Curtains vs doors for closing room off... (1 Viewer)

[Jason Price]

I am about to start finishing my basement and am considering using heavy curtains to close off one or two openings into my media room. For reference, here's the room and tentative layout:

Both openings to the room are candidates for heavy curtains. The larger one would be a little easier to do to my liking by using large french doors. The smaller opening, though, is going to be a little tougher. It's a relatively large opening, and putting a door there would really kill the "open" feel I like between the two rooms. Adding a curtain would allow me to keep full opening height and width, but close it off come movie time.
What affect will using heavy curtains have on the room sound compared to using doors? Will there be a drastic difference?
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-Jason
If at first you don't succeed, see if the loser gets anything...
[Edited last by Jason Price on October 14, 2001 at 05:47 PM]

 

[Ron Hanson]

From what Ive heard, curtains are not much better than an open doorway as far as bass goes. You may need more bass spl to excite the room modes or something like that. If sound isolation is your goal, go with doors. Im getting a curtain made for my entrance, just to control light. I found I get enough bass to shake the furniture even with the 6ft wide opening at the rear of my room.
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Ron Hanson http://www.flippedbit.net
[Edited last by Ron Hanson on October 14, 2001 at 10:44 PM]

 

[Mike LS]

I'd agree that you shouldn't expect a curtain of any kind to really have an affect on your sound. The best function they really have in this sense in to shut the light out of the room.