room treatment

ohskigod

I know this has been talked about, but I have to relay a personal experience.

as some might know, my basement is rough for an audio system. huge issues abound. I had my 2 channel in one area of the basement that helped with bass response, but when I got the Bozak Symphonies, that bass response assistance became overkill. I moved the system to another part of the basement. While the bass tightened up, it actually seemed to almost dissapear.

also, I was getting listeners fatigue, BAD. With Bozaks, you know you got problems if your getting listeners fatigue. The only plausible reason was the new listening environment. I figured I was getting some sound reflecting off the walls. the fatigue got much worse at higher volumes.

So I figured it was time to get some foam. I got some 18x24 foam panels from parts express and started to play around. Long story short, WOW!
all the talk about room treatment must have been for a reason, I foamed the sides of my listening area ( I'll get pics) with about 4 panels each side. It literally helped every facet of the audio spectrum. Imaging, detail, bass response improved (never expected that!) depth. I expected to take the edge off the sound reflection, i DID NOT expect such a difference in sound.

put me in the room treatment is huge camp. I didnt even try that hard and got great results. The panels are not high on the WAF though. Luckily I have overiding dominion over the basement, unlike upstairs where my theater is.

This will be my new tweak direction, since I am very happy where I am equipment wise.

Fireman32

Guess ill be stopping by to hear the diffrence bud

Early B.

Great!!!

Would love to check out the pics.

How did you determine where to place the foam?

ohskigod

this is the stuff I used

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=260-515&CFID=2835021&CFTOKEN=81872681

I allready had the spray adhesive needed to get it to stick on the wall.

ohskigod

Early B. wrote:

Great!!!

Would love to check out the pics.

How did you determine where to place the foam?

I placed a pretty big swath on both sides, I places the foam to where it covers to the height of the speaker down to 4" above the ground. and from a foot or 2 on from of the speaker, to about a foot or 2 on front of where my head in. the goal, was to hit the sound waves boucing from the spekaer, to the wall, and then to my head. its probably overkill, but if there was a sweet spot to place the foam, I didnt want to miss it.

the wall on the left side ends about a foot or two in front of my listening position, (hence that being where the foam ends), and then opens to the rest of the basement (another issue I am sure) its hard to describe without pictures.

I orderred 11 panels total, and am currently using 8 of them (4 on each side)

ohskigod

Fireman32 wrote:

Guess ill be stopping by to hear the diffrence bud

oh yeah brotha, you want to get ears on it from the sweet spot. listening to it from the poker area doesnt do it justice.

jm1

Glad to hear you are having a positive experience with acoustic treatment.

Early B. wrote:

Great!!!

Would love to check out the pics.

How did you determine where to place the foam?

Have a look at this page.

organ

Cool! Glad it's working out for you. Can't wait to see pics.

Early B.

ohskigod wrote:

this is the stuff I used

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=260-515&CFID=2835021&CFTOKEN=81872681

Yeah, I've used the same thing (except the 1.5" version) for my DIY subwoofer and it works great. Good quality material for the price.

Just a thought, but you can make them a bit "prettier" to appease the WAF by dressing them up with some cheap, standard sized 18 x 24 picture frames.

ohskigod

those bass traps in the corners (behind the main speakers).

that site says they improve bass responce, makes me want to look ito what I should do behind the speakers. cool site. prices arent great, but there alot better than other sites I have seen for sound treatment (where looks matter )

ohskigod

Early B. wrote:

Just a thought, but you can make them a bit "prettier" to appease the WAF by dressing them up with some cheap, standard sized 18 x 24 picture frames.

hmmmmmm, interesting idea, will be keeping that in the mental rolodex for the future.

jm1

ohskigod wrote:

those bass traps in the corners (behind the main speakers).

that site says they improve bass responce, makes me want to look ito what I should do behind the speakers. cool site. prices arent great, but there alot better than other sites I have seen for sound treatment (where looks matter )

If you are going to proceed with acoustic treatment, I would suggest looking for products providing broad band absorption; absorption at low and high frequencies. I would recommend you start looking at fiberglass based products as foam based products tend not to have a very good absorption coefficient at low frequencies.

Welcome to the age of audio enlightenment. If you decide to continue, you will encounter many more surprises.

ohskigod

jm1 wrote:

If you are going to proceed with acoustic treatment, I would suggest looking for products providing broad band absorption; absorption at low and high frequencies. I would recommend you start looking at fiberglass based products as foam based products tend not to have a very good absorption coefficient at low frequencies.

.

sounds about right. what started my quest was the harshness/listeners fatigue issue (high frequencies) the foam has definitly done its job int hat respect. you can bet that down the road, I'll be looking into this more. your mention of broad band absorption has struck a chord.

thanks for your help bud

jm1

ohskigod wrote:

sounds about right. what started my quest was the harshness/listeners fatigue issue (high frequencies) the foam has definitly done its job int hat respect. you can bet that down the road, I'll be looking into this more. your mention of broad band absorption has struck a chord.

thanks for your help bud

Here is a thread with links of interest. In post three, I included several links you may find interesting. Have a look at these sites; there is also DIY information so you can make treatments for a very reasonable price.

I highly recommend you continue treating the room before considering further system changes. It appears you now realize how important the acoustical environment is for your overall audio enjoyment.

I am nearing completion of my acoustical treatments and will update the thread on the subject in the near future.

Keep us informed of your progress and results.

Skynut

WAF friendly panels can be found here.

We are considering some of these.