Absorbers & diffusors usage tips

hi i am new in trying out room conditioning for my hifi system. how do i use the above items and the purpose of them. any advice would be appreciated. thx

I find the link below to be a good source in providing all the useful information one needs to know about room acoustics. The article is written by Ethan Winer, a renowned figure in the audio industry.

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

Another good source of information is shown in the link below.

http://www.asc-hifi.com/

Have fun.

Perhaps my earlier query may help you too.

Please check out the Stereophile forum link: -

http://forum.stereophile.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=60069&an=0&page=0#Post60069

Auronthas

Hey Auronthas, after getting Ethan's response I guess you have ditched your book racks away? :-)

Here is another link that is equally useful. http://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

ha, not really, my bookshelfs are still on my side wall, i just moved them away from first reflection pt and I placed diffusors at first reflection pt of side walls

As for bass trap, i placed my DIY absorption panel which made of 2" fibreglass + hard cardboard (bought from stationary store) wrapped with cotton cloth.

I just bought oil painting recently from Bali, I will get it framed and hang it on centre of my front wall.

Cheers,

Auronthas

Experts will say the bookshelves are not effective and not true diffusors since they are in the business and have the real thing in the market. In actual fact they will still work and it's just that they won't diffuse the sound waves as effective compared to real diffusors. At least you know the bookshelves will be better than bare walls. Are your bookshelves just right beside your speakers now? A good location to place your bookshelves along the side wall is anywhere from the side of your speakers to the front wall. The diffusors will make the sound more natural and create a bigger soundstage.

I have to agree with Ethan that good diffusors cost more than good absorbers.

Exactly, as my previous post, bookshelfs still along the side walls, i have real diffusors placed on the first reflection pt and with the bass traps, the music now sounds more natural and musical, very satisfy with the result after having my room treated

thanks for all the info. i will try them adjusting my room now. i get an holow echo sound from my room.

What about absorbers? Where do you usually place them?

The placement of absorbers diagram is shown in one of the links above. Anyway for conveniece sake I might as well paste it here.



Other areas not covered by absorption panels will need to be placed with diffusors for the best effect.

Any HiFi sifu here who can help to provide some info on how to do acoustic treatment in a square room?

I guess I need absorption panels behind the couch and behind the equipments. What else?

Anyone ever thought of doing the acoustic treatments on the ceiling instead of on the side walls and front and back walls? May save lots of valuable space, and may its usefulness.

uncle_vic wrote:Anyone ever thought of doing the acoustic treatments on the ceiling instead of on the side walls and front and back walls? May save lots of valuable space, and may its usefulness.

Depends on which Freq. trouble spots are you trying to treat.

If u got a boom (aka standing-wave) that corresponds to the room's vertical height, then of course the ceiling (or floor) will need to be treated. If the standing wave is due to transverse or longitudinal room lengths, then treat the front/back or left/right walls accordingly.

Then again most people's listening rooms don't have a solid ceiling but gypsum boards or some other 2x4 boards so vertical standing waves seem to be less of a problem.

Apparently there is another reason for treatments on the ceilings. The reverberation time could be controlled to a certain extend to enable the listening disabled person to listen to the sound in the room much more clearly. Especially elderly unkers are more supsectable to reverberation time aberrations, tended to hear less clearly when the sound are too close together. My treated my ceiling and i find i enjoy the music more.

Try cleaning your ears first b4 experimenting with room acoustics. If you're having a flu it's no good as your ear canals are not performing well. If you're in a a bad mood avoid that too.
By sheer luck my room furnishings are just about right without having to resort to funny things stuck on walls or ceiling and my tiny Proacs sing with clarity and wide soundstage with weighty yet tuneful low end.
Cheers

good for u if u are not affected by reverberation aberrations. My listening preferences centred around alot of bass contents in the music and hence without the ceiling treatments i could hardly enjoy the music. So too, when i visit others, i do find that their room may have a reverberation time(rt) that is not friendly to my hearing, especially the bass contents, where i find overlapping of one bass information over another, when the younger listeners could swear there are none. apparently i read somewhere that the young listeners still have the ability of the hearing mechanism to compensate for any sound overlap. apparently the older one gets, the less this ability, and hence only a nicely treated room will help. the more reason to have the listening room nicely and properly done up! one actually save so much $$$$ on room treatments if the need doesn't arise, and one could continue to hear well up to their very very old age, preferably till 80, if possible!!!

Errr.... So u can like go into a room and just by your ears, be able to
tell how many milliseconds it took for the sound to reverb down to say
minus 60dB ?

If u can, WOW !

it's not i can hear exactly the miliseconds. It's the disturbing effects of those sound that give the headache, that echoing sound that still lingers in the ears that masked out the next sound that comes around.

elderly unker got very very low tolerances for disturbing sound in the music, fussy pots if u want to call me that! good for u guys if your tolerances for disturbing sound is still very high. as i said can save lots of $$$$$!!!!! as long as i feel comfortable listening in the room in question, I can continue listening for a while. if not quickly want to go teh tarik oledi lor!!!

uncle_vic wrote: as i said can save lots of $$$$$!!!!! as long as i feel comfortable listening in the room in question, I can continue listening for a while. if not quickly want to go teh tarik oledi lor!!!

haha good one!

So i guess no Linkin Park or Greenday albums will ever be part of your musical repertoire then.

On the contrary........i listen to my son's linkin park & gorillaz album. though i also have a copy of blues' "All Rise" album which my setup can handle with the hugh amount of bass contents and terrific drummings, and the syn music backups.

Btw i also keep a copy of evanescence's "The open door" to show off my setup!!!!! Especially those 'pain in the u know where' people who keep telling me no need bass content wan!!! yeah, one day people will realised it's all about preferences(to be polite la) don't want to hurt any egoes ma!

Wow .... respekk to the old man and his Linkin Park, Gorillaz & Evanesncence !

Which track on The Open Door is your fav to demo your system ?

Evanescence's "call me when u are sober" in case gorillaz and blues' all rise album can't get to them visitors!!! there is always U2, metallica in case they don't know who is evanescence!

I listen to lep zep, and groups from that period too, like jefferson starship, Iron butterfly, Deep purple, fleetwood mac, wishbone ash etc., but this is for the unkers my age group la.

besides this, there is always mantovani, james last, francis lai, paul mauriat and henry mancini..............for the unkers who want something quieter.


for a little change of mood, maybe edith piaf, glenn miller, and some from the older unker's time......victor sylvesters, bing crosby.....hah, hah, hah!!!!! mostly monos and transfer from 78's rpm masters.
this are for the unkers oledi in their 70's

Uncle Vic,
I've a few vinyls from that Pop Orchestra Period, passed down from some elders. Let me see( they're in my store room), think I have Manuel Mountain or smtg, a few latin orchestra stuff and Cha cha cha stuff. Would sell these to someone who appreciates. I never listen to them much, then or now. You want give me an offer lah. I'll post the exact album names soon.

uncle_vic wrote:It's the disturbing effects of those sound that give the headache, that echoing sound that still lingers in the ears that masked out the next sound that comes around.

Sorry uncle... pinjam your words a bit....

Agree that some of the standing waves will make the sound 'annoying' to ears.
But just very recently, I managed to control the standing wave issue in my room thanks to the two 'oil drums'.
Later stage will be the finetuning of speaker positions.



Thank you very very muchie, man... (for the 2 oil drums)

Got oil inside kah ?

If got, you are rich !

mugenfoo wrote:Got oil inside kah ?

If got, you are rich !

Ooh.. The content is very 'poisonous'...