i am in the process of turning a room into a theater room. what can i place on teh walls to help with sound thanks.

You mean besides speakers???

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

yes i have a room that is sheetrock with panneling i wanted to put something on the walls to help with sound, foam, or something else. do you want to absorb some sound with your walls

Fiberglass panels are the professional method of choice. Although it can get pretty expensive to make it look good. If you want cheap, just paint some egg cartons black and mount at primary reflection points. Other methods include thick curtains or bookcases.

does the fiberglass panels absorb some sound and reflect it.. what is the ides that you want to do.. i had foam up but i gues i put up to much because it pulled all of the sound out of the room.. just wandering what you want to do with sound absorb it or bounce it

Gator, sorry about the "....speakers?" joke; I just couldn't resist!

The idea is to prevent "early reflections." What that means is you should place sound-absorbant materials where, if your walls were mirrors, you would be able to see your front speakers with only one reflection.

Most home-theater speakers, especially THX-approved, have limited vertical dispersion, so ceiling treatment is usually not needed. However, many people feel that, because speakers are usually floor-standing, or nearer the floor, carpeting is recommended.

Since the desired "ambiance" and surround effects are recorded into the soundtrack, the listening room should be 'eliminated from the equation'. That's the idea behing wall treatments.

On the other hand, two-channel stereo usually sounds better with room reflections allowed. There is an exception to this that is referred to as "LEDE", which means Live End / Dead End. That means one-half of the room (usually the 'front') is treated to reduce reflections, while the other end is allowed to provide more bounce.

When you foamed the entire room, you created an anechoic chamber. Most speaker systems are tested and measured in such chambers, because, as you found out, the effects of reflection are almost entirely removed from the sound.

With enough power, you could have returned most of the missing volume, but the sound probably seemed unnatural. By the way, know where absorbed sound energy goes? It's converted to heat by friction in the absorbant material.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

another cheap way of reducing reflections is; build a wood frame your choice of size and wrap it with burlap. leave the inside hollow. this will allow the room to still be a bit live but will cut down on your standing waves. i use this in the recording studio alot to keep some of the live sound.

thanks for all of your help

Another idea is to apply what Larry said ,but from a cosmetic stand point eggshell,& fiberglass ,& burlap does'nt look very good. you could use foam or burlap& then cover it with a fabric that matches you decor.Our store has done this & it looks & sounds great KDP

You can use almost anything handy to absorb sound, and cover it with hanging draperies, like most commercial theaters do.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

aj the av tech had the hot tip - I saw similar homegrown panels in a small "boutique" audio shop. Some had beveled edges, some were left "squared off" and some had radiused edges. They were all rectangular of varying dimensions, and all covered in upholstery grade fabric. Bats of 3/4" upholstery foam were used inside of some of them. The salesperson put up different configurations and then walked around clapping his hands to show me the room deadening effect and warned about overkill. He told me they worked as good as commercially available products and advised me to make my own. You could also vary the location and total coverage of the inner foam bats as they are hidden by the cloth covering. Use the right cloth and keep the spouse happy as well.