Room Too Dead


Hello All,

I am looking for advice and ideas on how to condition my Home Theater room.  I built the theater in my unfinished basement.  The foundation walls are covered in insulation and vapor barrier.  Instead of construction walls to cover them, I chose a "pipe and drape" to cover the walls.  I believe that the room is too dead.  It seems to affect overall soundstage in the midrange range.  Does anybody have experience with this problem and ideas to add a little "excitement" to the room?  Thank you all.

rael1313

A heavily damped room is just fine..... IF  you can tow your speakers in toward your listening position.  When you are dampened everywhere, you lose your reflection and boundries.  So, to get a real idea of how well your speakers can throw a soundstage an image, they need to be towed in. 

If you speakers have natural peaks that are unpleasant, then it gets tough in a room that is highly damped. 

A heavily damped room is just fine..... IF you can tow your speakers in toward your listening position. When you are dampened everywhere, you lose your reflection and boundries.

Might as well just listen to a good headphone setup. Same thing and takes the room completely outta the equation and relatively much cheaper.

Room too dead? No such thing.

Yes, there absolutely is such a thing. Nothing at the absolute extreme is ever good.

Read this from someone who knows more than you ever will about constructing a great-sounding room and educate yourselves…

http://www.gedlee.com/downloads/HT/Home_theater.pdf

 

Maan it happens almost every Halloween season in my case. Can't stop playing those vapor-wave dead sounds all day and night long!!!

 

While selecting materials to construct DIY absorbing panels, I found that Knauf (insulation) listed specs on the amount and main frequency of absorption for their products.  I selected the right product to tame about 90-100 hz and covered with a gauzy, decorative fabric.  .  So yes, insulation can absorb lows if it's what the sound reflects from.  Poly vs paper vs no batting made differences in the specs.  Might look that up, compare to what  you're using.  The vapor barrier makes it tougher to predict though..