Sound treatment question

[oguinn]

I'm thinking about getting some felt tiles to start doing some sound treatment in my room. I think I'd read a good place to start is behind the speakers themselves. I have a funny shaped room so I was wondering 1) if this is a good place to start, 2) if I should put the tiles on the lower, vertical wall; on the upper angled wall; or both.

[Doc B.]

Get a mirror and ask Lindsey to move it around on the front wall and side wall near the speakers while you sit in the listening chair. When you can see the speaker in the mirror ask her to make a mark on the wall there. That's the place to put your first absorptive wall treatments. For the side walls the best spot is where you can see the tweeters. You won't be able to see the tweeters in the front wall reflections so just place the front wall panels where you can see the speakers and around the same height as the side panels. Those panels will give the biggest improvement. Next you can do the same on the angled part of the ceiling.

From there it depends a lot on what you think the setup needs. If you need bass control, stuffing in the corners can help. If you need longer decay/bigger sense of space you might put some stuff that will diffuse the sound behind and/or beside your listening position.

I recommend to pretty much anyone who asks me about this stuff to pick up a copy of the Master Handbook of Acoustics. Lots of good info in there.

[oguinn]

Awesome, Doc. Thanks for the detailed answer!

[kcleveland]

And, in addition to higher frequency absorption treatment place bass traps in every corner you can manage. GIK make a Tri-Trap product that works very well. Most (all?) rooms need a ton of bass frequency flattening. You'd be amazed at the improvement in reduced reverb time, clarity and "tightness" of the bass. Highly recommended first/early step with room treatment.

[Doc B.]

I'll suggest dealing with the hi and midrange issues before tackling the bass. Just moving the speakers a a foot can have as much influence on the bass response as adding traps. That can be a good place to start, particularly if you have room measurement software and take some effort to learn to decipher the response graphs. Just so happens that the Jagers like to be near the front wall, which is an advantage in most rooms. But moving them around a bit and listening to the bass response can be very educational