room questions (1 Viewer)

[Anthony_I]

what are some things in rooms that could cause problems..
I.E, lack of carpet? concrete walls?

My basement is mostly carpetless, with a concrete floor, and a big rug in the middle (roughly)
Also my walls are concrete, with drywall about 1" off the concrete.... the rest of the walls are internal and hollow.
i want to buy a carpet and may do that in the near future.

whats that foam stuff that looks kind of like egg carton and does that do any good if you cover your walls with it?
even just a slight difference?

EDIT---- (this is about speaker placement mainly)
Also should a subwoofer be in a corner facing INTI the corner or facing AWAY from the corner.
and where should a sub be located in relation to the mains?
Does it sound bad if you have the sub beside one of the L/R speakers?

 

[Frank Zimkas]

Bare concrete will cause problems with reflected sound. Egg crate foam will help, but it's gonna be an eye-sore (IMHO). Sub placement is mostly tial and error. A simple means of determining the best position is to place the sub at your primary listening position and then try listening to it in various locations around the room. Place the sub where you fell the sound is the best. As for direction, up to you really. Although the low frequencies are non directional, pointing the sub at a wall may not yeild the best results. Try corner-loading the sub (45deg angle) in the corner of the longest unbroken (no doors) wall.

Here's a link that may help with your placement concerns.
WWW.DOLBY.COM

 

[Anthony_I]

I know i need to get a carpet... and i will in the near future. MY place is ghetto though, seriously i live in the ghettos. the apartment is nice and all but it is still a little crappy looking both inside and out. and it will require a couple of paycheques worth of work to fix up th basement ot be nice and comforatable....

as for the egg carton foam, im only talking abou the stuff that looks like it.... but is made out of real FOAM. it wont look too bad, ive seen rooms done up with this before but i dont know where to buy it.

 

[Frank Zimkas]

Check the YelloW Pages for Packaging supplies/materials. You can also buy mattress pads that are made out of Convoluted Foam.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Digital Video Essentials has a nice section that deals with the importance of your room and its acoustics. I used to have my old theatre in the basement which had a concrete floor that was carpeted. While it sounded very good, the first thing I noticed when I moved it to its own room on the main floor was the impact the bass had. A wooden floor absorbs some of the bass impact and transfers it to the walls so that it can be felt a lot more than it did before.

 

[Anthony_I]

what about using 2 layers of under padding when the carpet is put in?

Im not moving my stuff back upstairs

but i do know that bass would hit harder up there... i had a small 40W sub for PC, and upstairs it pounded the whole room, down here it did almost nothing.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

You might order a book called "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget" by F. Alton Everest. It is a good blend of room acoustics theory, and practical room treatment advice. It also includes lists of companies that produce sound absorbing/reflection products. The book cost about $18 a few years ago from Amazon.

 

[Thomas Summer]

What about trhe shape of the room? Does this effect the sound?

How can I fix a room that does not sound right?