Room Acoustic Treatments???

[jtwrace]

First a little background on how this came up. I have always been really interested how music is recorded/mastered. So, I was surfing for mastering studios in my local area (Charlotte, NC) and came upon a few. Next, I went to their websites and read about them and sent an e-mail to the one that looked and seemed to have the impressive credentials. Well, the next day I got an e-mail back and setup a time to meet. WOW!!! What an experience. The room, I mean just the room cost $300K to build. It is amazing. I just don't have the patience to go on and on about the fine details. The acoustic treatments are a large part of it though so I've decided that is my next purchase. Oh, BTW, I recommend contacting your local studio and you will probably find these people will be more than happy to show off there stuff. So, who uses what here?

These are the ones that I'm considering:

http://www.eighthnerve.com/

http://www.echobusters.com/

http://www.rpginc.com/

 

[ralflar]

The 2 stores I bought from so far are www.gikacoustics.com and www.atsacoustics.com. Both shipped within 2 days. The workmanship of both is good. I haven't the slightest how they compare to RealTraps, EightNerve or any other product. ATS Acoustics have interesting design choices.

 

[theWB]

The 2 stores I bought from so far are www.gikacoustics.com and www.atsacoustics.com. Both shipped within 2 days. The workmanship of both is good. I haven't the slightest how they compare to RealTraps, EightNerve or any other product. ATS Acoustics have interesting design choices.

I'm with Ralflar, I use something from both companies, and both are very reasonably priced, and service is excellent from both. I also use tri-corners from ASC. http://www.acousticsciences.com/index.htm

 

[tonyc]

I use ASC tube traps and some corner traps from either room tunes or echo buster-I don't remember which!

 

[DTB300]

The 2 stores I bought from so far are www.gikacoustics.com and www.atsacoustics.com. Both shipped within 2 days. The workmanship of both is good. I haven't the slightest how they compare to RealTraps, EightNerve or any other product. ATS Acoustics have interesting design choices.

The ATS products look nice, but the GIK 244 (comparing a similar sized panel) out performs them in acoustical absorption numbers by a great deal, and that is what room treatments are all about.

GIK (Glenn and Bryan) and Real Traps (Ethan) are out there in many forums to help people with getting the right products and using them in the best places in their rooms.

Next thing is you need to do is: READ, READ, READ from the following forums and learn as much as you can from other audio enthusiasts along with Glenn, Bryan, and Ethan who post there:

Audio Circles
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?board=73.0

Ethan's own forum
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthr...oard/24/page/1

Home Theater Shack - Home of REW
http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...dio-acoustics/

Rives Audio
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/etv.mpl?forum=rives

Also the Subwoofer forum over at AVS sometimes has discussions about treatments.

Don't do it blindly, do it right from the start. Choose your product you want to use, then get the advice from the people who sell them.

Dan

 

[cstory]

I'll add another plug for GIK Acoustics and their 244 panels. I mostly needed bass control and they seem to do a great job, and very cost effective.

 

[Rabbit house]

I think it's very difficult for us to argue about the room treatment because the circumstance is very different to each oter. But I know Dan is very crazy about this field.

Shuji :music:

 

[DTB300]

I think it's very difficult for us to argue about the room treatment because the circumstance is very different to each oter. But I know Dan is very crazy about this field.

Yes every room is different, but there are some basics all call follow to start. Placement of speakers, placement of seating (38% rule - not the best arrangement for a living area), placement of subs (if used), then treatments. Treating the 4 corners of a room is the place to start - floor to ceiling if possible with panels seated across the corner. If floor to ceiling is not possible, then center your panel at ear height. Then treat the 1st reflection points. Next is any other surface that may be causing issues - behind seating position, front wall, side walls, ceiling, etc.

Best bang for the buck in system sound improvement that I have ever done.

 

[lugano]

Has anybody tried the DRC path ?

http://drc.wildgooses.com/wiki/Main_Page

 

[JonFo]

Has anybody tried the DRC path ?

http://drc.wildgooses.com/wiki/Main_Page

I've tried some convolution based DRC using FooBar2000 (with convolver plug-in) and got reasonable results. But it was over-optimized for the spot I took the impulse measurements at.

But I’ve found that it's more practical to have a speaker processor based room correction than to depend on essentially a single source system based corrector. This way It doesn’t mater which source is playing, the playback is always 'correct'

Any DRC is better than none. And Room treatments + DRC is awesome :bowdown:

 

[Craig]

I've found room acoustic devices to be some of the most cost effective upgrades for improving any system. It can't be understated how important the room is to all aspects of sound quality. Each room has its own unique sonic character and challenges. While digital rom correction can improve the sound I beleive its better to treat the room and then use digital correction (if it is still needed after treating the room).

It takes a great deal of effort to overcome all the compromises in a typical living room. However, basic treatments such as well placed bass traps and wall panels can make significant improvements.

The challenge for most of us is maintaning esthetics in a room with all the acoustic treatments. DIY wall panels are easy to make and can be covered with the fabric of your choice. Bass traps require much more effort so I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet on cost and buy a decent pair. However, a stuffed sofa or chair make pretty good bass traps. I notice a significant difference in sound when sofa and chairs are in my room or not.

I need to post current pictures of my systems and acoustic treatments but my cheap little digital camera stinks. I'm shopping for one so as soon I get one I'll be posting pics.

 

[lugano]

Folks, I can't hide it away from you. Lately I've been concerned a lot with Digital Room Correction. I can't allow myself any kind of room treatment and I think I'm not alone in this. On the other side, the room has become the weakest link in my setup, therefore this matter has become very interesting to me. The equalization path sure does help a bit, but it only works in the frequency domain, not in the time domain as well. As we are concerned a lot with perfect sound reproduction I think it would be a good idea to investigate further along the DRC path. I've narrowed the alternatives to:

- Copland DRC 205 and
- Lyngdorf RP-1

and would really be happy to read any experiences other forum members have or had with these devices.