Very small enclosed HT and SVS speakers. Potential acoustic overkill/nightmare?

**Rancho5** · **08-20-09, 01:53 PM**

Greetings from a new member! I am sooooo grateful to have found this site and especially this section of the forum. I have a ton of questions about my HT (almost done) and a potential problem.

I am a little concerned about sound quality in my HT. (23 long, 10 wide and 7 high) Floors will be laminate so we can eat/drink while watching movies, and there will be a thin area rug that covers the front half of the room. Two sofas (Modern Danish style and leather/chome)

I bought SVS speakers including a cylinder sub and I have an Onkyo 705. We are wired for 7.1.

With such a small space, I am concerned about sound quality and there not being time for the sound to image and I am ignorant about wall treatments. Many of the photos of HT I see have most of the walls covered in fiberglass panels hanging on walls of thin carpet, but they are huge theaters and mine is small.

We had planned to put a low pile carpet 3 ft up the wall, then a chair rail, and then leave the rest textured sheetrock, but after the choice to use hard floors I am wondering if we should carpet the entire walls and hang wall treatments also. My wife (very supportive) suggested the carpet/chair rail and then hanging traps the 4 feet above. And while searching on eBay I discovered some pretty inexpensive foam corner traps and pyramid panels and was wondering if these would work.

From what I have gathered after reading some posts here, I need to:

"Kill" the front wall (I'll use OC 703 and heavy drapes hanging on rods to cover)

Put as many panels as I can manage in the front half (Would carpet on the lower half be as effective?)

Treat upper corners of front wall with triangle foam traps (would the OC 703 on the front wall do the same thing?

Hang OC 703 panels sporadically in the rear 1/2, and on back wall as design allows.

My biggest concern are these amazing speakers combined with a small space sounding like garbage and me confusing loudness with quality. I'm kind of new at this.

Thanks in advance!

**tonyvdb** · **08-20-09, 02:20 PM**

I'm not an expert with regards to room treatments however I would not concern yourself with going overboard treating every wall and the floors. The SVS speakers you have will sound great given the fact that your running an 805 (good choice by the way) it will compliment them well.
The rear wall should have some reflection points addressed and so should the side walls. Carpet up the entire wall would defiantly deaden the room however it is not the idea to make a room completely dead as this will mean that your speakers would have to be driven allot harder to "fill" the space.

**Rancho5** · **08-20-09, 02:25 PM**

So from what you say, it sounds like my wife's plan to go 3 ft up with carpet and then the upper 4 feet with treatments might be the way to go.

What are your thoughts on the foam triangle bass traps for the front and rear corners?

**tonyvdb** · **08-20-09, 02:28 PM**

Quote:

Rancho5 wrote:

So from what you say, it sounds like my wife's plan to go 3 ft up with carpet and then the upper 4 feet with treatments might be the way to go.

I would say yes that would be plenty and would look better.

Quote:

What are your thoughts on the foam triangle bass traps for the front and rear corners?

Yes, as long as they are truly bass traps and not some cheap imitation product that you will find on ebay from time to time. What sub did you end up going with?

**Rancho5** · **08-20-09, 03:03 PM**

I bought the 25-31 pci sub and the SCS-01(m) package.

The foam corner traps actually were on eBay. I was under the assumption (wrong I guess) that foam is foam.

Should I build corner chuck traps? If so the only problem is the narrow room. With a 10' wide room and an 8' wide screen, that only leaves 1' on each side to build chuck traps. Would a 1' wide triangle trap all the way up the wall (7' tall) be better than eBay foam traps?

What about the back wall and chunk traps?

**tonyvdb** · **08-20-09, 03:14 PM**

I've sent another member on here a message as he is much more knowledgeable than I am in this department he should be chiming in soon. His user name is brucek

**Rancho5** · **08-20-09, 03:17 PM**

Thank you.

**bpape** · **08-20-09, 03:21 PM**

Welcome

Your space is not 'small' by any means. There are a lot of people who'd kill to have that much length. It's a bit narrow - which just means that the side reflections are even that much more important to deal with as they'll get to you quicker.

