What are the best Room Accustic Treaments members have found?

WOW, after I read what @joshfilm posted I went to the Stillpoints site, not believing that this patent drivel and misinformation was up for all to see.  I no longer have any interest in their products. This insult is the worst kind of advertising.


I was appalled to read this :  ❝When using conventional acoustic panels made of typical absorbing materials, there will be only one volume level at which the absorbing material will control the acoustic energy within the room adequately. (This is a static system.) At volumes above that level, you would need more absorption. At volumes below that level you will have too much absorption and the room will sound lifeless, dark, and dull. The Stillpoints Aperture utilizes a blend of absorption materials, and a unique design of internal chambers to trap acoustic energy.❞


The amount  sound is affected by an absorber is directly due to its coefficient of absorption and the amount/ thickness of material used. The absorption is NOT dependent on how loud you listen!

I recommend you educate yourself on room treatment. There is much on the net, some good and some not so good. Ethan Winer has some you-tube videos worth watching.  @millercarbon states that absorber panels are 'old school' and do very little and that carpet will do the same.  This is not correct.  The acoustic phenomenon does not care about old school and measurement will bear this out.

Consider buying a measurement mic. like Behringer for about $80 and using either Holm Impulse or REW. Both are free downloads.  I use Omnimic which is on sale from Parts Express for $250.  All these will allow you to measure what your room is doing and by looking at the csd plots you will be able to see which are the most troublesome frequencies.

The average listening room requires a T60 of about 400ms. This is the time it takes for the sound to decay by 60dB. This takes all the guesswork out of the equation. If not interested in measuring, though I find it so informative and a lot of fun, then by mounting bass traps in the corners, broadband absorbers (the ones millercarbon scoffs at) and diffusers if you have the space, you will be well on your way to being sorted.

Just these will make a huge difference to your sound and I mean HUGE, more than a component upgrade. You will no longer have the sound taking too long to die away confusing and smearing everything. It is difficult to conceptualise the way in which strong early reflections ruin the sound.


I again urge you to learn about this so you are not misled and can make informed decisions. For example many companies advertise bass traps but just looking at these things it can be seen that they are far too small to be effective. If you can DIY look up superchunk bass traps. Not difficult to build but they are large and this is what is needed to for them to work down to low frequencies.

A basic formula needed in this game is wavelength (lambda) = V/f
V= velocity of sound 343m/sec      f=frequency
I mention this to show you why it is folly to expect carpet to do anything useful, in fact wall to wall carpet is deleterious. Take a carpet 1/2" thick, from above formula, frequency=V/lambda= approx 2700hz. This is the freq. that will be absorbed. Because carpet is thin this will present a narrow band of absorption and because there is carpet everywhere that freq. will be missing in action. It is gone, absorbed and no EQ can bring it back. This also explains why bass traps are LARGE.

Dear OP I wish you luck and feel free to PM me if you like.

Active eq after room analysis with that device, with said space having the furnishings you care to have within it.
Then you can fine tune the 'details'....
Even if you have a dedicated space (most of us don't), this IMHO is the only logical approach to something you can live in....and not merely 'visit'..;)

I have just been through finding the right treatments. I've been in touch with Jim Smith (GetBetterSound.com) and I have been following his lead on the issue. He's got nearly 40 years experience in voicing systems of all sizes and types for people like us, manufacturers and dealers.
I've used HFTs. They do what has been said. But they are High Frequency Transducers. What about low frequency, nodes and booming? HFTs won't touch the low frequency.

In my small room(11'X12'X8') the HFTs worked very well but I still had booming bass and nodes. I had to use absorption for that. As my research began the consulting from GiK I received was way off base and I live in Atlanta and went to their plant. One guy sold me 2" panels when I needed 4", the next guy wanted me to buy about $2000 worth of additional panels after I already purchased six. He had them hanging from the ceiling and everywhere else. If I'd have done what he recommended my room would be dead! And he didn't address the trihedral corners! ,GIK is much more pricey than say ATS. Same stuff, way better prices but no consulting.

I always agree with what @millercarbon says, but in this case I take exception to his statements about the HFTs. They are not a be all, end all.
I checked out ASC on Jim Smiths recommendation. Truly phenomenal products. In my room I need two 16" tube traps. No problem, $2500 plus $250 shipping, great consulting though.
I did put a 4" panel in the front corners and some huge foam traps in the front upper trihedral corners. That tamed things down quite a bit. I have 2" panels at the early reflection point on the sides and directly behind the listening position. It sounds right. My speakers are at near field (64" away and 54" apart) The sound stage is stable, wide and deep. I'm still dealing with a node that occurs only occasionally now.
The sum of all this. If your room is too bright the HFTs will tame it nicely. If you have booming bass you'll have to absorb it.
Rollin (formerly Rollintubes)

“I know HFTs are high frequency transducers but what about transducers for low frequencies?” - That’s gold, Jerry, gold! 

High frequency transducers affect low frequencies of the acoustic waves as well as higher up the frequency range. That’s because - as first reported by Stereo Times for the Franck Tchang tiny little bowl acoustic resonators - small aperture bowls act to “equalize” sound pressure in the room, so all acoustic frequencies are affected. In fact everyone was quite surprised to hear the bass improved so much.

Sometimes simple is amazingly effective.   When I placed a pair of ficus trees (artificial) behind my 6 ft Maggies, the change from the diffusion was a huge improvement at a minimal cost.

Nothing against all the other suggestions, just that one need not spend the earth to achieve significant improvement.