Help Me Make Use Of What I Have

[yourgrandma]

So I'm growing quite tired of the awful acoustics of my room, and after setting up my thickest peices of foam at my mains firs reflection points, I'm left wondering what I should do with what I have left.

Right now I have seven rectangles 24X15X3.5 inch foam in an alternating pattern around the ceiling-wall corner circumferance of the room Since this is obviously not the most effective use of it, I plan to move it.

The question is where? Should I focus on making my front wall as dead as possible? Should try to get the ceiling? (I hate to say it, but looks may come into play there) Should I try to make the first reflection absorbers bigger?
The rear has a big window that makes treatment very difficult.

I'll link to my other room related thread to help fill in details I miss.
http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...stairwell.html
http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...re-i-live.html

Here are some pics of the room and the foam to which I refer.

I'm sure I'm missing something important, so of course, feel free to slap me and call me an idiot.

15X24 panel


My free first reflection absorber.


Room Layout


Random Shots of How it looked before the prpjector.




Thanks for any input.

[bpape]

Get the side wall reflections first. Remember that there are a LOT more than just one on each wall. You'll have one for each speaker for each seat on each wall. 3 speakers, 3 seats, 9 points.

Use what you have left to dampen the front wall the best you can.

Bryan

[Glenn Kuras]

Just to add to Bryans comments

So I'm growing quite tired of the awful acoustics of my room,

I would say that a lot of the awful sound is coming from the low end build up in the room and the only way to solve that is with proper bass trapping.

Glenn

[avaserfi]

What factors of your sound quality are you attributing to your room?

Also, I am not sure about the foam you have specifically, but most foams I have encountered don't work too well for room treatment due to poor absorbency coefficients, especially in mid to lower octaves. The few foams I have encountered that work well for this application are specifically designed for use as acoustic treatment and still aren't always as effective as OC705 or 8LB mineral board. I don't want to be a downer, but using this foam might not effect your room acoustics as you are hoping.

My suggestion would be try it out, after all you have the foam so you might as well try and use it. If there are slight effects you know its working some and could start building/buying your own panels made of more effective material slowly if possible. Stage it out as needed, but you are definitely going in the right direction the room plays a paramount role in sound quality.

[yourgrandma]

Thanks guys, I haven't tried the left speakers' side reflection on the right wall and vice versa, but that sounds like a good idea, I'm just not sure if I'll have a place to put em.

Glenn, you are right, I really need to build some traps. Although I wouldn't call what I have a bass buildup. It's really more of a total lack of any bass at all. Unless you're in another room. I'm trying to figure out a way to install corner traps along the ceiling without doing too much damage to the walls and ceiling. On the subject of bass trapping, is it considered effective to trap the floor corners? At least that would be an easy removal when I move.

This is really just a "for the time being" type deal, because I'd really like to build some panels, but I'm afraid I might just have too much junk against the walls to do anything really productive.


Anyway, thanks for the input, I'm going to start taking those panels down and try them in different places.

[yourgrandma]

Ha, here's one for ya!

What should I be more concerned with, a major flutter echo, or absorbing the first reflections?

The whole purpose of all those chinzy panels was to tone down a severe flutter echo. If you so much as crack your knuckles in this room, you can hear it "BOING" for at least a second. It's way worse than the stairway. I sort of forgot how bad it was without thos panels. I just remembered that I actually had a stradegy when I put those up. I staggered them so they would catch the echo before it slapped back and forth too much. Surprising how well it actually worked.

That being said, what is the most effective way to get rid of a flutter echo? I think that might be what ruins the whole midrange for me.

[bpape]

If you do the reflection panels, it will also help knock down the echo in the room overall. You may still have some stuff up high but the reflection points will help AND you'll get a much more focused image and better dialog clarity.

As to your previous question, you can certainly do floor corners. They'll help with the bottom end. It would be nicer to get some up high so they could also do the flutter killing in place of the foam you had up there. You could build some frames with some 4" in it, route out the sides and just hang them flush to the ceiling with just a couple of hooks each.

Bryan

[yourgrandma]

I moved all the foam I had by the ceiling down to the reflection points. The mains sound a little better, but the surrounds are might need some attention.

When I do my traps, I don't think the budget will allow for stacked OC all over, so where would you suggest I use the highest quality stuff? I would like to make some 4" panels that stradle the wall-ceiling corner along the side and front walls. In the front corners, I hope to make stacked traps. How wide should I make the corners along the side and front to take care of the flutter and add low end absorbtion? Do these ideas sound like nonsence, or might I actually be headed in the right direction? I think that's what you meant.

Thanks for your help, it's very much appreciated.

[bpape]

Actually, I was talking about just taking 2 pcs of 2" and stacking those to make 4" thick, 2' wide, 4' long. For < $200 you can build 6 of those and hang them flush on the ceiling like a soffit. That will cover 24 linear feet. Do the front ceiling/wall, and a couple places along each side ceiling/wall.

If you're having issues up high, that's a better $ investment than the chunks right now. Figure another $200 for 17x17x24" chunks floor to ceiling in the front 2 corners.

Obviously, this all assumes a DIY solution

Bryan

[yourgrandma]

Oh, that's much simpler. With 24 linaer feet, you'd say I should do the whole front, right? Or was that just a number for an example? Say I went with that amount, would you say it'd be best to stagger them along the side walls to dissipate the flutter, or go straight back from the front, or maybe right in the middle...

Also, is there much difference in effectiveness between ceiling vs wall mounted? It would seem like they'd catch that slapback better on the wall, but you're the lead acoustical designer, and I'm just a gut with a bad sounding room.

Obviously I have much to learn. Sorry to keep pestering you like a little kid. I haven't had much luck finding good info on the specific issues I'm having, so your knowledge is really helping me out.

[bpape]

No problem at all.

Obviously, having them straddle the corner is the optimal setup since you get some ceiling, some wall, and a nice corner coverage. The reason I said on the ceiling was that it doesn't appear visually as obtrusive. Wall mounting will work and will also give you a bit better performance.

In theory, the entire front wall should be covered and 100% dead in a multi-channel environment but if you're limited, doing across the front up high will have to do (though it you're DIYing anyway, you'd likely be better off using the same amount of material only 2" thick covering double the amount of the front wall). The other thing to consider is that IF you're going to do the chunks in the corners, they by default also cover some of the front wall saving you some of the other material for other things.

As for the rest, spreading it out is always more efficient. If you need more, you can also slit them in half and make them 1'x4'x4" and get double the length.

Bryan

[Glenn Kuras]

Also, is there much difference in effectiveness between ceiling vs wall mounted? It would seem like they'd catch that slapback better on the wall, but you're the lead acoustical designer, and I'm just a gut with a bad sounding room.

Slapback is going to happen on any flat surface, but where it is to relation to the speakers and where you sit is what really matters. That is why just throwing acoustics in the room will help but proper placement does matter.

Glenn