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So, I'm building a house (and yes, I consider myself VERY fortunate to have a stable job and be able to take advantage of a buyer's market)
My AV installer and I went to see a local company that specializes in sound isolation and room treatments: Auralex Acoustics. Despite being seriously addicted to HT and 2Ch audio, I'd never realized that the HQ of Auralex is only 15 miles from my house! I was pretty excited to go and hear what a well designed and treated room could sound like!
As we entered the building (think generic business park complex) I suddenly noticed that something SOUNDED very nice about their lobby. It turns out that they've treated just about every surface with absorption or diffusion, to arrive at a nice soothing room decay time. You might say, sure genius, just look for the giant squares of foam on the walls and you'll know that it's treated. But they had pulled a fast one and used their new "flagship" product to hide the acoustic treatments.
First, apply your usual absorptive and diffusive treatments on the walls, then add in small metal channels and apply acoustically transparent fabric over them. the end result is a wall that looks slightly softer than a painted drywall, but is very uniform, and in no way looks like a treated space. The best part of this is that it is installed on site by their guys, so the panels are stretched tight and there are no measuring goofs if your room is slightly out of square. In other words, this is like a usual room treatment, with the whole room wraped in speaker cloth. It looked really sharp, and if you couldn't do treatments for asthetic reasons, this could help.
The most impressive part of the tour was the three rooms with various treatments.
Room one was a recording studio. Wow, way too dead. the air felt heavy, conversation was challenging, and I honestly felt a little queasy/nauseated after about 2-3 minutes. I understand why this type of room needs to have zero reflections (hearing only what is in the monitor mix) but I couldn't work in this kind of room.
Room Two was their HT: Its dimensions were a little off from ideal (a little too square, by my eye, approx. 18x20x10 best guess) Their projector screen was a touch small at 80inches. Speakers were Klipsch THX ultra two (donated by Klipsch no less!) I didn't ask about electronics, sorry. The room was treated with ceiling diffusors, and alternating absorption and diffusion on the walls. They also had front corner bass traps. All the wall treatments were covered with their fabric wall panels, the room had a very clean look, not at all busy as some systems can look. They also had floated their riser, and left the front open (covered with AT fabric again) so that the entire riser acted as a bass trap and resonator. Their demo consisted of clips of Music and Films. The best demo scene was from robots (2005, disney or pixar i think). the dialog was so crisp and clear without being harsh or sibilant. I tried to convince myself that the horn loaded speakers were just bright, but when the subs got going on some low frequencies, they were in no way dialed back. Voices were front, center, and it seemed as if robin williams was standing behind the screen rehearsing his lines! I'm now fairly certain an acoustically transparent screen is in my future. There was no sound of any bass peaks/nulls. things were crisp and well defined.
Room three was a mirror image of the HT room. The kicker is it is just bare concrete. no anything. our guide took us from room to room as we were talking and the differences were jarring. you had to struggle to make out words and sentences in the third room, the echoes really made it hard to separate what was being said from what had been said a few seconds before ( ie too reverberant)
And the recording studio was (drumroll please...) just the opposite, conversation was hard to understand because it seemed that each word only existed for about 8 inches after being spoken before it evaporated into some 4 inch thick foam somewhere. I noticed myself leaning in nearer the person who was speaking.
As we walked and talked our way back into the HT, the echoes of the bare room were gone, as was the oppressive heaviness and muted sounds of the recording studio. It was quiet, with some reverberation, but far from dead. It was what you'd expect an acoustics company demo room to sound like.
Auralex sells both professional (ie recording) bare foam products, as well as nicer looking home-based products. If you are in the market, and live in the Midwest US, I'd suggest you check out a local company.
Thanks for reading
todd
My AV installer and I went to see a local company that specializes in sound isolation and room treatments: Auralex Acoustics. Despite being seriously addicted to HT and 2Ch audio, I'd never realized that the HQ of Auralex is only 15 miles from my house! I was pretty excited to go and hear what a well designed and treated room could sound like!
As we entered the building (think generic business park complex) I suddenly noticed that something SOUNDED very nice about their lobby. It turns out that they've treated just about every surface with absorption or diffusion, to arrive at a nice soothing room decay time. You might say, sure genius, just look for the giant squares of foam on the walls and you'll know that it's treated. But they had pulled a fast one and used their new "flagship" product to hide the acoustic treatments.
First, apply your usual absorptive and diffusive treatments on the walls, then add in small metal channels and apply acoustically transparent fabric over them. the end result is a wall that looks slightly softer than a painted drywall, but is very uniform, and in no way looks like a treated space. The best part of this is that it is installed on site by their guys, so the panels are stretched tight and there are no measuring goofs if your room is slightly out of square. In other words, this is like a usual room treatment, with the whole room wraped in speaker cloth. It looked really sharp, and if you couldn't do treatments for asthetic reasons, this could help.
The most impressive part of the tour was the three rooms with various treatments.
Room one was a recording studio. Wow, way too dead. the air felt heavy, conversation was challenging, and I honestly felt a little queasy/nauseated after about 2-3 minutes. I understand why this type of room needs to have zero reflections (hearing only what is in the monitor mix) but I couldn't work in this kind of room.
Room Two was their HT: Its dimensions were a little off from ideal (a little too square, by my eye, approx. 18x20x10 best guess) Their projector screen was a touch small at 80inches. Speakers were Klipsch THX ultra two (donated by Klipsch no less!) I didn't ask about electronics, sorry. The room was treated with ceiling diffusors, and alternating absorption and diffusion on the walls. They also had front corner bass traps. All the wall treatments were covered with their fabric wall panels, the room had a very clean look, not at all busy as some systems can look. They also had floated their riser, and left the front open (covered with AT fabric again) so that the entire riser acted as a bass trap and resonator. Their demo consisted of clips of Music and Films. The best demo scene was from robots (2005, disney or pixar i think). the dialog was so crisp and clear without being harsh or sibilant. I tried to convince myself that the horn loaded speakers were just bright, but when the subs got going on some low frequencies, they were in no way dialed back. Voices were front, center, and it seemed as if robin williams was standing behind the screen rehearsing his lines! I'm now fairly certain an acoustically transparent screen is in my future. There was no sound of any bass peaks/nulls. things were crisp and well defined.
Room three was a mirror image of the HT room. The kicker is it is just bare concrete. no anything. our guide took us from room to room as we were talking and the differences were jarring. you had to struggle to make out words and sentences in the third room, the echoes really made it hard to separate what was being said from what had been said a few seconds before ( ie too reverberant)
And the recording studio was (drumroll please...) just the opposite, conversation was hard to understand because it seemed that each word only existed for about 8 inches after being spoken before it evaporated into some 4 inch thick foam somewhere. I noticed myself leaning in nearer the person who was speaking.
As we walked and talked our way back into the HT, the echoes of the bare room were gone, as was the oppressive heaviness and muted sounds of the recording studio. It was quiet, with some reverberation, but far from dead. It was what you'd expect an acoustics company demo room to sound like.
Auralex sells both professional (ie recording) bare foam products, as well as nicer looking home-based products. If you are in the market, and live in the Midwest US, I'd suggest you check out a local company.
Thanks for reading
todd
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