Home Theater Acoustic Treatments

In this edition of Home Theater for the Masses, we're looking at Acoustic Treatments! Dollar for dollar, acoustic treatments are the best way to improve the audio quality in your home theater before you buy better speakers or amplifiers.
Further reading for Envelope Time Curve analysis:
www.gikacousti...
www.roomeqwiza...
Articles on Room Acoustics:
realtraps.com/a...
Matte Milliskin Spandex
spandexworld.c...
(also available from other suppliers. Google: "Matte Milliskin"

[@pauljohn5584]

I record music at home and watch all acoustic treatment videos I come across. This is a good one. It's nice to see someone putting up useful and accurate information. Great job

[@jr62inhometheater98]

Glad to see you are back with your series for Home Theater. As always well done and very informative.

[@laurabrown5527]

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[@BigNickTx]

i absolutely love vids like this, nice vid, appreciate the detail!

[@laurabrown5527]

One of the Best Ideas for Soundproofing is "SoundProof Curtains" That Stops Outside Noise by 80% (25 Db) Tested. Check Here: livesoundproof.com/best-soundproof-curtains/

[@Oneness100]

Unfortunately, he doesn't know as much as others. I've been watching videos on Acoustic Fields site. They make the best low frequency absorption and they REALLY understand room treatment and how to figure out what treatment you need and where to place within the room. Plus, they REALLY understand barrier technology in how to lower the noise floor so sound doesn't leak in/out into another room or noise coming into the listening room. Yes, its more expensive, but they do also cater to the DIY crowd so if you are handy with a table saw and building wood cabinets, you can save money and get better treatment. But understand something, the "bass traps" this guy talks about are NONSENSE and he knows nothing about a REAL "bass trap". A REAL bass trap has to be much deeper than 4inch. the deeper the cabinet, the lower the frequency it will absorb, and the type of absorption material will help absorb MORE of the frequencies the cabinet is designed for. compressed fiberglass is OK, but activated carbon is superior. It's more porous and dense to allow more absorption and at lower frequencies. But Acoustic Fields has patents for using Activated Carbon for sound absorption.. So at this point, they are the only legitimate game in town. And NO, corner bass traps is Nonsense because it only has about 10% coverage and the biggest low frequency bass modes are NOT in the corners, that's a total myth. the biggest low frequency modes are typically along the walls and between floor to ceiling. Axial modes are the biggest problem and they are between two parallel surfaces, not parallel corners. Tangental are between 4 surfaces, and Oblique is between all 6 surfaces in a room. Tangental and Oblique are lower in amplitude than an Axial mode problem, so they don't need to be considered until you get rid of the axial modes first. If you have all walls and ceiling treated properly, it will deal with the small modal problems with Tangental and Oblique as a result. If you don't treat the Axial modes, then you'll never get the room to sound right with the low frequencies and that low frequency energy will cover up the mid's and high's. yes, treating the corners will have an effect on the sound, but it will not be as big of an improvement if you properly treated the actual surfaces of the walls/ceiling with the proper treatment. you can learn how to use Amroc mode calculator to see where the modes are, what frequencies you need to treat, etc. but I would still recommend working with an experienced person to help guide you through the process instead of wasting time/money figuring out what you need, where to place it within the room.

[@nedkulic2164]

Well done.... You are smooth to listen too and to the point.... Thank You for all of your information. Cheers Ned 🤜🤛

[@mfkhometheater7742]

Good job! Too many people underestimate the importance of proper room treatment.

[@michaelvickers89]

Great video! I’ve gained useful info, I plan to implement these in my HT. 👍

[@Jacksonzole57]

seriously awesome video, thank you for taking the time

[@MusicForHourss]

Great video!

[@DarinBeard]

Really well done video. Excellent info and well presented. Thank you.

[@Quetzalcoatl0]

Happy new year! Happy to see new videos ^_^.

[@AGC828]

Terrific primer. Maybe you could do a video on "sound suppression"....for those that have unfinished basements or have spoken to the builder of the home ahead of time (if there is no basement). I find it odd most people ignore sound suppressionan/acoustic treatment and put all their budget into electronics then seating. Also find it odd some people would put hardwood floors in a HT room and not touch the walls. There is "acoustic wall carpeting". Good idea. If you don't want felt on the walls. And ceiling.

[@theatremad9797]

Loud vs annoying loud.? Try sound vs Noise. Sound and noise are two different things when connected with Home theatre. Love your videos and thanks for posting.

[@thecardoski]

Great video , thanks

[@Skynet_11]

Love your know how on HT!!!

[@arosas267]

Another great video!

[@cableguydan]

Very informative. Thanks for the vid. :-)

[@rhdtv2002]

Also you can use Roxul Rockwool SafenSound fiberglass panels just isnt as rigid as OC703-705 but cheaper

[@scotty2221]

Now you tell me lol. Well that's okay. Went from BOSE to Bowers and Wilkins! No regrets, just have way to much echo in my room ughhh. Need help and have no idea what I need to put on my walls, ceiling and windows.

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

Nice move! If the room isn't carpeted, a nice large throw rug can help quite a bit. After that, absorbers would be the next step. If the area need stop look nice for a lady I think there are decorative ones out there. Or you lay be able to diy a few panels with a nice fabric print on the fronts.

