why need acoustic treatment?

[lienly]

so far, I haven't spent any $ in acoustic treatment b/c I don't think it's really that important.
then why some guys pay much $ for acoustic treatment?
what's the best bargain action to do, if such treatment is really helpful to booth sound quality?

[bpape]

I think you should rethink it not being important. Properly treating a room is probably the most cost effective way to improve the performance of your system available. It (if done properly) can be along the same order of magnitude improvement as better speakers, or even moreso.

Don't take my word for it, ask around to others who have done it and get their opinions and whether they'd ever have an untreated room again.

As for bang for the buck, there are 2 things to do:

- Broadband bass control in the corners of the room
- Side wall reflection points (remember that you'll have 3 speakers X number of seats reflection points.)

The next thing to do is to completely kill the front wall so you're not getting the surround field mixing with the front imaging soundfield. The only thing you want coming at you from the front is the direct sound.

If you can DIY and depending on the size of the room, these things can be done very cost effectively.

Bryan

[altenburgpj]

lienly wrote:

so far, I haven't spent any $ in acoustic treatment b/c I don't think it's really that important.
then why some guys pay much $ for acoustic treatment?
what's the best bargain action to do, if such treatment is really helpful to booth sound quality?

Because if you are ever to hear anything close to what the mix engineer intended you to hear, you need to create a room that has similar characteristics the ideal room they mix for. Yes that’s right, all professional environments are treated to mimic the standard listening room, not an untreated room. If it’s a movie you are listening to, its mixed for theater, and theaters are heavily treated.

I dare say I can get a huge improvement from almost any sound system if it is placed in a properly treated room.