The funny thing is, acoustically speaking a rug isn’t a very good absorber & its actually adding to many things like this, that cause a room to be dead sounding. Because of the thickness, a rug or curtains, etc only absorb the highest frequencies, to do absorption properly you need to try & absorb all frequencies equally, this is why you want proper broadband absorbers. People add things like rungs, curtains, etc, then install a few of these thin panels (less then 2"/50mm) or common 1" foam etc & end up with a dead sounding/sucking all the life out of the room, without too much treatment. If proper broadband absorption is done, that is absorbing all frequencies equally you can actually install far more treatment/room coverage before the room would start sounding dead. And that is not to say you must treat every sq inch in the room to get improvements from acoustic treatment. A very worthwhile improvement that most could get away with is treating the first reflection point on each sidewall, the back wall area behind the listening position & some bass traps. This alone, when done properly will have a large impact & not make your room “look like a studio”. As to how far you want to go is all up to you.
I’ve gone this far:
And this far:
It is a dedicated room in that, only I use it for listening to music; my wife doesn’t sit and listen, as I do.
Every incremental bit of treatment has realised clear and obvious gains, to the extent my system now sounds the most musical it ever has.
Previously, this same room was our shared lounge containing the system and all the usual furniture. Whilst I certainly enjoyed listening to music in it, the benefits and rewards of being able to treat the room have taken it to another level. Personally, I don’t feel it looks like a studio and after a day at work, I find it a cosy and relaxing place to be.
And I still have my pictures!
Cheers,
Ian
Over the years, I have generally been extremely satisfied with how my system sounded. It was not dissatisfaction that led to upgrades, it was the knowledge that things could be better.
Same here GIK panels at first reflection points and corners.
Not a path I wanted to go down per se but the room was so bad it was a necessity.
GIK do the panels on a sale or return basis which encouraged me to explore.
Gary
And very possibly things could have been even better spending the money on acoustic treatment, or could now… and now you have tge knowledge!
A bit of each. We don’t have the luxury of a dedicated listening room. The lounge serves a number of functions. It is configured for the main system within the bounds of what is domestically acceptable. We have soft furnishings for the most part plus some hard surfaces which are positioned to reflect. We also have some bass diffusers, most of which are not visually obvious. The components have in large part fallen into place around our most recent speakers. Until you have a fix on how the speakers play the room you can’t optimise the room tuning.
Is this a basement room looks like a concrete floor ? The perspective looks like a low ish drop ceiling or are those acoustic ceiling panels?
Clearly, not “professional”, but yeah, treated. Without, reverberated with a clapping test like a sonic nightmare.
Now I can hear what the system is doing. It’s not quite an anechoic chamber, but especially after dark with subdued lighting, it’s also a visually dramatic space. Even if some on here think it looks like a torture dungeon and prefer the domestic 'fireplace-cushions-and pot plants" look.
Is the sound as good as live music from the little stage on the left?
Looks Good!
Finally finished
Let the professional treatment begin 
Just needs a couple of pictures on the wall and off we go 
Good luck with that! 
Well if i recall correctly this thread was initially headed ‘Dedicated’ and that’s exactly what my room is. Maybe not to everyone’s taste but its turned out exactly as planned.
I didn’t want to be looking at a large tv screen / fireplace / stacks of hifi gear / etc.
We do have another living room/lounge for day to day use.
The whole design idea was to create an environment to create a feeling of a live music event , be that a concert or recording studio.
Fully treated with all GIK panels.
Lots of treatments & yet I have a feeling it’s far from sounding dead/lifeless Great looking room, nice to see treatments that are there for performance & not just for looks 
Nice work. Did you get advice or was it done with trial and error?
I did have initial advice from GIK and did a lot of reading and research online.
Then it came down to trial and time. I carried out some treatment and lived with that for a while during which i found its impact and what to treat next. All told its taken about 6 years from start to finish. Luckily there wasn’t much error , the only thing i discovered was that i didn’t like the effect of diffusion behind the speakers or on the sidewalls.
As i often see it stated that a lot of treatment causes a room to sound dead , i can assure you that is far from the case. Yes it is possible to make a room sound dead but that invariably is caused by using the wrong treatment in the wrong amount and in the wrong position.
Hi Folkman,
I’m about to invoke in my own journey of trial and error. So far my box room is about and solid as you can get and the scratch rendered walls are already showing good results in the higher frequencies. I have some room modes to deal with
Is that GIK in the UK? They seem to be all over Europe. Was that initial advice a major or minor step
This isn’t a link to a store, so I believe this is fine to post here. This is a calculator that you input you room specs as well as speaker & listening position. It will then tell you the first reflection points on all walls/ceiling & floor. This will tell you exactly where you should be putting treatments on each wall:
Locating areas of first reflections (acoustic.ua)
If you want to start slow, typically the first reflection point on each side wall is a good area to start with typical small to med sized rooms. Then the treatment on the back wall behind the listening position. If your adding absorption, make sure its broadband. You want side wall panels of say at least 4.5" (115mm) & front and back walls probably at least 6" (150mm) for best performance (the thicker ones are on the front/back walls due to the angle the sound waves enter the panel vs the sidewalls). The other area you want to start on is bass trapping.
Thanks, I will invest some effort here and hopefully the level of treatment will not be excessive