Well, I have been really intersted in trying some sort of acoustic treatments in my various rooms in the past but commercial products are very expensive, And I really dont know where to begin with treating a room besides the obvious reflection points which, in pretty much all of my rooms would not accomodate some kind of treatments because of doors, etc.
So figured i would get off my *** today and do something useful. I had looked up some designs on the web and decided to follow John risch's design- as seen here:
http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/a1.htm
Well, I took some pictures of the process so I'll let them explain themselves. I spent $40 total, 10 bucks for batting & 10 for burlap from walmart and 22 for the 8" think R25 non backed insulation from lowes, The mahogany wood peices are leftover from a job my dad did. They are toekick pieces. And probably cost 40 bucks a piece! Also had the glue on hand, Those cans are probably 6-8 bucks
The frames for the middle section and one end peice. Built to be lightweight yet sturdy. And made out of crap laying around our house. I formed the half circle around a big wooden wire spool and added in the braces to keep the shape.
Next step, Line the back with batting. I just sprayed on some glue (see below) and lined it.
Now the fun part! Insulation!. Actually I dont itch the least bit and ive been playing with it all day. Perhaps insulation technology has changed
Dunno, But the stuff is super easy to cut with a razor blade knife. I then covered the insulation with another layer of batting just for the heck of it.and sort of tucked it down in the sides.
Ok to attach the burlap I first masked off the wood so i could use 3m spray adhesive. I just did a little section at a time, spraying the small top edge of the wood and pressing on the burlap. This is after the panel has been glued.
The spray glue I used. Very good stuff, Bonds almost as fast as super glue so i could glue an area, Apply pressure for a min or so and move on to the next area.
Now to trim off the excess burlap. I got really lucky here because The panels are 34" wide, and the burlap is only 35". I didnt take this into consideration when I was building them since It was just a one-off sort of engineer and design as I go build. The sharp razor cleanly sliced off the excess to leave a nice finished edge.
After the edges trimmed and tape peeled off.
Kinda a crappy pic of the panels in their place since Its dark and I dont have enough like to focus the camera. To mount them i simply took some metal strapping used in framing houses and made some brackets. Before i mounted them up i was playing around with different positions and for some crude testing of their absorbtion properties i leaned the two end peices up in front of my speakers. My words were literally holy s***! I didnt bother getting out the DB meter but it was more dramatic than being in another room with all the doors shut so i guess they work.
I might not have them in the most ideal place but the way the room is situated its the best place for the behemoths. At first they were like some huge thing that instatly grabs your attention when you walk in the room but they are starting to grow on me
I'll take some better pics of the layout of the room and post up a page on my website with the how-to later on but so far im happy.
Sound wise they dont make as much of a difference as they did when i had them on the ground in the ideal spots but they simply cant go there. It does seem to sound alot more natural and better imaging but i could just be dreaming. Im sick too so my hearing is a bit off.
