Room treatments, what are you using?

[TONEPUB]

Hey all:

Came back from RMAF with some new goodies to treat my room from GIK. Are any of you doing this and if so, did you use anything to measure your room?

If so, what did you use and how did it work? Anxious to hear from you!

thanks

[mrbooboy]

I use panels from GIK. I've been happy with them...although I am never sure I have them in the ideal spots (2 in the front and 4 on the side walls at the first reflection points). While I don't have any measurement, the sound seemed better after they were in place.

David

[chosenhandle]

I use GIK panels and corner traps as well. I have been very happy with them and working with Glen has been a treat.

[Upstateaudio]

8th Nerve

[thegage]

Bass bloat is the problem in my room, so I use lots of RealTraps. I like them very much.

John K.

[Steve Hoffman]

Nothing whatsoever. WAF is bad enough, thank you very much.

[cwon]

I have the Argent Roomlens and corner tunes in my set up. Wish the Roomlens were still available.


Nothing whatsoever. WAF is bad enough, thank you very much.

Weren't you using the Shakti Hallographs at one point?

[Steve Hoffman]

See above: WAF!

[thegage]

WAF!
Hoo boy! Every once in a while my wife looks at me and asks, "remind me why we have these big white panels all over the place?" Fortunately they're in the room also used by the kids for a play room, so WAF is less important, but every once in a while when she starts counting them then I know it's time to go be busy in some other part of the house!

John K.

[sungshinla]

I just spent close to $1,000 on these "Echo Busters" (I forget the name of the company) and in my tiny room these simply killed the sound to a point where I thought I was listening to an AM radio, lol.

When I move my system to a bigger room (I had to bribe my girlfriend with $2,000 plus worth of new furnitutre, lol), I guess I will try them again.

But for now, I have had nothing but no luck with these room treatment devices.

[bdiament]

Hi Tonepub,

Four words: cylindrical pressure zone traps

My buddy and I made enough to outfit both of our studios.
In each case, the sound was transformed. Bass bumps and dips were evened out, early reflections quelled and diffusion provided, all from the same device (many of them though).

Driving home with my Accord filled up (took a few trips), the car system never sounded so good. ;-}

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[Dave D]

Barry, do you have a recipe for these cylinders?

[PMC7027]

I use 2" think Sonex foam. I have a 4' x 4' square on each side wall at the first reflection point, and a 4' x 4' square on the front wall between my Apogee Duetta Signature speakers.

[bdiament]

Barry, do you have a recipe for these cylinders?

Hi Dave,

There's a good recipe shown here (one of the several changes we made was to use plywood instead of drywall):
http://home.comcast.net/~jtgale01/diy2.htm

More good info and a different design can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/a.htm

A good article on using them can be found here:
http://www.asc-hifi.com/articles/iar89.htm

These are variations on the quite excellent commercially available "Tube Traps" from ASC:
http://www.acousticsciences.com/tubetrap.htm

Hope this helps.
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[kevinsinnott]

I use some Sonex panels. My friend Bob made wood frames for them that increased WAF immeasurably. My son made corner traps. I use the basic dead/live theory a visiting recording engineer suggested.

I was fortunate enough to be a squeaky wheel when the house was being constructed. The room's walls are offset so there are no parallel surfaces. I guess we'll live here for a while. :)

[Mike F]

I just spent close to $1,000 on these "Echo Busters" I need a bass buster but don't have $1,000 so I'm going to spend $20 on some fiberglass (kept in the plastic bag, wrapped in speaker grill cloth. A tall dark thing in the corner is as good as another tall dark thing in the corner?). My other inexpensive efforts have worked so far.

[Strabo]

I need a bass buster but don't have $1,000 so I'm going to spend $20 on some fiberglass (kept in the plastic bag, wrapped in speaker grill cloth. A tall dark thing in the corner is as good as another tall dark thing in the corner?). My other inexpensive efforts have worked so far.

I made home brew panels before I knew you could buy them from Ready Acoustics (http://www.readyacoustics.com/index.php?go=products.proddetails&prod=OC703UF). Hot glue a couple together then cover them. They even sell the covers.

I haven't tried them yet, but plan to some day.

I'm currently using four 2' X 4' X 4" panels, some 2' square by 4" triangle cut foam, and corner busters.
Someday I'll replace the 2' X 4's with something better looking. :angel:

[TONEPUB]

All good answers so far, thanks for the help! Ill stay tuned (no pun intended)

[Phishphreak]

This is a stupid question, but how do you know what room treatments you need? I mean, if you think things sound good, how do you know what you really need to get first in order to improve the sound?

[Gary]

Nothing whatsoever. WAF is bad enough, thank you very much.

I can relate.... :sigh:

Actually, with the Tannoys, any room treatments that worked before have no effect now. Strange, but true!

[Dave D]

Hope this helps.
Barry


Thanks so much Barry!

[bdiament]

This is a stupid question, but how do you know what room treatments you need? I mean, if you think things sound good, how do you know what you really need to get first in order to improve the sound?

Hi Phishphreak,

Actually, it is a smart question.

Every room has what are called "modes". These are resonance frequencies largely determined by the dimensions of the space. There are three primary modes (for the width, length and height of the room) and additional ones at the harmonics (i.e. multiples) of the fundamental resonances.

Modes cause bass to get lumpy, which you can often notice by moving around while music is playing. Some places in the room have more bass than others (where the peaks are), some have less (where the "dips" are).

These peaks and dips can't be equalized away because they are not simply changes in level, they exist in the time domain too. In other words, room modes are frequencies that tend to linger in the room after they are "finished" on the recording. This time smear fills in the spaces between sounds, obscuring low level detail and other information (like spatial cues that we use to form impressions of stage depth, width, etc.).

Modes occur in the low end of the frequency spectrum and they exist in every room. Therefore, every room can benefit from treatment of its modes.

At the middle and higher frequencies, early reflections from room surfaces also pollute the "pure" signal coming from the speakers. Here too, any room can benefit from treatment of the early reflection points (there are two on each room surface - one for each speaker). Addressing room modes and early reflections improves the sound of any system.

For a bit more information about this, see "Setting up your monitoring environment" at http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/monitoring.htm

Hope this helps.
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

[cwon]

This is a stupid question, but how do you know what room treatments you need? I mean, if you think things sound good, how do you know what you really need to get first in order to improve the sound?

A friend of mine said, "People shouldn't listen to other people's systems." He was only half joking. Unless you have a specialist come in and measure your room, you can only guess at how much room treatment you need.

I'm normally happy with what I hear at home until I hear something better somehere else and then I try to figure out what I can do to get closer to that without buying new gear. If I hear stuff that's being veiled or emphasized, then I try to find out the best way to eliminate that. Sometimes it's repositioning speakers, sometimes it's room treatment or repositioning room treatment (or furniture).

It's fun trying to get the most out of your system, and it's more fun when you can make it sound better without spending more money on it.

[Phishphreak]

Thanks Barry!

[intlplby]

I'm currently DIYing some broadband bass traps

unfortunately my current room doesn't allow me to use them... i am going to use them in whatever place i move next which should be in the next 3 months