Acoustic Panels

[seti]

My room is just a little too lively. I think if I put up just a few acoustic panels it would maike a big difference. What are the best locations for putting a few accoustic panels in Ceiling, side, front or back walls? I want to start with 4 24" by 24" by 2" thick panels.

[cjgeraci]

On the walls and the ceiling, start with the angles of first reflection from your mains. Do the mirror trick. Have one person sit in the main sweet spot and have the other person move the mirror along the walls and ceiling until the person in the sweet spot can see the horns. Mark that and at least put panels there.

You can also use the mirror trick for surrounds and other speakers. I also use some diffusive panels (vs. absorptive) on some of the front and back walls, but I have had a difficult room to deal with.

One suggestion. You can also hang too many panels and overly-deaden your room. Hang panels in stages. After you hang some, clap around in the room to see if you have an echo and/or relisten to your system. Then, see if you need or want more.

Carl.

[seti]

Interesting hadn't heard of using mirrors will try it. I have too much echo but after i hang some heavy curtains I do not think I will need too many panels. When i clap now there is just too much echo. If i turn down the volume abrubtly there is an echo so I believe by just killing a little echo it will greatly improve my sound.

Thanks for the advice.

[DrWho]

A little bit about the mirror trick:

On the right wall, you want to put the mirror so that you can see the right speaker, but you also want to treat the spot where you can see the left speaker as well. In fact, it may be more important to treat the left speaker on the right wall because the reflection will take longer to reach your ear (causing more smearing of the sound than the right speaker would), not to mention it's wierd hearing things from the left channel bouncing back at you from the right. This is of course assuming that the direct sound of the left speaker is actually bouncing off the right wall, which is something that can be avoided altogether though listener and speaker placement.

If you ever get a chance to see colterphoto's place, he's got a crooked setup such that there are no early reflections from any of his speakers. His system is one of the least distracting systems I've heard. Ironically, it's positioned that way partly because it's the only way he can fit everything in considering the entrances to the room and all that.