We recently moved house and our new lounge suffers from a terrible ‘hand clap’ reverberation/echo, despite being fully carpeted and having two sofas. My wife is adamant that she wants wooden shutters on the windows rather than nice thick curtains so I think I need to experiment with simple wall treatments. Both side walls are full of windows/doors/radiators so my only option is to experiment with placing something sound-absorbing on either the wall behind the speakers or the wall behind the listening position, but not both. Also, the TV sits between the speakers. My gut feeling is that I need a large absorbent area directly behind the listening position. That is also the most practical option. Any thoughts or recommendations? Thanks.
@MartinR There is no simple room treatments. We lived with pillows, triangles, wall hanging rugs, acoustic rectangles, heavy drapes and wall panels. All to try and remove the echo and bass bloat- to no avail. We even had acoustic consultation. An example of stereo overtaking our lives. Lucky my husband was tolerant.
Our living room looked like StoneHenge. We took all of that out and focused on buying systems that performed well in our existing environment. All of that stuff also compromised our NYC skyline view. We focused on less while getting better SQ, with the right system for our space.
Acoustic treatment is a very big subject, but from what you describe probably sone broadband absorber panels at first reflection points unless they are a long way away - the places where if there was a mirror flat on the wall you would see the speakers - side walls and behind listening position (also ceiling but that is often more of a challenge domestically). Behind speakers can be beneficial but not as critical as the early reflection points, midrange upwards not radiating backwards.
You could do worse than contact GIK who make and supply panels, and offer a free advice service. Given information on what you want to achieve they can provide guidance based on room dimensions, layout and structure & contents description. Also, if you were to get a copy of REW measurement software (free) and a measuring microphone GIK can accept and analyse test files, advising on what measurements to take. The microphone REW suggests costs around £120, or 2/3rds of that secondhand, and can easily be sold on afterwards if you don’t have any further use (though it is such a useful tool it maw be worth keeping: e.g. greatly speeds up assessing different room layouts etc).
And panels can be supplied with fabric any colour you wish, including matching your walls if desired, or printed with any image of your choice such as your own photos, or prints of paintings as long as royalty free, etc, (GIK do “art panels”, but on request can do same with other of their products). There are otger brands like Vicoustic who apparently do similarly good prodicts and advice service.
If the reverberation issue is so bad, it may be beneficial to treat both walls.
I can’t say what the room needs but a nice large tapestry or quilt (particularly effective) can help control a lively room behind the listener and other spots. Larger paintings/artwork can help too.
One other thing to consider if the room has a ceiling/ pendant light it is worth considering if this is causing adverse reflections. A different lamp shade can make a difference. One with soft edges and non metallic can be a good choice.
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