Help with room treatments

For home, I like GIK much more than ASC, especially for their soffit traps vs. ASC tube traps, the effectiveness of their panels, cost and professional help.

However, I would say, start easy. If you think it’s a big deal, you can add more components as you go along.

If money is no object, and you are designing a professional listening space, ASC has a really big range of diffusion products I might consider.

Best,

E

Years back I built a ton of bass traps and misc. panels to try to fix the bass response in my basement.  I built 27 cylinder bass traps and quite a few panels as well.  If I walked into my basement listening room and just sat there for a few minutes my ears would start bothering me.  It felt like tiny muscle cramps.  I guess my brain didn't know what to do about the complete dead silence.  We're used to ambient noise and it's a strange experience to be without it.  

It was too dead in there and I tend to think poured concrete basements are a bad place for audio but I definitely learned something by getting it so quiet.  I also bought the behringer measurement mic and real time analyzer.  I had the bass trapped and equalized to +-1 db.  The process taught me that frequency response isn't everything.  

I do think that the best way to decide how much absorption you need is to start out with way too much.  Start out with a completely dead room and take absorption out until you start to hear the sound of the room and keep taking absorption out until you hear as much of the room as you want.  I expect beyond that is to bring in dispersion.  I tried a little bit of that but not a lot.  

However, I would say, start easy. If you think it’s a big deal, you can add more components as you go along. 

Agree, go with GIK due to their good service and pricing. You can start with bass traps in corners behind speakers and panels at 1st reflection points. You will need either diffusion or absorbtion on the wall behind speakers to improve imaging. Hard to say without knowing your room.

Please tell us the size and layout of your room, type of floor and walls.

Also check out ATS Acoustics, Piper City, Illinois. Check out their web site and give them a call. Very helpful personnel and fair pricing. They offer DIY and completed traps, diffusers, and panels.

I am not afilliated, just a purchaser of their products.

Above advice to start slow, add until you reach "saturation" and then back off is on target. Any seller that suggests buying a ton of traps to start with is to be avoided, a la Ethan "Mr. Anechoic Chamber" Winer.

Dave