Finally Installed My Acoustic Panels

[Youthman]

Wow, I just looked back and I purchased my Acoustic Panels from my neighbor back in April of 2012. I have had them leaning against the walls for over a year.....truly sad. Haha.

Anyways, this Labor Day weekend, my son and I decided to finally install them. []

[The Dude]

Funny how we keep putting things off, and then when its done we say man that didn't take to long and wasn't bad, should have done that right off the bat. Looks good.

[Youthman]

So true

[dimanata2007]

what exactly does they do?

absorbing reflection waves?

sorry if it's a dummy Q, I got only 120 posts on this forum...

[Boxx]

The entire setup looks great. Well done!

[CECAA850]

Looks great. If you're running any type of room correction software, it is imperative that you re-run it post panel installation.

[Scrappydue]

How tall are your ceilings youth? It's crazy how small that 2.35 looks when the wall is sooooo tall.

[Youthman]

what exactly does they do?

absorbing reflection waves?

Yes. For a long time, I thought acoustic panels were just a "tweak' with slight improvement (if any) to the sound. I guess I thought it was snake oil or something. I knew my room had a MAJOR echo problem. If you clap your hands, you would hear BOINGOINGOING.....You figure the walls are hard, ceiling is hard, front false wall is hard. The only thing in my room that is actually absorbing sound is the carpet. The curtains are pretty thin so they don't absorb and the leather seats probably do not absorb too much since leather is a thick material.

Just bringing the panels into my room and leaning them up against the wall, I noticed immediately my room was MUCH quieter. No more slap echo when you clap.

What I found out is that if sound waves are bouncing around and hitting each other, they tend to either amplify or cancel each other altogether. Also, if sound hits your ears at different times (even miliseconds), your brain is confused and it causes the sound to be "muddy" and unclear.

By preventing some of those cancellations and collisions, you improve the clarity. I also have bass traps in the corners (again, I always thought those were snake oil too). They are much thicker since bass frequencies are longer and take more to stop than high frequencies. Before adding the bass traps, I had many dead spots in my room where you could walk or sit in a chair and the bass was very noticably decreased. Adding the bass traps has helped smoothe out the bass response in my room.

sorry if it's a dummy Q

There is no such thing. Dummies are those that do not ask questions. []

The entire setup looks great. Well done!

Thanks Boxx.

Looks great. If you're running any type of
room correction software, it is imperative that you re-run it post panel
installation.

That's probably wouldn't hurt even though
the panels are in the same location, only they have been moved up about 6
inches off the floor.

How tall are your ceilings youth? It's crazy
how small that 2.35 looks when the wall is sooooo tall.

I
have 10' ceilings. I agree, even 103" doesn't seem huge, especially
when you go 2.35. Trust me, I have considered redoing the front wall
myself and installing maybe a 120" or 130" screen (would have to see
what size my projector could go where it is currently mounted). If my
room was even a few feet wider than 13', I could have went with a 110"
screen but with 13', by the time you add an area on the sides for the
main speakers, the screen width was limited to 8'.

But I really can't complain because there is no one I know personally that has a 103" display in their home. []

[Scrappydue]

Youth my AT screen was 250$. And I have tried the speakers outside the screen frame and then inside of it and I enjoy the effect of them being inside the screen much more than outside. Now I don't do any critical music listening in theater room but the sounds all coming from the screen vs way outside of to me is noticeable. And enjoyable food for though. Buy a white sheet and try it out. Sheet would prolly have 1 db attenuation on the high end. Give it a shot.

[MichaelandKlipsch]

Looks very professional Youth. I remember when I was buying mine and you showed me picks of the panels you had laying against the wall they look great mounted. L

[Youthman]

Youth my AT screen was 250$. And I have tried the speakers outside the screen frame and then inside of it and I enjoy the effect of them being inside the screen much more than outside.

There is no doubt that it would be better behind the screen. But for me to do that in my setup, I would need to tear down the existing false wall and start over. I'm not very "handy" with woodworking etc so I'm sure that would be a feat for me. I designed a website for a cabinet maker in exchange for my false wall so I don't have any money in the unit.

My other concern is where would I put my equipment? I might have to build or buy a cabinet to place beneath the screen?

I like the "finished" look of the false wall but it does limit me to what I can do size wise with the screen. Decisions, decisions.

[Scrappydue]

I'd see just how big you could fit regardless of equipment and what not and then all you'd have to do it build a easy enough from for the screen to hang on. Mine is bare bones behind. You should send me your phone number I could text you a few photos easier than putting them on here.

[derrickdj1]

Those panels look very nice. Where did you buy them from or were they DYI?

