DIY Fabric Wall Panels for dedicated Home Theater?

[Seagul]

I was wondering if anyone has built/designed any Fabric Wall panels for a dedicated Home Theater. I recently completed work on my dedicated home theater...I have Triad In-Room Golds all the way around, and I built them into the walls so I could hide them behind some fabric panels. I am aware that they actually sell fabric wall panel systems but that are a bit pricey. I was hoping to be able to make the panels fairly easily removable...incase something happens to one of the speakers...any ideas? info etc...would be appreciated. I have a few ideas, but nothing I really like yet...I was hoping to incorporate some acoustic wall treatments in these panels as well...thanks again for any input.

 

[Ethan Winer]

Seagul,

> I built them into the walls so I could hide them behind some fabric panels. <

Be careful with that. There is such a thing as acoustically transparent fabric - Guilford of Maine is a popular brand - but I think even the best fabric will still have some negative impact on the speaker's frequency response. The trend these days is to avoid any type of cloth in front of tweeters.

> I was hoping to incorporate some acoustic wall treatments in these panels as well <

You need two kinds of absorbers, with one for the bass range and another for mid and high frequencies. Don't make the common mistake of treating the room using only thin materials, because those absorb only higher frequencies which risks making the room too dead sounding yet still boomy. Also note that bass trapping works best in the corners, not flat on the walls.

For the complete story see my Acoustics FAQ:

www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

--Ethan

 

[Seagul]

Thank you

Thank you for the information...I checked out your site and I will definetly sit down and read through it a few times Great info...thanks again.

 

[bpape]

You can certainly hide the speakers behind fabric if you choose. However, as Ethan said, while GOM is transparent enough for treatment covering, I wouldn't put it in front of my tweeters. If you want something like that, you almost need to go with something that is designed as a speaker grille cloth - much thinner and more transparent than GOM.

Now, if you have speakers/processor that has a THX compensation for sitting behind the screen, this CAN help overcome SOME of what the thicker fabric would block.