acoustical panels and Bass blockers

[Max2]

Do these panels offer any benefits other than trapping echos or helping insulate a listening enviorment. My room is pretty small and is cut up with quite a few angles at the rear of it. Just wondering if I would benfit in any way other than insulating the sound from my room which my wife would love.

Thanks guys

Here is the layout of the room

Please overlook my "gun smoke" ceiling fan Just moved to this house and still wiring and setting things up.

[Arkytype]

There's probably nothing short of building a room inside your existing room that will "insulate the sound" from the rest of the house.

I'll let you break that news to your wife. :>)

Surface-mounted acoustical treatments are either going to absorb or reflect soundwaves--sometimes both! There are a lot of myths surrounding acoustical treatments and their effectiveness. I prefer to use diffusion vs. absorption whenever possible but you might prefer to listen to mostly direct sound with little reflections.

Your room shape is interesting and I'm wondering what soundstage issues you are experiencing. If uneven or boomy bass is the problem, first, try moving your subwoofer towards or away from the wall and then laterally and after each new location, listen to program material with clean low-frequencies.

If you have access to a measuring mike

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=390-801

and software such as Room EQ Wizard,

http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/

you will be well on your way to making an informed decision about what bass "treatment" might be needed and where.

Ethan Winer makes a good "bass trap" but also has plans on his web site to roll your own.

http://www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html

A combination of listening and measurement will help you get started with the sometimes-frustrating process of turning your listening room into a believable soundstage.

If you live in NW Arkansas, send me a PM. I could be persuaded to give an on-site two-cents' worth.

Lee

Lee

[Max2]

Thanks for the reply Arky. A new Receiver that will calibrate is in the works and I hope to have it around spring. I just moved and the new HT room is quite different from my last. My last room had hardwood floors on a concrete slab, 9 ft ceilings and was a slight rectangle in shape. Tons of echos, and bouncing sound. A few rugs helped things, but it still was really bright. When we moved my whole system suddenly sounded totaly different. It is much more tame now from the carpet and the wider distance the mains are separated. My LaScalas immediately picked up more bass and details that I was missing out on.. Im guessing the dove tail corners in this room are giving them a boost. I am going to paint the ceiling and change the lighting and thought It would be a good time to hang some panels if it would help the SQ and allow me to turn it up a tad more at night when the boss is asleep. I didnt really know how effective the panels were or if you could rob some of your sound if improperly placed. My room is pretty small and overpowerd so I figured putting a few panels up wouldnt hurt and might even help smooth things out at higher levels. Oh yeah this room is on the second floor and my SVS is hammering the kitchen below, but not much I can do about that.