[Youthman]

You should send me your phone number I could text you a few photos easier than putting them on here.

Done

Those panels look very nice. Where did you buy them from or were they DYI?

Thx Derrick. They look like they were DIY. My neighbor paid $30 each but had a bunch he wasn't using so he sold them to me for $10 each. I believe I purchased 10 Panels and 4 Bass Traps. You can see pics of them in my Build Thread Here.

[Youthman]

Below is taken from my Build Thread where I posted my observations of the acoustic panels and bass traps a year ago when I first added them.

Well, I spent a few hours in the HT tonight. I demoed familiar CD's,
DVD's, etc. and here is what I have concluded....Acoustic Panels are
pure snake oil.


Just kidding. Stick out tongue . My findings were quite the opposite. My
methodology was not scientific, I did not actually measure anything, my
observation is only what I heard through my non-audiophile ears.

Placement:


I ended up placing the panels as I sketched out in the above diagrams with the following exceptions:


I did not place Bass Traps in the top right and left corners (will need to make a shelf for that).

I put 1 Acoustic Panel behind the Projection Screen

I did not place two Panels on the Rear Side Walls

I only placed one Panel on the Back Wall.


Other than that, everything else was placed exactly as I had originally planned.


Observations:


When doing the Clap Test, I still hear a slight slap echo (maybe coming
from the ceiling or other parts of the wall that do not have panels) but
it is not near as loud as prior to adding the panels.


Immedately, I noticed much more clarity in my main speakers and even my
rears seemed to sound better. The center was crystal clear as well,
dialog was slightly better (I think this can be helped with proper EQ).


I have not re-run EmoQ (which to me is kind of useless) but I will give
it a try with the panels installed since I have 3 Presets I can save and
I've only used 2 Presets so far.

Bluray Observations:


Book of Eli - I watched the scene where they are in the old couple's
home and the crew shows up and begins to demolish the house with their
weapons. Every bullet was so clear, pieces of wood flying were very
distinct. Lots of detail were heard.

Music Observations:


I have always heard that room treatments are one of the best investments
you can make for audio. It makes logical sense. Just thinking about the
first reflection point. Your ears are hearing sound coming straight
from the speaker and then a reflected sound slightly after the initial
sound. This causes the sound to be muddy or muffled since your brain is
confused. With panels at the first reflection point, you hear the sound
coming directly from the speaker and it is much clearer.


The Soundstage was more open and wider. I was able to hear every chime,
every pluck of the guitar, breaths etc. Again, very distinct and
precise.


I'm not sure how much difference the Bass Traps made as I did not do a
before/after test and I only have two of them and they are only in one
corner of the room. I'm sure it helps but I know the bass had already
smoothed out a lot since I added the 2nd subwoofer.


I brought out my SPL meter and cranked a song up to 102db (much louder
than I typically listen to) and the music remained sharp, detailed and
unstrained. It never got muddy, even at very high volume.

My Conclusion:


I've always known my room had acoustic issues. Lots of hard surfaces and
plenty of echo that was causing the audio to not be as clear as I
believed it should be.


Since they are black, they match perfectly with my color scheme.


They definitely added more clarity to instruments, surround effects.


I met up with my neighbor who lent them to me and told him to think
about how much he wanted for them. His reply was that he was just glad
they were being used since they were just taking up space in his garage.
I got the impression that he might even give them to me but I don't
mind paying for them so I told him to let me know how much he wanted for
them. We will see. He did say that he bought them cheap and paid $900
for all of them ( the 10 panels and 4 bass traps that I have and the
ones he is currently using in his living room (maybe 2 bass traps and 8
panels).


A few weeks ago, I dropped my Nikon D90 camera but it's on it's way back
from repair and will be here on Wednesday. I'll work on getting the
panels mounted so that I can take updated pics of the room with panels
installed when it gets here.

So much for getting the panels added soon. [] As mentioned previously, my neighbor ended up selling them to me for $10 each, which is VERY reasonable for acoustic panels. I could not have built them myself for that cheap.

[CECAA850]

Looks great. If you're running any type of room correction software, it is imperative that you re-run it post panel installation.

That's probably wouldn't hurt even though the panels are in the same location, only they have been moved up about 6 inches off the floor.

I didn't realize that they were there already and you just moved them. You might be OK. Re-runing certainly can't hurt but most likely the improvement may be minimal. I'm A.R. on the other hand and couldn't enjoy it till I re-ran it again[].

[derrickdj1]

They look like they were DIY.

No, they don't look like DYI. But, I have read a lot of people go that route and the results are just as good. I am not a DYI person for the most part. Sub risers and panel would be in my league.