Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Thinking About Room Treatment Again

Before I got my new 7.1 receiver and added the QS8s to my room, I had some simple studio foam panels at the first reflection points on my side and rear walls (there are windows directly behind my left and right mains, which have miniblinds on them now, but I'm going to get heavy honeycomb blinds soon). Since I was moving my surround speakers around, and got a receiver with "room correction", I took the foam down, and haven't put it back up yet.

The open windows in the summer months were a bigger detractor to the sound of the room than the room itself. But now that things are cooling down, and I've had the windows closed a few nights, I'm noticing the walls a lot more. Rather than just put the old 2'x4' panels back up, I'm thinking about doing something more advanced. I'd like to attempt to control the bass, and add a little diffusion rather than straight absorption.

My room is a little strange, it's 20'x15'x9', but the corners are cut off to make it more of an elongated octagon, rather than a rectangle. That may help a little with room modes, but it hurts in trying to install bass traps which are designed for square corners.

Looking around for cost effective, yet stylish treatment options I stumbled upon Auralex pArtScience Audio|Tile. Their layout flexibility, and over all design appeal to my aesthetics, and their price appeals to my wallet.

If you have a look at the installation image at the top of that page, Joel Osteen's performance studio; I'm thinking about doing something like that, but upside down (the more solid concentration at the ceiling, with only a scattering once I reach the baseboard). I could do a solid border around the entire top of the wall where it meets the ceiling, maybe even putting a 3" spacer behind the top edge to trap more bass. Without being able to take full advantage of the three-surface corners of a cube room, I figure I could still get nearly that level of bass taming by using the full, two-surface wall-to-ceiling area. The gradually thinning placement will allow the naturally reflective walls to keep the room alive, yet with no large expanses, and the sloping surface of the foam will cause the sound to diffuse rather than slap straight back.

As I get closer to the time of purchase I'll get the free room evaluation from Aurelex, and ask them what they think of my idea. But for now I'm asking you guys.

I myself would stay away from Auralex. Nothing that Auralex makes is worth any thing really if bass traping is what your after. You need something at least 6" and fairly solid, foam doesn't work. You need to fill in the front 2 corners first with something like superchunk basstraps like this http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-audio-acoustics/7758-corner-traps-finally-finished.html I did superchunks and it help smooth out bass response, helped with decay time, tamed some of the boomyness, the mids sounded more detailed. I spent about $150 or so for the front 2 corner floor to ceiling 8' high the triangles are 17x17x24".

Gik Acoustics and Real Traps are much better than auralex.

Agreed, might help a little for first reflections, but something like Owens Corning 703 is better for corner bass traps (4-6" or thicker) and first reflection panels (2").

Don't get Alan started...

Nice thread and thanks for the links you guys. I’m just starting to plan for room treatments so it’s perfect timing.

The problem, as I said, I don't have "corners" in my room. The walls of my room are basically in the shape of your room after the corners were filled.

I guess I'll have to think about this a little more. Though, perhaps my idea of the corner where the wall and ceiling meet isn't such a bad idea. I could build a soffit up there to run the length of the room. Since I don't have a hard, 3-wall corner, I also don't have a point where the bass will really build up either.

The GIK and RealTraps stuff is so ugly though... Their main products look like a mattress from a baby's crib. I was just hoping to find a little more form to go with the function.

RealTraps has "Planter Traps" now...

They look like planters, but some people like that.