My HT/living room is in need of some room treatments. Any suggestions, etc...

meat,

Nice setup. Looks like a comfortable place to watch sports and movies. Room acoustics can contribute up to 50% of what you hear so it is a good idea to take a look at how your room is performing.

Room treatments can be pretty simple and inexpensive. By far the simplest and least expensive (and what might help in your case) is to look for the first reflection points in your room. Placing sound absorbing materials at those points could help signficantly by having the sound from the speakers reach the listener just once and not bouncing off a wall and reaching the listener just a little bit later. That can cause "muddy" sound.

To find the first reflection points sit in your listening postion(s) and have someone else move a mirror (12x12 mirror tile works well) along the walls until you can see your speakers. That is where you'd put sound absorbing material (approximately 12" to 18" on either side of the reflection point). For example it looks like there is a 1st reflection point above the couch along the wall from the right speaker to the couch facing the screen. Your floor is carpet so you need check the walls and the ceiling. I've not done much research on sloped ceilings, but I understand the can be tough.

Now, what you hang on the walls at the reflection points is the big question. If you Google Owens-Corning 703 (or Knauf) you will find compressed insulation panels that can be framed up and covered by acoustically transparent fabric that will absorb the reflecting frequencies. The WAF is really high at my house and so we are hiding those panels behind a quilt and we just bought a thicker rug to cover our tile floor. Acoustic panels on my ceiling did not sit well regardless of how nice I said they would look.

This site is pretty good at discussing reflection points and other acoutic considerations in a HT. Enjoy!

The size of the room has always been a problem. As it opens into the entry way, formal dining room, kitchen and upstairs game room.

I took another look at your photos and if there are windows on the left side you could add some nice thick drapes and achieve generally the same absorption as using some commercial absorption products. If it is appropriate to add drapes you could balance absorption by hanging a sound absorbing decoration above the couch on the right side.

My room is open towards the back too and it looks like there are stairs towards the back of your living room. That might not be all bad. Typically you would use sound diffusers versus absorbers in the back of the room to improve the surround effect.

One more thing is that you could be getting a center speaker reflection from your coffee table. Do you have any trouble understanding dialog? If so, try moving the coffee table out of the room and see if things improve.

Just my .02 cents.

I do get some reflection from the coffee table and have since moved it till I can find a stand i like to place the center channel below the TV.

Im going to try the drapes and a couple acoustics panels. Maybe some bass traps in the front corners and some HF panels above the couch and some other places.

Heres the rest of the room(s).

Hopefully ill be moving in the next couple of years and I can do a dedicated HT room.

From the additional photos it looks like you have acoustic challenges but your ideas have merit. I particularly like the idea of a dedicated HT! Good luck adding treatments and let us know about your results.

Hey there! What a great forum, and thanks so much for the plug! You are quite kind.


Say, do you have any more photos of the ceiling? I am trying to generate 3D model of the room and some ceiling pics would be great. Also, can you give me a rough idea of the dimensions for the entire space?

That would help, and I'll be able to make a better assessment of what will help.


Cheers,

Joel DuBay
Bass Traps Explained

www.readyacoustics.com