What acoustic treatments for this room!!!???

[flyboylr45]

This is my home theater and primary listening area. The room opens up to the nook and kitchen area, about 3000 cubic feet. Does anyone have any wife approved acoustic treatments for an area like this? Something that can be painted to match or contrast??!! The room is missing a the subwoofer which is the next thing on the list to buy. The window behind the sectional has blinds in front of it. Anything I can put behind the blinds to prevent the sound from reflecting off of the window? The other problem is the tv. I think I mounted it to low. Now part of the tv is just under the center channel speakers. Any help!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!







My system:
Musical Fidelity 3.2cr integrated amp
Onkyo TXSR700 receiver (old. upgrade to come after subwoofer)
Monitor Audio S6 (fronts), S2 (centers), SFX (rears)
Adcom GCD750 cd player
Monter Power line conditioner
Ashly Audio FTX1501 amplifier (runs the S2 center channels)

 

[Nick250]

If you don't want to re hang your display I suggest laying the center speakers on their sides and see how that sounds. It probably will be fine that way. Once you get your sub the first room treatment I would get is a bass trap in the right front corner. I am not sure it will pass the WAF, but they are offered in different colors and the one I have matches the color of the wall which helps it to blend into the backround

Nick

 

[Scott R. Foster]

Fly:

Generally painting broadband absorbers is a "no no" - you render the panel non-breathable by filling up all the little holes in the absorber material and/or upholstery which typically will ruin performance. If its an upholstered panel you might be able to dye the fabric. Maybe check a craft store that covers techniques like Batik for advice on DIY fabric tinting?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik

If you build the panels yourself, the sky's the limit on fabric patterns and colors. If you would consider building panels perhaps, take "she who must be obeyed" to the fabric store and tell her she can choose anything breathable fabric she might find.

Consider foam absorbers like those made by Auralex - they offer a number of colors. Also, my firm, Ready Acosutics sells upholstered panels mineral fiber panels in 7 different colors - one of which might please.

Finally. we have in the past custom dyed panel upholstery for a couple of customers - not sure what the upcharge is on that, but we have done it. If you contact us through our web site we'd be happy to send some fabric samples or get you a quote for something custom.

Good Luck keeping the boss happy.

PS to Savant: Is there a practical way for a user to dye / tint foam?

 

[bpape]

Something on the front wall behind the speakers will help - not to mention something on the side wall on the right. If you're handy, you can DIY some small panels and get special paper backed cloth that you can use an ink jet printer on to do custom pics that are wife friendly.

As for better sound, a couple of suggestions.

- Get the seating away from the back wall a couple of feet if at all possible and put some thick absorbtion on the floor behind it.

- Lose one of the center speakers. You should never have a pair for centers like that. Use one on it's side even though they're not designed that way - it will work much better.

- For the windows, you can use a thick, full hung curtain to provide some additional absorbtion and minimize reflections off the back window.

Bryan

 

[HiFi Jake]

Flyboy:

Yeah, you should definitely get a bass trap in that corner behind the speaker on the right side, and probably in a few other spots too. You really need more than one bass trap in a room for them to work properly I think. At least that's my understanding.

I highly recommend contacting Realtraps. I bought a set for myself, and I found that their traps work REALLY well. They also look great (much better for the WAF than some of the other offerings on the market), and those guys are SUPER helpful!

I've read Ethan Winer's posts over the years on forums, and he's always been very knowledgeable and really helpful to people. I actualy ended up dealing with Scott Veenstra there when I contacted them. Scott really spent a lot of time with me, and was very patient in explaining how the acoustics work and in helping me find the best setup for my room, to get the best performance for my budget and the number of traps I figured I could fit into our decorating scheme. Way above and beyond the call of duty, actually. He even came up with some ideas to make some of the traps less noticeable, which made my wife really happy.

Scott also took the time to help me sort out some other issues with my speaker and subwoofer placement. I have to say the just the extra help alone that I got from those guys was well worth the money spent, and my room sounds terrific now!

 

[crossroadazn]

You can use wool blanket on the window. Cheers.

 

[bpape]

This is kind of old to respond to - but in case anybody is reading this...

Do not use blankets for acoustic control. It's high frequency only. If you have to deal with curtains, get something thick and something that will hang full even when closed. That will provide a much more broadband solution and match much better with acoustic panels on the other side.

Bryan