Acoustic treatment ideas


Hoping someone out there has a similar situation they have solved or mitigated.

I have an open floor plan with acoustic panels on several walls, nothing on the 8ft ceiling, and several reflective surfaces.

TV between speakers on the wall

large picture window, and French doors on back wall (not directly behind speakers), glass door china cabinet on right wall, no window treatments.

rear wall which is entrance to the house has 2 large picture windows with blinds.

If I hang blankets over the cabinet, tv and rear wall windows I definitely hear an improvement- much better sound stage, but it’s a pain and looks awful.

There is a pic in my v system that shows some of the room

ideally it would be something that could be remove like acoustic fabric if such a thing exists rather than curtains etc.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance!

macg19

@audphile1 - I have tried pulling the speakers forward (didn’t like it at all) but not with the new room treatments so it is worth revisiting - thanks for the idea

 

Glad you got it sorted.  $600 is pretty cheap for big improvements.  I have a velvet acoustic curtain in my room also that works pretty well.  If you have a mic and a laptop you can use software like REW to take some measurements if you’re interested in anything else that might need addressing.

@macg19 I was about to recommend working with GIK. One other thing Inwas going to suggest is to pull the speakers out into the room a bit more and see if you get any improvement 

@jastralfu @ghdprentice 

Here's what I came up with. 

Two 23x23x10 GIK full-range Sound Blocks on the floor behind the speakers. Big improvement. 

Removable/temporary items:

Custom made black quilted cover for TV from Digital Deck Covers. Doesn't look terrible and it is quick and easy to add/remove. Makes a big difference on it's own.

"Velvet" curtains for the china cabinet, window and french doors on same wall as system. 

Treating the main reflective surfaces really improves imaging - specifically spatial accuracy / separation of instruments/vocals.

$600 all in. The removeable stuff takes 5 minutes to set up.

John at GIK was very helpful and did not try "over-sell" me.

Thanks for the advice.

 

 

 

 

@ghdprentice I would if I could. The house is rented (we have no intention to stay / buy in California)

TV is only 10in from the ceiling, fireplace to the left, patio doors on the right, and the only outlet on the 40ft wide rear "wall" is behind the rack. It's also the only cable connection.

 

I’m not sure if this is a possibility, but if you could remove the audio rack from between the speakers and move the tv higher on the wall and treat the wall behind (between the speakers you would likely get a really big improvement in sounds aging and depth. 

GIK does have acoustic panels you can get on stands. That sounds pretty painful having to move them in and out and needing somewhere to store them.