# som help with home theater room....



## eurovw89 (Feb 25, 2010)

Hello everyone. I have attacked a picture of my almost finished (just need carpet/seating) home theater room, and I know that its not actually "acoustically" friendly but is all I could do. My ceilings are just shy of 8', also have a soffit above my TV that is housing a trunk line, all the lines and electrical going to the outdoor A/C unit....which is 79" of the floor, and an arm bar where the bar stools are. This is my setup:

TV - Panasonic TC-P65GT50
AVR - VSX 1019ah-k
Center - Yamaha NS c444
L&R - Yamaha NS555
Rear Surrounds - NS333
Back Surrounds - NS333
Sub - PA120

seating - Palliser accelerators and unknow sofa

Was wondering what I could do to make this as much acoustically friend as possible, and what other ideas for seating arrangements others could think of. I am going to make a riser for the sofa (2nd row). Also where are good places for bass traps and acoustic panels?

any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The carpet is coming Oct 26th and the seating Oct 29th.

Thanks a million,
Jeff


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Jeff,

I moved your post to our Acoustics sub forum. It may take a bit as he is going to be busy for the next few days at RMAF, but Bryan from GIK will have some suggestions I am sure.

Just some quick suggestions - front and rear corners are generally the best places for bass traps as low frequencies tend to corner load. As far as other panels, you will likely want to look at first reflection points for your mains (you can use the mirror trick to determine where these are) and potentially the front and rear walls.


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## eurovw89 (Feb 25, 2010)

ALMFamily said:


> Jeff,
> 
> I moved your post to our Acoustics sub forum. It may take a bit as he is going to be busy for the next few days at RMAF, but Bryan from GIK will have some suggestions I am sure.
> 
> Just some quick suggestions - front and rear corners are generally the best places for bass traps as low frequencies tend to corner load. As far as other panels, you will likely want to look at first reflection points for your mains (you can use the mirror trick to determine where these are) and potentially the front and rear walls.



Thanks alm....


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## eurovw89 (Feb 25, 2010)

Since I dont have a wall at my first acosutic reflection (on the right) what should I do? And how do I use the mirror trick on the back wall?......do I turn around and have someone move the mirror across thr back wall til I see one speaker and then both? And since there is no insulation in my soffit should I hang a acoustic panel on thr under neath?


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

eurovw89 said:


> Since I dont have a wall at my first acosutic reflection (on the right) what should I do? And how do I use the mirror trick on the back wall?......do I turn around and have someone move the mirror across thr back wall til I see one speaker and then both? And since there is no insulation in my soffit should I hang a acoustic panel on thr under neath?


If I am looking at your diagram correctly, while it is true the couch would more than likely have that open area as a first reflection point, the first row of seats would not. I would treat the FRPs for the first row for sure. As far as the second row, my thought is you would not want to treat only one side so you would not treat there at all but I would wait to hear from Bryan on that one.

As for the back and front walls, Bryan actually suggested treating the entire wall for my HT and not just reflection points.

For your soffit - are they finished with drywall? If so, you may want to consider opening them up somehow and putting insulation in there. Without something inside to alleviate it, it in essence becomes a big boom box - as soon as your LFE hits them, you enclose the vibrations without anything to absorb them.


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## eurovw89 (Feb 25, 2010)

Ok thanks.....should have cleared it up but where the bar stools are there is only a arm bar no wall. .....there is a wall that comes out 32inches but the rest of it is open to the other room...which might be the FRP for the first row


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

eurovw89 said:


> Ok thanks.....should have cleared it up but where the bar stools are there is only a arm bar no wall. .....there is a wall that comes out 32inches but the rest of it is open to the other room...which might be the FRP for the first row


Hmmm.... That's going to be a bit beyond my knowledge level - hopefully Bryan can make a suggestion there.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Brownie, I think that since the FRP is wide open, that pretty much negates any reflections coming from there. You will want to treat the opposite wall to even out the sound, so that you don't get lots of reflection coming from the left and none from the right. 

Corner bass traps should go a long way to helping you in a small room, so I'd try to fit them in wherever you have the space. Think vertically and horizontally... a corner is a corner! Wherever it makes the most sense to fit into the room. 

I have read some stuff that suggests diffusion can be better than absorption in the rear of the room (this is all hard to generalize, ideally you would measure your specific room response and treat specific targeted issues), and it might be able to make it sound more open and spacious. You could try adding some diffuser panels to break up the sound waves. Something like these perhaps?


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