Plants and Acoustics

Its getting cold outside and my wife is bringing the plants indoors....Some of it will be the living room. I could imagine the room looking like a forest. I was just wondering how these plants would effect the sound in the room.

They will most certainly effect the sound of your room, depending upon their location. You can use them to help with 1st reflection points or rear wall boominess. Just experiment and see what it brings.

I know EStat uses a big ol Ficus, or something similar to help control his speakers.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/...84511037_z.jpg




This isn't the best pic, but you can see on the extreme left and right I have plants. My horns and rear loaded and I find they help control that first bounce without changing the sound.

My listening room is in my basement and as a result, the plants are fake. They are gorgeous fakes however, and cost an arm and a leg to buy. We are plant people in this house.

Very nice plants. I see where you locate the plants behind and to the side of your speakers. I have to experiment to see what's the best location for the LR. So far the plants has been arranged so it won't get in the way with anything and that there is adaquate sunlight......Have not consider reflection points yet. I must say the plants brings in a liittle summer into the room during the cold winter months.

How about some pics Mingus?

my friend used his big ferns next to his martin logan reQuests and it was good. it was a nice visual as well.

once i ate some old dried up mushrooms and rearranged the stereo and added some philodendrons on the cabinet.

i'm not sure what made the stereo sound so good then. and the colors produced by paul horn's "inside the great pyramid" were spectacular.

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Originally Posted by Mingus

Its getting cold outside and my wife is bringing the plants indoors....Some of it will be the living room. I could imagine the room looking like a forest. I was just wondering how these plants would effect the sound in the room.

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You will find its effects pretty minimal. You may gets some diffusion above 5khz(not very much I might add), but it is probably more successful with aesthetics than diffusion or any other audio related function. Effective diffusion needs to be close to a solid surface, and shaped in a specific way to get a specific scattering effect. The leaves from a plant are to random to get a even effect, and they sit out in space which reduces it efficiency as a diffusive device.

A indoor forest is pretty cool though....

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Originally Posted by Mingus

Its getting cold outside and my wife is bringing the plants indoors....Some of it will be the living room. I could imagine the room looking like a forest. I was just wondering how these plants would effect the sound in the room.

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good day mate!
came across your dilema of plants next to the system!
oh no! you poor soul - sounds like the wifey has a say regarding your system and plants!
luckily mine doesn't even come close to it! and I don't touch her diamond rings either- you see it's a give and take policy with tremendous satisfaction and respect at the end of it. if I buy something for audio that costs typicaly say around 10 grand or so, I'll buy her a diamond ring straight after for about a grand - that keeps them smiling and less worried about the plants... and yes she does have quite a collection of rings, and all diamonds.

anyway, to give you some good sense and advise, because this is what this forum is all about; NO, the plants won't alter the sound a great deal, it is the pots that do! if they are big ceramic pots or fairly large that are obstrusive, this will alter the sound and reflections. the key is to make sure that the pots are nothing taller than the first driver in your speaker. the plant is really im-material because sound can still pass through well enough with good impact, as long as the plants are not covering the entire front of the speaker.

this is why tall panel types don't have this problem with plants at all, plus very little or zero side interaction, hence plants can virtually even sit on top if they could.

make sure you tell the good wifey to arrange the plants evenly around the system, rather not have too many to one side, and mix and match the heights as well. don't use equal types, mix them around bit, it will also look great. another area you may want to experiment with is place the plants alongside of the listen area, as well as towards the back of your listening seat. this will give added esthetics to the overall presence of the system. one thing though, make sure there are no creepy crawlies under the posts or in the leafs, because back in my home country having plants around, meant small lizards, spiders and other crawlies creeping inside the speaker fabrics to keep warm and cozy during the nights - this was a real pain in the ass!

I am sure you and your wife respect each other, so you should figure out a problem with extra crawlies. word of caution - DO NOT spray insecticide, you will ruin your system!
cheers and happy planting!
Raj J

I have some plants too but I never thought that they might change somehow the sound! I will do some experiments and move them around to see if I hear any changes in the sound!

Thanks for all the insights. Right now the plants are distributed evenly in the LR and are looking pretty nice. I made sure the plants with the ceramic pots are away from the speakers.....Of course no plants are on top of the speakers. I had a problem this once before. To create a less cluttered look I move the larger plants upstairs under the skylight where there is ample sunlight.

The next few days I will see if the sound is affect by the plants. Will look into reflection points and boominess.

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Originally Posted by Mingus

Thanks for all the insights. Right now the plants are distributed evenly in the LR and are looking pretty nice. I made sure the plants with the ceramic pots are away from the speakers.....Of course no plants are on top of the speakers. I had a problem this once before. To create a less cluttered look I move the larger plants upstairs under the skylight where there is ample sunlight.

The next few days I will see if the sound is affect by the plants. Will look into reflection points and boominess.

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I can tell you this right now, a plant will not affect any frequencies that create boominess, unless it is a Redwood tree. Their is just not enough mass for any plant to affect the bass frequencies. The pots may create reflections, but even those will be in the upper bass and midrange areas, not in the lower bass frequencies. Most plants only have enough mass to really effect the treble region, and at the higher frequencies at that!

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Originally Posted by Sir Terrence the Terrible

I can tell you this right now, a plant will not affect any frequencies that create boominess, unless it is a Redwood tree.

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:)

rw

large ceramic pots near the front wall besides the speakers(not sure how close, just may affect standing wave to a degree. Begs for experimentation, for those of you that have large ceramic potted plants. Fake or other wise.

For now the larger leafy plants with the ceramic pots are located in the back and to the side of the room. I have surround speakers but they are located over seven foot high on the side walls. I don't see any problems with this.

Some friends came over and really like the new look and recommends I leave the plants there all season.......But we'll see.

So far there is minimal effect, if any in the room. But I haven't experimented much.

this set up looks amazing