$1,000 to spend on room treatment....

If you have the interest or time I would recommend trying some DIY treatments first. There’s a lot of good information on the web - check out Audio Asylum’s Room Acoustics Forum, Rives Audio and Ethen Winer’s sites.

After doing research, I made a number of effective bass traps and absorbers for my dedicated listening room based on Owens Corning 703 and 705 rigid fiberglass products. With a few basic shop skills you can build custom panels that are attractive and work as well as, or better then, many commercial products.

Going this route is more effort, but you learn a lot about acoustics and save enough money to be able to treat your whole room instead of just part of it. I have 2'x8’ bass traps in all four corners, absorbers at the first reflection points and enough material left over to try several other options. You can also test some options just by placing or stacking the rigid fiberglass in corners or reflection points. If you can't find a local source, there are several online suppliers, including the sensiblesound site mentioned above.

I agree with the DIY if you can. You're money will go alot farther. Base traps are what you want to start with. It can take more than 1 in each corner depending on the room.

Contact Scott at Obsession Audio. THis guy is absolutely fantastic to work with and I am nearing the end of my room design with him. He has designed my room from the ground up and I am currently at the treatment phase. I can't say enough good about Scott. Friendly and very accomodating. His prices are very fair.

Randy Doyle
Newfoundland, Canada

I agree with uppermid.

Rives Level 1 costs about what you want to spend. You can tell 'em you want to focus on DIY (that's what I did) and then walk through implementing the design one step at a time (I've been working on mine for 18 months and still have one major & one minor project left.

I think you'll get better results this way than hit or miss design/matching/products.

Thanks. As much as Rives Level 1 and DIY would be the way to go for what I understand, I have neither the time nor the skills nor the money to do it ($1,000 should cover the products too, not just the analysis). I am hoping that my $1,000 well spent will do it about right. Apologies to you out there thinking that this could be a total waste...I think I understand the basic concepts of absorption, diffusion, etc enough so I can avoid the common pitfalls of buying $1,000 of half-round bass traps and killing my room for ever.
Also, my dealer has just gone through the building of a room about my size (higher ceiling) and can give me free advices on treatment placement and types. So my question is how to best spend $1,000 on already made products as the dealer got his from a brand that I cannot afford....
Tks anyway for the suggestions, I wish I could Rive and build!!!!!
This week is Montreal audio show and I have been told that there are skilled folks who can do the consulting piece for $150, $200 and they come to my place (the beauty of the CDN economy)..that leaves me $800...