Room acoustics, what to do

[Lectoid]

I am moving into a house next month and I finally get a bedroom to make my own "theater".

I have a 46" CRT Rear projection TV. (used as center until I can get a LCR600s3)
Two 603s3's as the Left and Right mains.
Two Paradigm Titans as the rears.
And I'm working on building a sub.

Not much, but I am proud.

Now I have to fit all of this in a 10x10 room. So it's not exactly a home theater.

I have been given the go ahead to do anything I need to to the rooms walls (besides knock them down). Though there is a closet in the back of the room that I may use to expand the room to 12x10.

My question is what should I do to the walls/ceiling? There is also one window to the right if you're watching TV. I even joked about carpeting the walls. I really don't want to do acoustic panels because I am already lacking in space as it is.

And yes I do realize my speakers are too big for the room. They were purchased before the house.

[crackyflipside]

IMHO, there's no such thing as speakers being to big for a room.

Acoustic panels take away about 4" from a wall, just place them at your first reflection points.

The next best thing would be some very thin absorption which would only be good for the highest frequencies.

[ThomasW]

http://home.comcast.net/~thomasw-2/SubwooferSetupandEQpage9.html

[Lectoid]

Something I should add. I bought an acoustic guitar and want to play in my music room. I also have an electric I hook up to my mac since it's cheaper than buying a guitar amp.

Would carpet help kill the sound substantially or not? I'm not looking to make a studio or anything. I just want to save my family from the pain of hearing me practice.

This is a corner room, so two walls are fine. The other faces my daughters closet. The fourth one is actually a closet that faces the living room. In the future I might tear down the walls to the closet to make the room bigger which I mentioned before.

[RobP]

I wouldn't put carpet on the walls, the best solution is to add insulation in the walls, as far as them hearing your guitar, the acoustic shouldn't be that loud, for the electric guitar, you can get yourself a little gadget called Pandora's box by Korg, you can plug your guitar into it and use headphones to practice. Plus it has all kinds of neat effects that you can change the sound of your guitar. It comes with a record feature, a metronome to help you train, its really neat.

http://www.imuso.co.uk/directory/reviews/effects-pedal-reviews/korg-toneworks-px4-pandora.htm

[yourtoys7]

I have been looking at this foam and maybe doing part of the wall or more http://www.foamforyou.com/wedge_foam...__sheets.htm#4
what you guys think...

[GregLett]

Sound Barrier.

http://www.soundaway.com/Soundproofing_Barrier_s/2.htm

[warnerwh]

I'd like to say that I'd go with diy traps using rigid fiberglass. I have the stereo side of my room surrounded five feet out with 3-4" wedge foam and would have made fiberglass panels for two reasons. Aestetics and it's more effective. It would be less money too I bet. I will end up doing what I am recommending. It looks like a recording studio in that part of the room.

If you want a picture of my room showing the wedge foam on both side walls, back wall and ceiling let me know and I'll send you one. This is my room so it's not too important how it looks. Do this in the living room while my female organism is at work and she'd be screaming my name with blood squirting out of both ears. :rofl:

The carpet will only reduce the highs. I also carpeted my room. My room is 12x17. Each speaker weighs 250lbs and they are NOT too big for my room. The way it's treated it acts like a much larger room.

Your room being square will be a problem. Peaks and dips will be far worse than the already bad ones we all get. Bass traps are in order.

Let me say this: I've been in high end audio for 35 years. I would never build a system without FIRST considering how to treat the acoustics. The sound improvement is so much considering the cost it's amazing. Any money you have should have a budget for four bass traps as they alone will help considerably in any room, much less a square one.

Many people try to say that a speaker needs to be the right size for the room. Bull crap! My present speakers as well as the prior two sets were all what people would consider very large to huge. If there's a problem I'd like to know where it is.

One advantage of large speakers is that they're usually easier to drive to loud levels, don't have to work as hard which allows lower distortion and a better transient response and won't sound strained when pushed. That last one is a killer for me. Small speakers just won't cut it for me even at moderate levels.

The "at ease" quality of large speakers and plenty of power makes sound more real to me. Build a sub that's more than big/powerful enough using at least a 15" driver. You'll be very happy you did but those bass traps are mandatory for any sub. Digital eq like the Behringer Feedback Destroyer 1124 for a hundred bucks will help the bass consideratly also.

When bass is properly done the midrange gets cleaned up and sounds more natural. It's a large improvement, more than most people think I believe.

Did I mention I'd not put a system in a room without first doing acoustic treatments? I thought so. :W

[dyazdani]

The only major issue I see (if you can call it that) is that you have a square room. Other than that, I agree with using rigid fiberglass absorbers. I'd put 4-5" thick panels in each corner and hit your first reflections.

I built 9 traps with two boxes of rigid fiberglass and a few 1x4s and 1x6s. Total cost was around $250 with fabric. Thomas' link has some good examples. I may still have build pics around if you're interested.

[GregLett]

Would the fiberglass panels help with the sound transference problem? He wanted a way to keep the sound in the room. Also he didn't really seem interested in putting big panels in the room. I get great results in a 10X14 room
with Auralex products, at a great price!

[dyazdani]

You need mass to stop the transfer of sound. Robert suggested to pack in more insulation. Panels alone won't do much in that area. I missed the first part about not wanting panels. The issue with thinner products is that they work fine for high frequencies but won't do much for LF issues.

The panels IMHO don't really make the room smaller. At least put some behind the speakers. Ideally, you're going to have room back there anyway. Panels for first reflections can be thinner and less intrusive.

[GregLett]

You need mass to stop the transfer of sound. Robert suggested to pack in more insulation. Panels alone won't do much in that area. I missed the first part about not wanting panels. The issue with thinner products is that they work fine for high frequencies but won't do much for LF issues.

The panels IMHO don't really make the room smaller. At least put some behind the speakers. Ideally, you're going to have room back there anyway. Panels for first reflections can be thinner and less intrusive.

What about this Stuff? I need to stop sound from leaving my room also. The master bedroom is right over it.. so you know who is complaining.

http://www.soundaway.com/Soundproofing_Barrier_s/2.htm

[RobP]

Gregg, how far are you willing to go? The barrier sheet is one step, but you would have to put it behind the drywall to have a pleasing look, so if you were going to go that route their are other options as well.
Are their any vents in the listening room, and do you have a door in that room?

[Q45]

I wouldn't put carpet on the walls, the best solution is to add insulation in the walls, as far as them hearing your guitar, the acoustic shouldn't be that loud, for the electric guitar, you can get yourself a little gadget called Pandora's box by Korg, you can plug your guitar into it and use headphones to practice. Plus it has all kinds of neat effects that you can change the sound of your guitar. It comes with a record feature, a metronome to help you train, its really neat.

http://www.imuso.co.uk/directory/rev...x4-pandora.htm

Carpet on the walls? Jeez, why not just hang paded Jimi Hendix posters up?

Use some style. How about hanging some Peruvian throw rugs or pull-over sweaters? Or Oriental matique's (? spell)?

Whatever. Something that has some style, matches your taste or your wifes taste and accomplishes absorption. Paradigm's are imfamous for pushing bass far out into a room and if something isn't there to absorb, it's going to bounce or reverb.