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Living/HT layout

7K views 47 replies 10 participants last post by  cellexjohn 
#1 ·
Well, I would like some input on where to start with room treatments. I have a funky floor plan open to other rooms and a hallway. As you can imagine their are closets and bedroom doors to deal with also. This should give a good idea what up up aginst.

I have a REW graph in the BFD/REW area if interested.

See what you think.

Floor plan Plan Diagram Technical drawing Parallel


All questions and coments welcome.

Thanks,
John
 
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#4 ·
Yeah... the RS meter is really only good up to about 8KHz or so.

The BFD can take care of that nasty peak at 45-50Hz while probably the right combo of traps and panels could help with the rest... mainly the peak at 140Hz and 4-7KHz.

Maybe some of our acoustical experts can give you some suggestions on what to try.
 
#5 ·
Turn off the smoothing - it masks a ton of real world issues. 1Hz resolution is best - 1/12th octave is about a minimum.

Is rearrangement an option?

Bryan
 
#7 ·
OK. That looks 'better.' Can you replot and post with just the 20-400 range showing please. That will allow a better look at exactly what frequencies are having issues.

In general, there are a couple of issues.

First of all the AV rack in the front right corner is taking up an excellent place for a bass absorber. I'd move it if at all possible. Second, that hall in the lower left is absolutely going to cause upper bass/lower midrange resonances but not sure what can be done.

I am assuming you have this arrangement so that the TV can be seen from the dining area. If that's not correct or not a big deal, then I'd look at putting the TV/audio in the upper left area turned 90 degrees to get better symmetry, allow treatment of both front corners, and get you more out of the way of the other obstacles.

That's a narrower setup and you'd likely have to do some sort of riser for a 2nd row but I think it would be worth it. Not knowing the aesthetic and spousal considerations, I'm not sure how feasible that is though.

Bryan
 
#8 ·
Thanks Bryan,

I will post the 20 to 200 when I get back home.

On the rearangement, to the left is a door in the left corner to the master bedroom and to the right of the bedroom door is a closet. I would not be able to relocate for that reason.

There is room between the closet and the corner wall for an 18" by 8' panel or a corner trap. I also planned on doing the exact same on the corner behind the AV rack to keep things ballanced. The corner to the left where the bedroom door is only has room on the left wall if you are facing the bedroom door. Kind of hard to picutre huh. he he

John
 
#10 ·
That's actually surprisingly decent. I'm sure the decay times are still way too long but I've seen a LOT worse raw FR graphs.

The panel traps on Ethan's site are more narrow in nature - maybe 1.5 octaves wide each. They're also not as efficient per unit area as a soft broadband velocity absorber (the panels are pressure absorbers). You may find that a mix of the 2 types may work best for you.

Bryan
 
#11 ·
1) I think you have a great room acoustically - lots of variety means your low freq response should be pretty decent off the bat, and your chart shows that.

2) when you take your rew measurements, you might want to take several from different positions.
I expect a different reading from the left couch seat to the right - possibly significantly different.

3) if you're interested in room acoustics, check out cara (www.cara.de) - cara can model your room's acoustics, and then in cara you can add acoustic panels and see what the impact is.

BTW thats a nice drawing - what did you use?
 
#12 ·
Bryan,

Glad to hear I have a decent start without treatment.

My plan was to start with the "deep-base" traps in the 3 main corners to the front right, and to the far left in each corner. The next planned step was to mix "mid/high" base traps with "high" base traps along the wall behind the TV. I plan to hit reflection points higher up the FR along the sides, rear small wall behind the couch, and ceiling last. I'm going to run out of wall space quickly. he he

Does that sound like a good approach? Or am I going about this all wrong?

John
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the reply Jack,

When I first got interested in graphing my room I figured that the layout was going to be horrible. After reading in here a bit it seemed there was some talk about open rooms could possibly be an advantage.

I havent moved the mic from the orginal position yet. Thanks for the reminder. :)

I'll check out the link for some more info. Useful information seems to be the one thing you can't get enough of.

I used google sketchup. It's much fancier then needed for what I made. Pretty cool program. I saw someone else used it in another thread.

John
 
#14 ·
I'd go broadband in the corners to start with. Solid chunk style absorbers will reach down pretty low and help with the decay times across the board. The membrane absorbers can be added in other places later - but not generally in the corners.

Bryan
 
#15 ·
Bryan,

When you say solid chunk, what material are you suggesting?

I can "build" across 2 of of the far corners to the left and right of the sub. I have 19.5" form the corner to the door trim at the far left, and 8' ceiling in the corner to play with. I figured I would keep both sides the same to make it look even.

Thanks again,
John
 
#16 ·
To do an 8' tall, 17x17x24" solid chunk, you'd need about 12 pcs of 2" OC703. Each pc will yield 8 pcs (16 vertical inches) at the 17x17x24" dimension.

Bryan
 
#17 ·
I was thinking that's where you were heading.

So in your opinion, is that going make quite a difference? I believe that the the sheets of 1" Johns Manville (475) were $23ea. that puts each corner around $550. I have not been able to find anyone in lafayette that has Owens Corning, and I have to borrow a truck to boot.

John
 
#18 ·
Well progress on the first "chunk" corner trap has gone well. I finished one last night and hopefully will get the second one done today.

Here are a few pics of the process.

Enjoy

Room Furniture Property Wall Floor


Floor Room Flooring Tile Basement


Room Wall Property Plaster Yellow


Room Property Curtain Window treatment Wall


I plan to make a "pillow" with insulation for the top and bottom.

I am verry happy with my first DIY trap.

John
 
#19 ·
Sorry to be late responding to this. Hope you didn't pay that much for 1"! Even with shipping to the West Coast, you can get enough 2" to do 1 corner for about $100.

Very nice job on the 1st one. I think you'll be happy with the results.

Bryan
 
#21 ·
Hey Bryan,

I ended up ordering it from ATS Acoustics. They are in a neighboring state. I ordered it on Fri. and had it Sat. The price was fair.

I used 2" mineral wool for the bulk of it and faced it with 2" OC703. It definitely makes that corner sound different. I'll have to run a graph with just one trap to document the difference.

John
 
#23 ·
WOW John,

That Trap looks great! Really blends with your room well.

Looks like you used rockwool on the bottom, and rigid fiber in the front - how deep is the front?

Also there's a place in Illinios called fabricationspecialties.com that does custom work on insulation - if you wanted to go solid, you could probably buy 4" thick and have them cut the triangles and ship it to you. They are great people to work with.
 
#24 ·
Thanks Jack,

It is 14 inches from the wall corner to the front with 27 1/2" face. It's 7' top to bottom. If it wasnt for the closet I would have gone wider as that part of the room is a total waste in my house.

This has been a fun project! I'm excited about building some soffits. I have alot of availabe space on 3 of the walls. After seeing what the finished product looked like i have no problems with doing more.

John
 
#26 ·
I looked at the burlap and found the same color. The guy at the fabric store suggested this instead to hold in the insulation fibers. It is a very open weave but not quite as much as the burlap. I dont remember the name but when I go back for more I will find out.

The reciept from Jo-Ann Fabrics says Osnaburg? Not sure if that helps.

Thanks for the compliment> :)

John
 
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