Room Treatments


I don't really know anything about room treatments. I have done some reading but still confused. I guess my main question is how does one know if they need absorption or diffusion? I have a tv hanging on the wall behind my speakers how does that effect things. Am I better off going with traditional panels and traps, or should I be looking at resonator devices?
128x128kclone
just behind my listening chair to my right is an open area that leads to the upstairs. Think I should put panels up behind me anyway. I do have 4 echo buster base traps and 4 echo busters panels. It is just that I was never really sure the best way to apply everything. I may check out Rives. Again, thanks for the input guys.
In photos I have seen Rives often modify the wall between and behind the speakers and make it curve inwards smoothly by a couple of feet at the maximum point centered between the speakers. This will have an impact on the bass and may help reduce quarter wave bass cancellation - resulting in smoother bass freq response. This will also diffuse reflected energy and may help imaging but this is a major modification to the rooms wall - this is a lot more than just hanging a blanket over a TV.
Hotmailjbc - "since my first foray i bought 4 concrete forms at lowes and have been experimenting with placement on the wall behind the speakers"

Did you fill the forms with insulation or some kind of stuffing material. How well do they work? What size did you use?

Thanks Pat
hi, i filled the tubes in the corner behind the speakers with the pink stuff and the other two i am moving around to experiment with are empty. the bass in my room isn,t boomy any more and i have good details and soundstage. they were 10 dollars each so a cheap way to go. the ones i have are 10 inch diameter and 4 ft long. i am contemplating buying a few more to extend the ones i have to the ceiling. i have not built stands yet so the are on some bricks to keep them open at the bottom as well as the top. i did see a pic here once of a guy who had a virtual forest of these things in his room. over a 100 of em? in various sizes and treatments. he claimed they worked great. ha
So a bit more about the blanket thing over the TV might be in order as some are missing the issue I think. You are going to get reflections off it as the sound from the speakers projects out hits a surface and bounces back. Then it will hit the glass and come out into the room again. Putting a fabric over the glass is the easiest and least expensive way of dealing with it.

Any glass you have in the room will be an issue regardless of where it is. It tends to be highly reflective and it rings a bit like a bell. I have glass on a gas fireplace in the room and two glass doors to the room. The glass doors are two sheets of glass with three sheets of clear plastic film (one on either side and one between) and they have drop-down honeycomb shades for the most absorption.

I don't do anything with the fireplace however, I think I should as it's behind the speakers and off to one side...

Anyway, by simply throwing a blanket over the screen things should improve. I think...