Room treatments - a cost effective upgrade?

[Scott Brown]

Room treatments - a cost effective upgrade? You bet!

Having recently moved house, I was excited by the prospect of a dedicated listening room. My kit shared the lounge previously which was carpeted, had curtains and a number of soft furnishings. The room was about 5m x 6m and had a beamed ceiling with beams running perpendicular to the listening axis. It all sounded pretty good. This was my baseline moving to the new house.

In the new, dedicated listening room, the floor is not carpeted (but a rug covers most of the floor area) and ceiling beams ran parallel to the listening axis. The room is a little smaller (4m x 5m) than the lounge of the previous house. I didn't expect it to sound the same but nothing prepared me for just how bad a room can be. It sounded awful and I seriously considered moving my equipment into the new lounge and turning the listening room into a study. The sound was confused and I had a very serious bass resonance issue that could not be resolved by repositioning speakers. It was a if the room was humming a long to the music...out of time.

What to do? After some research on-line I decided to give room treatments a go. Enter GIK Acoustics who suggested I give one of their room kits a try. GIK claim that by installing their bass traps, it is possible to improve overall clarity while producing a more accurate low end. The design of the traps allows them to be used in multiple quantities to absorb as much bass as required without over absorbing the high end.

The kit I used incorporated three 242 acoustic panels, four 244 bass traps and one monster bass trap (see image above). I have the four 244 bass traps in the corners of the room, two 242 acoustic panels behind the speakers and one 242 panel and the monster bass trap on the ceiling. The impact was tremendous. The effect of the room disappeared completely. Gone is the confusing sound and bass boom, and having just completed a thorough evaluation of a number of speakers, I can also say that the room now can accommodate larger speakers than I ever thought possible (Focal Utopia Scalas).

If you want to improve the sound of your systems and have a room that can accommodate acoustic panels, give them a try. I have found this to be one of the most cost effective upgrades I have made and cannot recommend them enough. In fact, I like them so much I decided to order an additional art panel (a 242 acoustic panel with an image you supply printed on it). to hang on the wall.

Additional notes:

The 242 panel is a "velocity absorber" with a rigid core and is broadband in nature - meaning it will absorb over the entire frequency range. This is useful for killing unwanted reflections (and this is why I have them behind the speakers). The 244 bass traps, as the name suggests, absorbs bass without killing the higher frequencies. This effectively dealt with unwanted bass resonances in my room without killing the life of the music. The monster trap is twice the thickness of the 244 bass trap and (according to GIK Acoustics) is 50% more effective than the 244 bass trap. One of these somewhere in the room is recommended. The traps can stand on their own, be stand mounted, or hung on the wall. More technical detail can be found on the GIK Acoustics website.

Best regards,

Scott.

[Dave Burke]

Interesting read Scott as I am also about to embark on a dedicated listening room with acoustic treatments. I had a look at the GIK Q7D diffuser at James' place last week an will probably incorporate a couple into my design behind the listening position. I also intend to use a stacked pair of soffit traps in each front corner and some more monster bass traps at the rear of the room. For final fine tuning I will get a pair of panels on stands that I can move around a bit to fine the best placement for side reflections.

I'll post the full listening room project details here over the next few months.

Dave

[Scott Brown]

Dave,

I am sure you will be delighted with your room treatments. Our house is very old and the walls and ceilings slope dramatically. It limited my options to some extent...for example, I couldn't use the trip traps or stack traps in the corners. Nevertheless I think the results are great and I consider it one of the best upgrades I have made. I wish you luck and look forward to reading your project details!

All the best,

Scott.