New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

new HT - acoustics help

post #1 of 3
2/16/09 at 5:08pm
Thread Starter 
Hello - brand new to this - so here goes. I have a 12 x 16 room in the basement which will be the home theater. It will not be a totally enclosed room. Anyway, the wall behind where the TV will be is cement block currently - it was once an exterior wall, but now is an interior wall due an addition added a few years ago. A friend suggested that I DO NOT sheet rock and insulated this wall. He said leaving it as is will make it a "live" wall. Had not heard of a "live" wall before, but he works in the HT field. I would like to hear others' opinions if possible. Thank you.

Bill
Reply
post #2 of 3
2/17/09 at 3:09am

Re: new HT - acoustics help

Your friend is right in his suggestion to not sheet rock and insulate it. However, my reasoning is that it would just be pointless since the main purpose would be for sound deadening and nothing deadens sounds more than concrete. Either way it would be a "live" wall. By the way live refers to the amount of reflection, as opposed to absorption, a surface has. You usually strive for a combination of "live" and "dead" sound. A room that is too live will sound very bright and harsh as the high frequencies will reflect off the walls and make them sound louder. A dead room will sound very unnatural due to the lack of reflective sound or reverb.

My advice would be to leave the wall concrete but use acoustic treatments in order to even our the live and dead sound. A very live back wall will be too reflective and ruin your soundstage.

It sounds like you have a better resource than most in your HT guy so whichever way you go you should be in good shape. Good Luck.
Reply
post #3 of 3
2/20/09 at 5:00pm
Thread Starter 

Re: new HT - acoustics help

Many thanks for explaining this to me. It makes sense now. I appreciate the help. Actually, the cement block wall will now be a cultured stone wall to match the exterior of the house. I had some left over from that job and just purchased some more. So, still concrete and live, and maybe even better due to the stones' shapes???

bill
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home