[@scotty2221]

@@FamilyHomeTheater Sounds good. It's just me Doesn't have to be too pretty lol I want it to sound like the room does at a Best Buy. A few models down from my speakers sound better in their room and wish I was pushed harder for wall treatments but never too late

[@VicG78]

I have a question. I have a foundation beam running on the right side ceiling of my basement theatre room. It creates a nook around 18in wide and 6 in deep. Should I put bass traps staggered along that nook in the ceiling end to end? Or just 12 by 12in sound panels along the right side . It's a 21 foot deep room. Ceiling is almost 7 feet tall. I do sence and hear the bass collecting up there

[@KudzuDigital]

How does a dead room affect surround sound? I was in an auditorium once that you really could not hear someone talking across the room and no echos, but as a theater presentation, the sound was amazing. What am I missing in that scenario?

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

From what I'm reading, I'd say the answer is the speaker plays a lot louder than somebody can talk. While we expect 105db peaks at the listening position, to achieve this the speaker needs to play much louder than 105db. According to the inverse square law, we lose 6db for every doubling of distance. Let's say our listening position is 16 meters, or roughly 52 feet from the surround speaker. The pro theater speaker array would need to achieve 129db at 1 meter, which would be 123db at 2m, 117db at 4m, 111db at 8m, and 105db at 16m. So if we want to hear an effect at the listening position in this scenario, the speaker needs to play it 24db louder to account for the sound loss over distance. So somebody talking from that same distance would need to talk 24db louder than usual to be heard. After a bit o googling I learned that a normal conversation is about 60db. If we add 24db to that, we arrive at 84db, which would be considered yelling.

[@konstantinospolemis3087]

Great video! I was just wondering here why do you call indirect sound as echo sound since not every indirect sound can produce echo.

[@jaygleazeypceezee]

spouse acceptance factor love that

[@hansswift3141]

From my limited research, I understand panel style bass traps don't work. Had something to do with the wave length of low frequencies being too long. It's not possible for a panel to absorb a 15 foot long wave. Your thoughts?

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

Panels can work, but they don't work well. This is why a lot is needed. From my understanding, you would start with a 4" thick panel of the denser material. Next, they should straddle the corners since that is where bass likes to collect. (Play music or test tones at low frequencies and walk into a corner to experience how much louder it is.) Some people even cut their panels into 4 triangles and make "super chunk" absorbers that get stacked floor to ceiling. I even saw one theater on the AVSforum where the guy had lined EVERY corner, including floor/wall and wall/ceiling corners with these sorts of traps. The measurements do bear out that bass traps do help to smooth the frequency response of a room. But as you said, when the wavelength gets to 15 feet (which comes out to about 75Hz assuming 770mph speed of sound, which in itself depends on air density and prevailing weather conditions), it gets very costly and cumbersome to control really low frequencies. Panel type bass traps are generally good for the 80-300Hz range (wavelengh approx. 14 to 3.75'), but you still need a decent amount to get any real benefit. Below 80Hz, multiple subs, proper placement, and EQ is going to be the best bet. There are traps for lower frequencies, such as Helmholz, membrane traps, diaphragm, and active electronic traps, but those are more advanced and require a high level of skill and know-how to utilize correctly. Worse yet, if implemented poorly, they can actually hurt response and cause greater issues. So panel traps can get us most of the way there, but they do indeed become less effective as frequency decreases (and wavelength increases). For people who want to go all the way, there are the more advanced bass trapping systems. Here is some articles I checked out while writing this out: www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/bass-traps-not-just-for-fisherman www.audioholics.com/home-theater-calibration/bass-optimization-for-home-theater www.audioholics.com/room-acoustics/bass-trapping-ideas

[@OriginalOldSkoolFunk]

Great looking theater and informative video. I like the black Strat on the wall too...🎸 By the way, what are the dimensions to your room?

[@CarlosRodriguez-vg2ob]

GREAT VIDEO

[@originaltrilogy1]

Is there a link to the spandex you mentioned?

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

The product is "Matte Milliskin", and several places sell it. I think I got mine from Spandex World, but you should be able to find other sources also. I'll update the description with some links.

[@texasmade456]

I really had a laugh when you said spouse acceptance Factor!

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

Its definitely a real thing!

[@texasmade456]

@@FamilyHomeTheater yes sir. I forgot about it. Great upload.

[@MinutesWithMates]

You look like Aussie PM Scott Morrison.

[@ashtonmurch2142]

What about the health implications of using mineral wool/rock wool exposed like that?

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

Once it is covered and in place, it shouldn't generate much dust. Just vacuum it off the covering material after it is covered. But definitely use a dust mask if cutting it!

[@peterwood2633]

There are schools of thought to leave side wall first reflection point untreated for fear of collapsing the sound stage. What do you reckon?

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

That's a new one for me. I didn't worry about treating the first reflection points in my theater because there are just too many possible seating arrangements since I am using sofas, and because I have either a window or door at what are likely to be my first reflection points. So I mainly worried about controlling echo. Best I can say is to try with and without the first reflection points treated and see what sounds better to you. One way or the other, everybody will need treatments somewhere, if only to reduce room echo. You could first prop some panels up on a chair or something temporarily to test how it sounds. Have fun testing!

[@peterwood2633]

@@FamilyHomeTheater yeh best to trust the ears generally. I bought Floyd O'Toole's book on acoustics will be here tomorrow. I think I'm gonna do rear wall absorption/diffusion hybrid panels and maybe some side rear wall absorption

[@FamilyHomeTheater]

@@peterwood2633 I've heard of that book, but admit I've never read it. So you'll be ahead of me in that you'll have knowledge from one highly respected book on acoustics that is probably the gold standard of acoustics.

[@becooldontfreez]

Seriously I didn't hear any difference when he walked out to the dinning room.

[@fadi9340]

I heard a big difference, listening on phone speakers even.

[@mickkennedy1853]

I didn’t either, or when he talked into the panel.

[@JeffersonHumber]

Black bed sheets, kinky