# Help with small theater acoustics



## rmclain73 (Oct 22, 2010)

Hello all,

Let me be the first to say that I am a video guy, not much of an audio guy. This is my first dedicated theater room. It may be small, but its all I can do at the moment. We are renting for three to five years while at my current job. Once I move I will buy a place and have the large theater room I have always dreamed I would have.

The room is kind of odd shaped for acoustics. The length of the room is 12.2', while the width of if is 11.1' at the entrance, and then 9.3' once you get to the closets. The ceilings are 9'. The back wall has two windows, and this wall is where my equipment rack is placed. The opposite wall is the viewing area. There is another small closet on that wall as well, but there is 77" open for a screen. You can fit a 82" screen. Two thirds away from the back wall I have my row of seating. Here is a crude layout:










Here is what I currently have in the room. In front of the viewing wall there is a 5x8 shag rug. A row of two home theater chairs with leatherette covering. Behind the seats is the equipment rack. The wall opposite the entrance has three movie posters hanging, and just to the left in the dead space when you enter the room is a wooden bookshelf holding all of my media. My speaker setup is a Energy Classic Take 5 on stands, and my sub is on a subdude. 

The room still sounds alive, not terrible but it could be better. I know I need acoustic panels, but have know idea where to place them. My wife likes the look of acoustic panels sold by ATS:

http://www.atsacoustics.com/cat--ATS-Acoustic-Panels--100.html

I have to say I like the look of them too. The price seems to be just about what I would like to pay.

Can someone please give me advice on placement and rough idea of how many panels I would need? Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

> Can someone please give me advice on placement and rough idea of how many panels I would need? Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!


First and foremost, I think I would want broadband bass traps to be any absorption panels. That is, don't bother with little 2" absorbers - go straight to the 6"+ stuff, and get corners taken care of as well. I would focus on getting the bass, both from the speakers and sub, to measure rather well, before shifting my attention to the rest of the audible spectrum. 

Also, it seems you're trying to take any life out of the room away. While this is a valid approach for some, it's not absolutely necessary. Of course you don't want clearly audible slap echoes etc, but as long as your room has some balance to it, it may not be as problematic as you might imagine. 

First of all I guess you would need to know a bit about how your Energy speakers radiate sound off-axis. If there are some serious off-axis problems then you would absolutely need to attenuate or redirect the first/second reflection points such that they don't smear your brain's processing of the signal. Personally I would want to have my speakers 4 or more feet away from lateral boundaries for starters, and tweak from there. If you want to absorb the first reflection point, again, a panel that works into bass frequencies is prefered.

Being able to measure your room acoustics will definitely make this process easier... I do suggest it.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

I couldn't agree more. The room is relatively square and you'll need a good amount of broadband control. I would also seriously consider facing what is now your right wall to allow better symmetry in treatment. The way you're set up now, one side is all doors and pretty hard to treat - not to mention you can't do both front corners due to a door and your entire setup being shifted to one side.

Bryan


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