Where to start with room acoustics

LEDE is treated on the side of the system leaving the rest of the room live. Very common among very knowledgeable people as in recording studios or the best audio setups. There's lots of information on it. As far as bass is concerned the largest problem is of course corners but tube traps are necessary to tame bass, foam alone won't do it. The traps may be set in different areas of the room depending of course on your room. Check out Jon Risch's DIY site. Lots of good info there including how to make your own bass traps for alot less money and they work great. Good luck. You'll be glad you treated your room. Unless it is a very dead room I'd try some treatment behind the system.

Warnerwh,we must have the same room.Live end ,dead end.Jon Risches tube traps...I made a whole bunch of acoustic panels and my rear wall is covered with homemade sky line diffusers.They are blue until the weather warms up and I can paint them out side.The only problem with two ch. audio is using a parametric to rid bass modes.Subs are sooooo much easier to work with.And Home theater with one sub is a sinch.All this is great advice.

i have a dedicated room similar size to yours..

what type of speakers do you have ( dynamic, planar, dipole)etc...

do you want to put the speakers on the short wall or the long wall.

what other obstacles or oblect do you have in the room.

mike

I have been there, and have just finished my dedicated home theater/listening room and ran into every question you will, so take this advice: bass, bass, bass.

After everything that's been read and researched your treatments can easily be summed up by these statements:

1) Treat ALL corners for bass as this is where it builds up. Most rooms have the same frequency problems in this area so a carte blanche-type absorption will most likely work best. I personally used Auralex LENRDs stacked 4-high to the ceiling (I have 9' foot ceilings), so you would actually have less gap in your 8.5 foot-high room. Other options are available, however: www.realtraps.com I would also recommend checking out these sites: www.recording.org and www.auralex.com

2) once you have a general idea of where speakers will go creat an RFZ area, or a "reflection free zone." Determine first order order reflections by having someone place a mirror at speaker/driver level and have them drag it along the wall while you sit in your listening position. Whenever you can see the speaker from your listening position, treat that area accordingly. I recommend acoustic foam because of its application simplicity; however, some audiophile gurus say foam creates an environment that's 'less' natural. Finding the first order points go for ALL speakers, even if you're only running a 2-channel system.

For home theaters, diffusors on the ceilings and back wall (even for 2-channel systems) increases spaciousness so treat accordingly.

Going to realtraps.com, auralex.com and recording.org will take you EVERYWHERE you need to go. From DIY absorbers/diffusors to real-time, real-world application, the answers are here.

sig

the horisontal dimensions are close to being 2x.

do an analysis of the rooms likely nodes etc.

don't overdo overall or particular types of room treatments, do one or two things at a time and LEARN.

depends on your budget and DIY skills.

Tim Bailey