Quote Originally Posted by michele
This is going to help me setup the speakers I have and then move on to the acoustic panels.
It seems I read somewhere I should begin with the floor and ceiling, is that true?

(floor is carpetting so the ceiling is next for me)

Thanks.

Michele
Actually, any hard flat reflective surface can create acoustical issues, as will the room dimensions (i.e., the shorter the room dimensions, the more problems they create in the bass range).

I would definitely start with the floor first. Simply laying down a thick rug will help tame the echoes quite a bit.

In general though, you'll want a combination of absorption and diffusion. Fortunately, you can accomplish a lot of this by simply filling your room with furniture and other normal household items. The placement will naturally affect the sound, but you don't necessarily have to turn your living room into a recording studio.

One approach to room acoustics entails putting absorption panels at the "reflection points" along the side walls and the ceiling (identify these by having someone move a mirror -- wherever you can see the tweeters reflecting in the mirror from your seated position is where you should position the absorption panels), using diffusors along the backwall, using bass traps in the corners, and using absorption along the front wall behind the main speakers (unless you use dipolar or bipolar speakers that reflect the sound off the front wall).

If you don't want to go with absorption panels, you can also tame the first reflections by simply hanging quilts or cloth coverings on the side walls. Sir Terrence has also noted that thick blackout curtains also work very effectively at reducing the reflected sound. Generally, acoustic panels are the way to go because they can absorb sound further into the midrange, and their absorptive characteristics are more uniform from frequency to frequency.

With diffusion, you can use commercial products or simply line up some bookcases that are filled with books of varying sizes. These irregular surfaces will break up the sound waves. Also, if you live in a house built in the 60s and 70s, you might have one of those acoustic "popcorn" ceilings. Those spackled ceilings work very well at taming echoes and keeping sound from traveling to adjacent rooms at full volume.

You don't need to overdo it. An overly absorptive room can drain the life out of the music. Just tame the extremes and fine tune any remaining problems. The most difficult area to control with just room treatments is the bass. You can optimize the bass with careful speaker and/or subwoofer placement, and bass traps. But, small to medium sized rooms will still create wave interactions that cause unevenness in the bass response. Any remaining issues with the bass can be controlled by using a parametric equalizer with your subwoofer. We've had plenty of prior discussions on parametric equalization, and the Behringer Feedback Destroyer in particular, if you're interested in doing a thread search.