3) bass trapping to reduce bass overhang. Then the question is, how best to achieve them. Both (1) and (2) will reduce the over-liveliness that can be irritating in many cases. But again, use of pure diffusion often leads IMO to an over-dead room.

All that is from the perspective of a music system. I hope it provides food for thought, at least.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Indeed! Fortunately I don't find bass to be a problem in here, so that is not on my list. In terms of the others... we are pretty much in agreement about careful usage and intentional placement. :)
So far, the new towers are working great and are not hitting that liveliness... I have not done measurements yet as I have been slow tuning placement. Done as of a day or to ago. And am now working on finishing relocating my subs. REW will be fun when I get there... hopefully I'll be ready to go by next week!

Cheers!
 
Cjamrr

Cjamrr

Audioholic
How did your room treatment project work out for you. I’m in the middle of figuring out what to place at my first reflection point, possibly buying Vicoustic or GIK panels online instead of framing my own with rockwool and fabric.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
It hasn’t yet! :eek: :p :cool:

...just too busy!

But that said, everything is working pretty smoothly and playing nicely together. I think my first focus is going to be getting the drafting table out and building a rack for the gear (rather than a metro shelf). Getting my center channel upright will be the first direct result of that. :)
The drafting table is a huge difraction point and between that and the window, wreaks the most havoc on that side of the room. I have curtains ready to hang. A replacement to the drafting table will be a low bookshelf (straddling a sub) with a cat bed on top.
Any room treatments will then be pending remeasuring after those changes.
:)
 

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