Podcast #432: Home Theater Acoustic Treatments

We all want great sounding home theaters. We spend our hard earned cash on receivers, speakers, subwoofers and TV/Projectors but one area many of us overlook is the actual room acoustics. Bare floors and walls can ruin an experience by allowing sound waves to bounce off these surfaces and create audio distortions. The net result is the most expensive systems will not live up to their potential. Acoustic treatments can absorb the sound waves and prevent echoes, reverberation, and audio distortion that reduce the enjoyment of your home theater.

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News:

• Hulu Previews Hulu+
• XSTREAMHD to use Echostar Satellite Services to deliver 1080P Content
• Government pulls plug on analog TV
• Control4 Releases Home-Automation OS2

Other:

• Cool Products from the CEA Line Show
• www.crystalclearhometheater.com - THX, ISF, and HAA calibration, home theater design, and calibrated equipment packages in the Seattle area.
• Check out the "Sport Performance Assessment" for David's "SPA-Golf" app, search for "sports mental" on iTunes.
• Looks for the iPad jigsaw puzzle app by 'Puzzlement' - it's brilliant!

Home Theater Acoustic Treatments

We all want great sounding home theaters. We spend our hard earned cash on receivers, speakers, subwoofers and TV/Projectors but one area many of us overlook is the actual room acoustics. Bare floors and walls can ruin an experience by allowing sound waves to bounce off these surfaces and create audio distortions. The net result is the most expensive systems will not live up to their potential. Acoustic treatments can absorb the sound waves and prevent echoes, reverberation, and audio distortion that reduce the enjoyment of your home theater. This discussion will focus on things you can do after the fact. If you are building a dedicated theater room you'll want to incorporate acoustic elements into the design and construction of the room. 

Acoustic Panels

These wall panel absorbs sound and can enhance the look of your room. Available in a wide variety of shapes and colors,  Acoustic Panels typically install easily on your walls or ceiling to absorb sound waves to allow the sound to be as pure as possible. Some manufacturers will customize the panel with your own personal images, others have a wide selection of colors and prints so that they look good while performing a vital function.

Cost: A 2'X3'X2" single color panel runs about $45. If you want a print on the panel it can run about $200 for the same size. Some can be customized to add a nice personal touch to the decor of any room.

Bass Traps

Online definition - Bass Traps are acoustic energy absorbers which are designed to damp low frequency sound energy with the goal of attaining a flatter low frequency room response by reducing LF resonances in rooms. They are commonly used in recording studios, mastering rooms, home theaters and other rooms built to provide a critical listening environment. Like all acoustically absorptive devices, they function by turning sound energy into heat through friction. These are devices that are typically placed in the corners of rooms.

Cost: A two foot trap that can be installed in a corner runs about $70 but can go into the hundreds of dollars very quickly.

Fabric/Curtains

Curtains in general can absorb sound. There are some that are made with sound absorbing material and do a good job controlling acoustic reflection off of glass. You can also line the walls of your room with fabric to achieve the same affect.

Cost: Curtains can vary but you don't have to spend any more than normal curtains. The thicker the better. As far as fabric goes, again prices varies based on the type of fabric and amount. 

Acoustic Baffles

Rooms with high ceilings in large rooms can benefit from using acoustic baffles. Think of these like banners hanging from the ceiling.

Cost: Typically in the hundreds of dollars since you typically need to buy these in multiple units.

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Comments

[Bob]

Regarding the problem with the Harmony 880 and the buttons not responding, I had a very similar problem to that with my 880 and the volume up button. The button was getting progressively more and more difficult to press. I found a few tips on the Internet regarding this, and what worked for me was to put a small drop of hot glue (from a hot glue gun) on the contact that gets pressed. I don't have the original article, but it's pretty self-explanatory, and you should be able to find links to this problem rather easily. Some additional advice is to be gently when opening the remote. After taking out the screws, when prying open the remote, don't do it with a sharp screwdriver as the plastic is a bit soft. Good luck....

[Bryan]

I've been reading about acoustic treatments for awhile now, but can't quite figure out how to determine what my space needs. I don't want to go adding treatments willy-nilly do I? I mean, shouldn't there be some guidelines to determining if a room needs remediation? Of course, a bare room with clear echos is obvious, but what if you're not sure??

[data recovery]

Great stuff. Treating a room to improve its acoustic properties is a combination of art and science, especially for the home acoustic engineer on a budget. With an unlimited budget, a room can be double walled and covered in commercial acoustic paneling. When trying to improve the acoustics of an existing room, whether for listening pleasure or anger prevention, a smaller budget is more of a challenge. Thanks for shating this info.