Tapestries to cover panels?

[zippy]

I have a older house with hard wood floors and plaster walls. Unfortunately, at this time I do not have a dedicated room to use for HT/audio so the living room is the HT. So far the only treatment has been a large wool area rug.

Other treatments would need to be "discreet". I am considering using some tapestries but these are not the thick woolen type but a cotton material. I don't think they will lend much in the way of treatment but was wondering if acoustic panels could be mounted behind them. I believe they ship with a 1" offset mount for the rod but you can order a 4" offset mount so there should be adequate room to mount acoustic panels.

If anyone has had experience with this kind of setup or can comment on its viability, it would appreciated.

[Prof.]

Hi zippy and welcome...

If the cotton tapestries have some openess to the weave, then you they should be quite suitable as a covering for acoustic panels..
A 4" offset would be ideal for enough space to fit the panels behind them..

How big are the tapestries?

[zippy]

Thanks, Prof.

I don't have these yet. Just looking at various ones on the web.

They are various sizes but the one I am looking at to go in back of the couch is 88"w x 53"h. Plenty of room to hide panels under. http://www.bellacor.com/productdetail/275604.htm

Other ones are long and skinny (26w x 53h) and could go at reflection points.

I don't expect that the weave will be open but if the material was thin enough, would it still allow sound to reach the panels. My assumption (probably wrong) is that if the material isn't thick enough to lend much soundproofing on its own (and would pass through most of the sound to the plaster walls), then it would be possible to add panels to trap or disperse the sound.

[Prof.]

Nice looking tapestry...

The large size on the back wall won't present any problems, even if it's a closed weave..
You actually need this for the high frenquencies, the lower frenquencies won't be affected by it..

As far as the side panels go..If the material is fairly thin, then it should be ok..You will get a bit of extra high frequency reflection, but not unduly so..

[bpape]

Agreed. Those should be fine.

Bryan

[zippy]

Prof. wrote:

Nice looking tapestry...

The large size on the back wall won't present any problems, even if it's a closed weave..
You actually need this for the high frenquencies, the lower frenquencies won't be affected by it..

As far as the side panels go..If the material is fairly thin, then it should be ok..You will get a bit of extra high frequency reflection, but not unduly so..

So the closed weave may help but I should still use panels underneath if the material is "breathable"?

Bryan,
Is there anything I can do for violating your first law of General No-No's:

- Don't put your seating right against a wall, back or side. This is the worst place in any room for smooth frequency response.

Sofa is against the back wall where the tapestry will go. Can't pull it out to far or it will be in the walkway. Will the tapestry/panel combo help?

I'm doing good on the other 4 laws.

[bpape]

The panel behind you will help. If you can get it out far enough or cobble something together that will fit on the floor behind the couch, that'll help even more.

Bryan

[zippy]

Re: cobble something together?

Do you mean an acoustic panel of some sort? Would it need to be above the sofa to be effective?

[bpape]

Well, anything premade is going to require the seating to be out probably 17" or so and didn't think you had room to move that far. Build a simple frame and fill with standard insulation and wrap with cloth. Make it as wide (couch to wall) as you can, the whole length of the couch, and from the floor up to maybe 6" from the top of the couch. Cover with cloth. Nobody will see it and it will do a nice job of soaking up that corner behind the couch and knocking down the boom.

Bryan

[zippy]

Hmm. Might be able to make it appear to be a sofa table if the frame is nice enough. I'll look at the dimensions of this and the tapestry and see what I can come up with.

Thanks a bunch for your help!

[Prof.]

Zippy,

One thing Bryan forgot to mention is that the back panel insulation needs to be 4" thick to be really effective..