Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Acoustic panel question

Based on reviews and utilization by others on this and other forums, I'm thinking about getting some acoustic panels. My initial thoughts are two tri-traps like what GIK Acoustics sales and either 2 or 4 2x4 panels.

With my M80s raised like they are, should I put the tri-traps on the floor going up, start at the ceiling going down or hang them in the middle directly behind the M80s? I'd like to go floor to ceiling, but my room is just short of 8 feet high. Although you can't tell in the pic, the M80s are ~20" from the back wall and 9" from side walls. (Measuring from the back outside corner.)

For the panels, should I go with two end to end horizontally over each couch or would one per side suffice? The couches are just over 8' long, so two panels would match the length.

I had also thought about putting a panel behind the TV for the VP150, but I plan on replacing the CRT with a wall mounted LCD this fall. My wife shot my FP idea down.



Thanks,
Stymie

Your room looks very nice Stymie, I personally believe our room benefited with the addition of the Tri-Traps along with an acoustic panel behind the center channel.

Where our TV is located the floor to ceiling height is only a little over 7 feet so therefore I carefully cut a pair of the Tri-Traps and fit them on top of another pair for a floor-to-ceiling application ... I thought it looked much better than the freestanding four footers and it wasn't that big of a project, although Glen doesn't advocate this method.

Pic of the cut Tri-Traps in the corners of our room.

I'm thinking Glen may now be able to build Tri-Traps to fit particular needs such as yours, I'm not sure. Prior to cutting the two pairs to fit the full length corners our were freestanding in the corners as was suggested by Glen along with having a second set placed on the floor beside the corner traps either along the front wall or the side walls.

Thanks for the kind words Rick. Your room was my main inspiration for the panels and traps. I just wish my room was a bit wider. Gets kinda tight when I have friends over. As long as no one takes my sweet spot chair, I don't care. I thought that I had read that you had modified a pair in order to make them fit floor to ceiling. So it is possible. Good. I'll probably start with a single pair first so I can gauge any changes if I had a second.

What are your thoughts on placing the panels over the couches?

Thanks,
Stymie

I'm thinking you would be better off working on the left/right walls versus the ceiling for addressing the "first reflection points".

For me, I would not worry about a panel behind the center speaker, but that is just me. If your back wall is more than 10ft from the front wall, your never going to get reflections bouncing back that this panel would address anyway, or that your ears would notice a difference.

Also keep in mind it is very easy to build your own panels if your handy and save a lot of money.

Randy

The wall space just above the couches is the area I was thinking about. I wasn't planning on doing anything to the ceiling. The wall opposite of the TV is about 50' away, so I guess I'm good there.

I thought about building my own and have the skills to do so, but the one component that I'm lacking is time. I have a 5 month old who has somehow managed to consume all of my project windows.

Lack of time was also the reason I went with Glen's Tri-Traps vs building my own and they've proved to work out very well so far. The panel behind the top of the TV *was* directly behind the center channel prior to moving the CC below the TV but the primary reason for the panel was aesthetic more so than acoustics but hey, if it works an added acoustic bonus never hurts. I've since added another panel on the floor behind the TV to fill the visual gap to the red wall from the open area in the TV stand, again primarily aesthetics. I didn't go with panels on the first reflection points on the sidewalls because a window on one sidewall and a CD/DVD cabinet on the other sidewall pretty much took care of that issue.

I've seen some rooms that tend to be so overwhelmed with acoustic panels that the overall visual effect took away from any effort the owner had at making an eye appealing TV/HT/Music room. I'm an advocate of overall balance between sound and looks, which can be a difficult chore at times.

Stymie thanks for the compliment. I'm thinking a pair of floor to ceiling bass traps in the corners would look extremely nice and I also believe you'll like the results. Have you stacked any pillows or like material in the corners to tell a difference?

Hmmmmm..... never thought about putting pillows in the corners. Wonder if my wife would notice if some of those on the couches went missing.

The other reason for putting at least a pair of panels above the couches is because my wife and I can't agree on what to put up there. Our tastes in art/pictures differ consideably. So, I figured some contrasting earthtone colors like dark brown might work well with the rest of the room. Sounds good in theory.

Stymie I bet a couple of panels similar to these, in the proper color contrast could really add to your room while at the same time making the little missus a happy woman. These seem to be a little expensive but I'll also betcha there can be some similar found or made for a less expensive price tag.

You might also want to try the DIY route, I made some panels that really turned out quite well. Although Im unable to place them in the most ideal spot I doubt they hurt anything.

http://home.hawaii.rr.com/haolebmain/haoleb/acousticpanels.htm

Thanks guys. Those are excellent ideas and they have me thinking. As much as I enjoy the DIY route, it's just not in the cards right now. Maybe I can work something out with GIK to have them take three 2x4 panels and make six 2x2 panels. I could then get different colors to break things up while maintaining the basic functionality.

Dusting this one off a bit. Still looking into my options and had a thought. Instead of using OC703, would using 2'x2' acoustic ceiling tiles work instead? I was thinking of placing two tiles, (one on top of the other) as an alternative to using the OC703 and then framing around them.

If you look back at my first post, look at the ceiling in my pic and that's what I was thinking of using.

Thoughts?

ceiling tiles will really do nothing to control your bass response in your room...although that would be ideal!

OC703 is a great fiberglass product that the professionals use in their studios.

Robb's right. You'd have to stack 4 acoustic ceiling tiles with a 4" air gap between them to achieve the same sound absorption at 125Hz as 4" auralex mineral fiber insulation. That's obviously not very practical.