What to do with these dimensions...?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:39 pm

Greetings.

I mix music in my bedroom apartment and am looking for suggestions on affordable/inexpensive acoustic treatment for my room which has dimensions:

L: 14 feet, 10 in
W: 7 feet, 9 inches
H: 8 feet, 7 inches

My 2 speakers are placed:

From front wall: 2 feet, 2 inches.
From side walls (equidistant): 1 foot, 11 inches.

My listening (head) position (also equidistant from side walls) is located:

From front wall: 5 feet, 7 inch. (equal to 38% of total length of room, which I assume is ideal, unless my speakers are too close to the front wall.)

The walls and ceiling are drywall and the floor is carpeted with padding. There is also a futon placed against the rear wall. I have a window (L: 4 feet, 10 inches, W: 2 feet 11 inches) on the rear wall which is 1 foot, 10 inches above the floor.

Any advice on acoustic treatment, speaker, listening, and furniture placement will be greatly appreciated. I have a feeling I will be shooting for maximal absorption, but I am not sure and that’s why I’m posting.

Von

Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 10:28 am

Von,

> I mix music in my bedroom apartment and am looking for suggestions on affordable/inexpensive acoustic treatment for my room which has dimensions: <

The best approach is broadband bass trapping using rigid fiberglass. This is described in many threads all over this forum, and you'll find a lot of solid info here too:

www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

> I have a feeling I will be shooting for maximal absorption, but I am not sure and that’s why I’m posting. <

Yes, that's the goal. The more bass trapping you have, the better. Always.

--Ethan

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 3:21 am

Von,

A fun approach for treatment:
Extract from
http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/OPRAapril2006.php
OPRA Tackles the Tough Questions - April 2006

Under the heading down the page:
How to Properly Acoustically Treat a Room

Rest of the page is as fun to read ......

Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 8:56 pm

Thanks for the help guys.

[/quote]From what I can gather from those two guys that live in the room acoustics forum, you need to place somewhere around 20 panels per cubic foot of room space. [quote]

Yeah, that totally seems like one very possible extreme after reading the posts around here. Regardless, I have a few quetions:

1. Why are smaller rooms supposed to be treated with more absorption? Is reflection or diffusion helpful in a small room? If so, any data or personal experiences to support that?

2. Is $2.32 a per square foot a good price for mineral wool which is 4 inches thick? It seems kind of high compared to the other posts I've read regarding the price of mineral wool.

3. I plan on using the 4 inch thick mineral wool placed at 3 distinct locations according to [url]http://www.asc-hifi.com/acoustic_basics.htm[url]:

1. Side wall reflection points, back wall reflection points, front wall reflection points, and ceiling reflection points to primarily treat comb filtering.

2. Corners to primarily treat flutter echo.

3. Directly behind speakers, perpindicular to speakers, and ahead of speakers to primarily treat room modes.

This plan does not however have any treatment for reflection control and reverberation control as I assume very few people on this forum would suggest this for a small room based on the posts I have been reading. The question is: do I have any need to treat for reflection or reverbration control?

Von

Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 12:42 pm

Von,

> Why are smaller rooms supposed to be treated with more absorption? <

Because all the walls are closer so the reflections are stronger. And because small rooms have fewer modes spaced farther apart, which skews the response more than a larger room with closer modes that start at a lower frequency.

> Is reflection or diffusion helpful in a small room? <

In a small room the ambience is not usually good sounding, so absorption is better in my opinion. But this is my opinion. Much of acoustics is pure science, but much is taste. A common goal is to avoid the boxy sound you always get in a small room, and to avoid ringing and flutter echo. But how you do that (absorption versus diffusion) can be a matter of preference. Though you can't practically diffuse bass frequencies, nor should you.

> Side wall reflection points, back wall reflection points, front wall reflection points, and ceiling reflection points to primarily treat comb filtering. <

Sounds good to me.

> Corners to primarily treat flutter echo. <

Corners are for bass trapping. To avoid flutter echo you need to treat any large bare areas of wall and possibly the ceiling.

--Ethan

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:54 pm

Thanks for the advice Ethan. Well taken. Man, this site is the shit. I found a mineral wool supplier, it is affordable, I know where I'm going to place my acoustic sheets, and I'll be off to execute soon. This site has given me all the theory I can use, practical solutions, and good advice. Thanks everyone who have had the courage to post. Peace.

Von

This topic sponsored by: