# Help with plan for acoustic treatments



## creativ73 (Mar 5, 2016)

I finished my basic family room/home theater set up. Quite happy with it, but I'd like to look into ways to improve on it without spending a fortune. Really, I'm just looking at ways to make it sound even better. I definitely would not consider myself an audiophile, but I like above average sound. Here's a little background on my set up:

- 123" DIY screen using gray countertop laminate. For only 100 bucks, I love it.
- Epson 5010 projector
- Denon 1911 7.2 AVR
- Sony PS3
- Speakers: Cambridge SoundWorks. They are 10 to 15 years old, but sounds pretty nice to my ears. Model six bookshelf fronts, then satellite dipole midwall speakers, and small rear satellites. I have two pinnacle 12 inch sub woofer's. Nothing really special about them but I have plenty of bass. 

To my untrained ears, the bass is muddy Did the clap test and there is certainly an echo. I don't want to spend a tons acoustical treatments, but I'm enclosing a visual plan showing my room layout with ideas on where I might put the types of acoustical treatments. Would love opinions on this. Not looking for perfection, but just good and smart improvements on my sound field. Also, plan to make my own treatments.


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## creativ73 (Mar 5, 2016)

A few photos of the actual room to go with the plan above.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Looks like a good plan but keep the side wall panels symmetric left to right.


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## creativ73 (Mar 5, 2016)

OK thanks for the tip. The problem is, The right wall goes all the way into the corner, but the left wall is partially open to a stairway. I could put panels on the wall and then back on the stairway wall to match everything up on the other side, but not sure if that's a good idea or not, since the stairway wall stepped back by 3 feet. Thoughts?

For the bulkhead behind my projector, should that be more bass trap? And then, behind my seating I have flat cabinets on both sides, and was thinking that the sides of the cabinets that face the screen should have some type of treatment too. Absorptive, or Deflective or nothing?

I realize this is all speculative, since I have no measurements. How would I go about measuring the room acoustics? I have my microphone that came with the receiver, but no program for measuring acoustics.


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## jmtenthusiast (Jan 23, 2016)

:-/


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## jmtenthusiast (Jan 23, 2016)

How do you guys make these neat drawings? I want to do that.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Better if you start your own thread so we know who is answering who about what......

Keep both sides symmetric in terms of reflections. If one wall is farther back then the reflections on that will be in different places than the other side.


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## jmtenthusiast (Jan 23, 2016)

bpape said:


> Better if you start your own thread so we know who is answering who about what......
> 
> Keep both sides symmetric in terms of reflections. If one wall is farther back then the reflections on that will be in different places than the other side.


OK, thanks. I couldn't figure out how to delete my post. Sorry for the confusion.


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## witchdoctor (Feb 21, 2016)

Your room looks great but the L-R speakers might be a little narrow. Dolby recommends a 30 degree angle from the listening position, have you experimented with placing them a little further apart?

Does you processor accommodate wide channels? With a room your size I think you would really like them. You might want to consider placing one sub in the back of the room facing forward and see how it compares.

This paper might help you out:

http://ca.harmankardon.com/tl_files...nity/white papers/acoustics_spkrplacement.pdf

diagram here

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/guide/surround-sound-speaker-setup/7-1-setup.html



and check page 5 here:

http://velodyne.com/pdf/guides/sub_placement_guide_reva.pdf


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