# Help with new room acoustics



## Graham D (May 5, 2009)

I am in the process of having a new home built and would appreciate some advice regarding the acoustics in my listening area/lounge.
The open plan lounge/dining/kitchen is 20 ft wide by 36 ft long, and because it has been designed for the spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean the entire L/H side is double glazed sliding glass panels.
To add to the potential acoustic issues , the floor is wood with only a square carpet in the sitting/listening area.
The speakers ( Mission M34i) are positioned on the short end wall about 7 ft apart,firing down the length of the room with the TV in between, and the listening spot about 10 -12 ft from the end wall/speakers.
Rear speakers will have to be on the side walls up high out of the way.
Walls and ceiling are conventional drywall and the only furniture in the listening area are leather couches.
Corner basstraps are out of the question due to WAF, and the fact that the glass extends right to the corners ( for the view).
I am considering using some locally available ceiling panels which are perforated ( approx 1inch by 1 inch square holes that allow sound to penetrate to some form of sound absorption material above in the ceiling such as Rockwool.
Question - do you think this will work to absorb reflected noise in the listening area, and if so how large an area should use this treatment ?
Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Graham.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Sounds like anything you can do to get any kind of absorption in there will help. If you can actually have the above exposed to the room, it will help counteract the hard floor quite a bit.

Bryan


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## Graham D (May 5, 2009)

With all the hard surfaces in this room and the large area of glass do you think this will be an acoustic 'disaster zone' ?
I don't expect it to be perfect but would like to incorporate features at the design stage that will help, or at least not hinder, my listening area.
Do you think the entire ceiling in this open plan room needs to have these panels and sound absoption material, or just an area above the listening area ? 
Also what absorption material would you recommend for this application ?
Incidentally, the ceiling has a slight slope being 8 ft high on the r/h side increasing to about 10 ft on the l/h side which I presume will help a little in preventing standing waves.
Again, any suggestions or advice you can provide will be appreciated.
Graham.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Well, while the slanted ceiling will help some with the higher order modes, it's also going to skew the soundstage from one side to the other. I'd do as much as I can up there since there are a lot of restrictions in the rest of the room.

Bryan


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