Heavy curtains on side walls or not?

[Jib Carrib]

Hi there- best sound question:

The 'diagram' below is my room.
The horizontal lines represent the side walls.
The single vertical line represents the projector screen.
The '=' is the area of concern for this question:

Will heavy baffled theater curtains along the '=' wall improve sound, hinder sound, or not matter? The rest of the room is drywall, and the wall behind the screen is brick.

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[rojo]

Hey Jib,

Without measuring impulse response or a waterfall plot using a measurement mic, without knowing where your primary listening position is and where the speakers are, it's hard to predict whether any sort of treatment there would improve the sound or not. Do you have a problem with ringing that you're trying to tame? Investing in a measurement mic would be a good idea for figuring out what exactly needs tamed.

In general, sound damping will have greatest effect at reflection points. If you can, put some ticky tack on the back of a small mirror, then stick the mirror on the wall. When you're sitting in your primary listening position, if you see the speakers in the mirror, that's where adding sound absorption might have some noticeable result -- but whether for good or for ill, it's impossible to say with the information given thusfar.

If you'd like to pad your post count high enough to use img tags and post some pics, you can do that over here if you wish. It probably won't help nearly as much as some painstaking measurements, but we do enjoy pictures.

 

[Jib Carrib]

Hi rojo, thanks for the reply...Yeah, sorry --- This is new construction (well, a remodel) so no ringing problem, yet , and my primary listening position is center, about 12' from the projector wall (the projector wall is 12' wide, room is 23' long). The speakers will either be on the curtained walls about 2' from the projector wall or on stands 2' out from the projector wall.

Ultimately, I don't want to hurt the sound by adding the treatment, but aesthetically it would look better.

I just don't have any experience with sound damping-- looks like I'll get a lesson when I get these speakers installed.

 

[Speedskater]

In general heavy curtains are only effective in a somewhat narrow band of frequencies (mid to treble). The trick is to find something thicker that will work at lower frequencies.

 

[Jib Carrib]

This forum is great for revealing how much I simply do not know. I appreciate everyone's time, I really do.

 

[kalikid2013]

I personally don't like curtains.

I recently purchased Acoustimac DMD-422 panels, 48"X24"X2" with Owens Corning 703 insulation and couldn't be happier with the high end dampening in my small, 10'X12' room.

Acoustimac.com