While trying to keep myself busy so as to not go crazy waiting for my speakers to arrive, I thought I would look into a topic that has intrigued me, but never really understood.
As I'm reading through a number of websites, I kind of get the feeling that there's a lot of really bad advice out there. Acoustics is a VERY room specific topic, so I'm not sure where to start. Being the astute newbie that I am, I've turned to the Axiom message boards.
I've run a mode calculator on my room and there are some frequencies quite close together (between ~200Hz and 500Hz), so I'm making an assumption that doing something about this would be a good thing. I've seen some people show graphs of their room's actual frequency response. How is this done? I'm not too keen on buying equipment for it, but spending a day with my Radio Shack SPL meter, a pencil, and a notebook is not out of the question.
Here's what ModeCalc came up with for me:
From what I've read on other websites about some of the DIY bass trap designs is that they typically work in the 250-500Hz range. Perfect!
Now, before I go off and spend a bunch of time and money playing with fiberglass insulation, I'd like to hear what you guys have done. I know I've seen a picture of someones spectacular looking room with some very nice floor to ceiling corner traps. This is what I have envisioned for my room, but I'm not sure that particular design would be appropriate. I'm not terribly concerned with the making of the traps (I'm pretty handy), rather I'm concerned with the proper design with an eye out for WAF. Throwing up a bunch of 4" thick panels on the walls is going to drive my WAF waaaay down. Having some really nice looking corner traps that have the added benefit of hiding some of the cabling in the room would actually boost WAF.
Hmmm... I wonder if I could use movie posters with some nice framework to disguise first-order absorption panels. Not specifically on topic, but it just popped into my head.