Please do not use carpet on the walls. Carpet is high frequency only absorbent and you need something more broadband. Smaller space require proportionately more broadband absorbtion.

Forget the foam. 703 will vastly outperform it. Use smaller traps and go floor to ceiling if necessary for clearance. Don't forget thick absorbtion on the rear wall.

Killing the front wall 100% is a good thing for HT.

Bryan

**tonyvdb** · **08-20-09, 03:26 PM**

You beat me to it Bryan I just sent you a pm as well.

**Rancho5** · **08-20-09, 03:37 PM**

Bryan, thanks for chiming in.

My wife is pretty set on having the carpet and chair rail on the walls just for looks, and not wanting to texture all that sheetrock. (She's the texturer, I'm the hanger)

So if that's a "given", what can I do to maximize broadband absorbtion? I probably could convince her to let me make larger panels (2x6, ceiling to floor)and then put her carpet and chair rail in between them. Would that help?

Her feeling was that the carpet below would do the same thing as the panels above the chair rail. Apparently that is incorrect.

The back wall will have a DVD shelf built in (7 tall 5 wide) but I can hang smaller framed 703 panels around the back wall.

**bpape** · **08-20-09, 04:30 PM**

Look at where the tweeter/mid level is and where your ears are. Somewhere between there is where most of the reflection areas will be. That will be above chair level. If you want that 'look' you could build out an area below the chair 4" or so, install absorbtion in there, then cover with carpet. That would leave a ledge between upper and lower. Panels to that thickness above would look nice then.

Broadband bass control in the corners and on the rear wall will help balance things. Add 2" on the rest of the front wall.

Bryan

**Rancho5** · **08-20-09, 06:15 PM**

Decision!

We've decided to forego the carpet on the walls and use panels and texture the sheetrock walls. It was the panels all being the same size that bothered my wife. So we will make them of various sizes and cover the walls in the front 1/2 of the theater. And get creative with the fabric.

Then chunky (thin) corner traps which will not even need to be screened as my wife wants to cover them with velvet drapes she will make. In fact the entire front wall will be OC 703'd and covered in velvet drapes (except where the screen goo screen is)

Back 1/2 will be various sized framed OC 703 panels as well as the back.

Thanks for your help guys! Absolutely wonderful the way you all pitched in to help. I don't think I shall be visiting the other HT forums much anymore.

If you have other counsel to provide, I welcome your input.

Time to go sheetrock!

**tonyvdb** · **08-20-09, 06:17 PM**

Glad we could help, Post some pictures of your progress. We love pictures

**ScruffyHT** · **08-21-09, 08:35 PM**

Quote:

Rancho5 wrote:

Time to go sheetrock!

Since you have not sheetrocked yet ... Have you considered soundproofing ?

One reason is to keep the sounds of the "house" out of the theatre - HVAC, water in pipes, people walking around upstairs ( if it is in the basement ), traffic, neighbours doing yardwork etc etc ... in normal movie scenes these sounds would not be apparent but in quieter more dramatic scenes they are easily heard

The other reason of course is to keep the sound from the theatre from leaving the room into the rest of the house ... and depending on where the theatre is located in the house, from being heard outside the house and disturbing a neighbour

Just something to consider if you have not gone too far in construction

**Rancho5** · **08-21-09, 09:02 PM**

The HT is above the garage and only shares one wall with the home, which will be triple drywalled and greenglued. The rest of the walls just "leak" into the attic surrounding the HT so it bothers no one. And the nice thing about that kind of setup is that I have complete access to the side walls and front wall via an attic run.

Thanks for the advice!

**ScruffyHT** · **08-21-09, 09:04 PM**

Sounds good to me ... post some pics of your progress ... as stated above we like pics

**bpape** · **08-21-09, 09:05 PM**

Again, remember that sound getting IN is just as or more important from a performance standpoint than sound getting out.

Bryan

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