preferred room treatment

[powdermnky007]

Going to be setting up stereo in a dedicated stereo room.

I want to treat the room before upgrading my stereo any more.

I know there are bass traps, diffusers, lots of stuff. I read the mirror trick about putting sound absorbing material on the side walls where the sound bounces off. What would be the best ideas to place other stuff. This seems to be had pretty cheap. http://www.deflex.co.uk/cgi-bin/deflexshop/deflexshop.cgi

Any suggestions on what I should use on a limited budget?

I will check audiogon for diffusers / bass traps.

The stereo will be in a square room.

I know the speakers are supposed to be about 3 feet from each wall.

and if i'm correct the listening position should not be up against the back wall. maybe one foot in front of it? I'll get room dimensions later, not sure what they are now. Guessing 12X12 or something?

Thanks guys.

[DrWho]

Wow, 12x12 (and an 8 foot cieling?) are extremely difficult dimensions to work with...

In your link, the only "panels" I saw them selling was this panel thing that you mount inside your speaker. This would be the same thing as filling your cabinet with polyfill (or whatever that stuff ppl stuff boxes with) and the end result is making the cabinet seem larger to the woofer...which isn't always a good thing. I wouldn't suggest putting this stuff on the walls of your room.

Anyways, as far as room treatment...you are going to NEED some heavy bass trapping. Check out musicians friend:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=rec/s=accessories/search?c=4745&fc=0&it=GD6M

Buying a kit like the "Auralex Roominator Alpha 1" would probably be a great start for your room.

Keep in mind that your room is 3D and make sure you're applying treatments that way (it's so easy for us to get caught up with stereo being 2D and all that). You can put your bass traps in all the corners wherever two walls meet (it's better where 3 walls meet though).

Since you plan on sitting further back in the room, I would suggest putting some heavy absorbtion on the rear wall. To avoid making your room dead sounding, I would use some diffusion at your first reflection points (found with the mirror trick...and don't forget about the cieling).

From there, it'll all be a game of experimentation. I would suggest slowly installing one panel at a time and do lots of listening before adding the next panel. It takes our ears a while to figure out what's going on and doing too much at once might mean you end up with panels that you don't know how they're affecting the room (which makes tweaking much harder in the future).

One thing to avoid is coating your entire walls with acoustical panels. It is good to have some reflective surfaces which means natural reverb

I would recommend posting your question in the architectural forum and perhaps reading up on all the acoustical advice in the other threads. If you were looking to save some money, then you might want to consider building some masonite panels which Artto does a good job of showing off.

[Deang]

I use Klipschorns to treat my room.

[m00n]

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On 9/3/2004 11:26:49 PM DeanG wrote:

I use Klipschorns to treat my room.

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When did you get KHorns?

[Deang]

Last January, I think.

[scriven]

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On 9/3/2004 11:26:49 PM DeanG wrote:

I use Klipschorns to treat my room.

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Dean, that might be a bit much for a 12'x12' room!

[J.4knee]

Dean,

Two questions: What kind of imaging do you get with them that close together?

How big is your room dimensionally?

I have a third smart@$$ question, which is how do you keep headphones that big on your ears?

[ben.]

Dean's got the head to match.

[powdermnky007]

What is a masonite panel? (artto)

and where would be the best place for a bass trap.

Top, listening level or cieling of a corner?

Thanks!

Those roominator alpha looks nice, that's probably what I will get!

[D-MAN]

I used ASC panels and a couple of their bass tubes.

But they are rather more expensive than I like, of course.

I took the "don't do anything that you can't undo" approach, so that I don't have a white-elephant when I sell the house. I can also take that stuff with me...

DM

[DrWho]

a masonite panel is a piece of masonite that is simply bent by pulling the top towards the bottom...you can purchase the masonite at home depot and some 1x1's to build the frame that holds the masonite in it's shape. there's nothing really special about the design...it's about how you implement it (both acoustically and aesthetically which is why I referenced artto...he's got a room where it sounds freaky amazing and it looks really cool)

The best place for a bass trap is where the bass builds up the most...generally this occurs in the corners, especially the trihedral corners (where two walls and the cieling or floor meet). in my limited experience, i've had the most success treating the corners above and behind the speakers. but the basic rule of thumb is listen to some bass heavy music and walk around your room and find the locations where the bass builds up the most...the reason for this is that absorbing the peaking bass in those locations will nullify the corresponding cancelling effect at your listening position. (you're absorbing bass in parts of the room that you won't hear it so that you'll be able to hear it where you sit when listening to music).

Lastly, don't forget to provide pics of your room (unlike my lazy butt). And in case you haven't found it already, here's the thread with all the pics of artto's khorn room: http://forums.klipsch.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=28220&sessionID={218A6CF5-7CDE-4F23-BE46-7EA9F5346775} (the curved panels are the masonite thing i was referring to...somewhere in the architectural forum, he talks about how he made them)