would the mag consider......?

[Craig M.]

i'm looking into some sort of accoustic room treatment as my next "upgrade".

i was wondering if the mag would consider a review/test/article on different accoustic products (say, broadband absorption) and maybe get some acoustic guys to measure the results for comparison. you could comment on the effect to the listener, and maybe how spending money on room treatment might compare to money on a component upgrade.

i'm in no way trying to tell you what should be going in the mag, but i'm finding the whole thing confusing, with all the manufacturers websites i've looked at claiming their's are the best, and no independent comparisons between products available in the uk that i can find.

i am convinced that your readership will double if you do this.

 

[Clare Newsome]

A little specialist, but could make a feature for online or an ultimate guide - we certainly went through a lot of evaluation when deciding on the acoustic treatment of our own testing rooms! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Anonymous]

It's not so easy to do as each room will have a different response depending on size as these are mathematically possible to work out to give you some idea, but it would be best to actually measure the room with a microphone and a freq sweep test disc as this will give you the exact measurements for you room and you can see where your own room has problems.>p<

It's not worth going out and spending money on just any old treatments as you may not need some as they may not deal with the freq where you have problems, so unless you measure your room first you have no idea what treatments you are going to need.

To know which are the best you need to purchase treatments that have been tested so you know their coefficients and which ones are going to work best for your needs, it's hard to get it right, especially below 100Hz, not only that but to make it domestically acceptable, so it's best to have it done while a room is being constructed instead of as an after thought or it ends up looking like a recording studio!! like mine.

 

[Craig M.]

i understand where you are coming from. i got thinking about this after seeing some broadband absorption products from a company in the u.s. called real traps. they made a lot of claims on their website about the general improvements to sound quality some of their products could make to any room, because they work over a wide frequency range. i don't think they are intended to cure resonance problems like a helmholtz device, which you would need to have your room measured for. they also look (to me) domestically acceptable as they hang on the wall like a canvas print.

i don't have any resonance issues that i am aware of in my room, but after doing a little reading on the subject, i'm intrigued as to if certain products, correctly used, could bring about a bigger improvement to the sound in my room then a same priced upgrade, without having to resort to getting an acoustic engineer in to measure my room properly - and then having all manner of huge bass traps lying around.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, Ethan Winer, yeah great to learn from him, check out his stuff on you tube, he's a wealth of knowledge on room acoustics. Basic broadband absorption you can make yourself using rockwall or fibreglass, go to about 10cm in depth, frame them and leave a space behind them to give you better absorption coefficients, treat your first reflection first, this will improve the sound, i've got a Helmholtz resonator made for 64Hz, it's effective and easy to make, but still have a nasty one at 59Hz which ruins the tightness of low bass notes.

You don't need a acoustician to start with, look for a programme like the XTZ room analyzer, it's cheap, it will measure your room and give you some idea of problems, then just search the net for information, it's fun as your sound will improve drastically!!

 

[Craig M.]

thanks for the heads up about youtube. i think i will have a snoop about in some acoustic forums, as far as i know, from the ethan winer vids, my main concern is likely to be comb filter issues from the wall directly behind my sofa. my side walls consist of a big bay window, and open space for 15 feet on the other side, so i don't think i will need to do anything there.

i think i will have a go at measuring the room as well, i'm not aware of any resonance problems, maybe due to rooms "L" shape, but i can check.

currently, my stereo seems to sound best when near full volume, all the windows are rattling with the bass, but you can speak without raising your voice. the quality of the kit doesn't seem so apparent at low to mid volumes, is this normal?

 

[Thaiman]

Room correction is so important but having a massive bass traps in your living room is risking the devorce paper!

There is no easy answer to this unless you have a dedicate listening room. I have try some digital domain room correction gear and I thought it rob life out of music so I couldn't live with it either. I would be very interest if WHF consider a nice and long artical about it though.

 

[JoelSim]

silly:It's not so easy to do as each room will have a different response depending on size as these are mathematically possible to work out to give you some idea, but it would be best to actually measure the room with a microphone and a freq sweep test disc as this will give you the exact measurements for you room and you can see where your own room has problems.>p< It's not worth going out and spending money on just any old treatments as you may not need some as they may not deal with the freq where you have problems, so unless you measure your room first you have no idea what treatments you are going to need. To know which are the best you need to purchase treatments that have been tested so you know their coefficients and which ones are going to work best for your needs, it's hard to get it right, especially below 100Hz, not only that but to make it domestically acceptable, so it's best to have it done while a room is being constructed instead of as an after thought or it ends up looking like a recording studio!! like mine.

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To be honest fella you can say that about all equipment especially speakers.

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