Suggestions on the best way to set up this room

[Magnum29465]

This is the room I have to work with. Its 8ft high and has tile floors. theres a 2ft deep closet in the rear wall with a middle wall. I dont know how to handle that situation but I have neither the ability (disabled) nor the inclination to do the work to remove it.

any suggestions or ideas about design, traps, difusors, etc... brands included would be a help. I just really need this room sounding anywhere from decent to good, doesnt have to be perfect. quietness would a plus also but I doubt theres much that can be done considering this is a prebuilt room and I dont want to ruin the resale value of my home for sound proofing and floating walls and such...

anyway thanks in advance...

[jsipich]

I would say analyze the room before placing treatment. Know what you need to fix before fixing it. That being said, rule of thumb for small rooms is to just kill the whole thing. You can keep some live sound - but killing it seems to be the way to go for small rooms.

[sporadicMotion]

There are a lot of threads that have been about rooms around the same size and same situation. All of the questions you're asking are asked multiple times a week and as a result often just remain unanswered leaving the OP annoyed that nobody cares (which is not the case).

If you do a quick search, you will find the answers to all of your questions.

thumbsup


Cheers

[Magnum29465]

Originally Posted by sporadicMotion

There are a lot of threads that have been about rooms around the same size and same situation. All of the questions you're asking are asked multiple times a week and as a result often just remain unanswered leaving the OP annoyed that nobody cares (which is not the case).

If you do a quick search, you will find the answers to all of your questions.

thumbsup


Cheers

how would I search a room based on dimensions? not to mention the closet I have on the back wall. I would think every room is somewhat different. how do you handle things like windows?

[jsipich]

Originally Posted by Magnum29465

how would I search a room based on dimensions? not to mention the closet I have on the back wall. I would think every room is somewhat different. how do you handle things like windows?

Search for "small room".

You would handle the closets by not using that space - ie - keeping the doors closed.

As for windows - they get treated like any other flat surface, that is, unless they rattle like crazy - in which case I'd be more concerned about getting new windows v setting up your room

But the rule of thumb for small rooms is to just kill the whole thing with absorption.

Quick start: RealTraps - How To Set Up a Room

[Magnum29465]

Originally Posted by jsipich

Search for "small room".

You would handle the closets by not using that space - ie - keeping the doors closed.

As for windows - they get treated like any other flat surface, that is, unless they rattle like crazy - in which case I'd be more concerned about getting new windows v setting up your room

But the rule of thumb for small rooms is to just kill the whole thing with absorption.

Quick start: RealTraps - How To Set Up a Room

I've read that several times on here. By "kill the whole thing" does that mean basically bass trap every inch of the room? Isn't that kind of costly. I dont want to cheap out but looking at the costs on realtrap's site bass trapping a whole room would be quite costly.

speaking of that are there any preferred brands of trapping?

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by Magnum29465

theres a 2ft deep closet in the rear wall with a middle wall. I dont know how to handle that situation

The good news is an irregular rear wall actually helps the LF response.

--Ethan

________________
The Acoustic Treatment Experts

[Magnum29465]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

The good news is an irregular rear wall actually helps the LF response.

--Ethan

________________
The Acoustic Treatment Experts

aren't you the guy from realtraps? No offense meant in the statement above....

[Ethan Winer]

^^^ Yes, I'm a co-owner of RealTraps. And I'm not at all offended. Lots of people have a limited budget. If you read my posts here and elsewhere over the past ten years, you'll know I'm glad to help people DIY treatment when they can't afford to buy my commercial products.

--Ethan

[jsipich]

Originally Posted by Magnum29465

I've read that several times on here. By "kill the whole thing" does that mean basically bass trap every inch of the room? Isn't that kind of costly. I dont want to cheap out but looking at the costs on realtrap's site bass trapping a whole room would be quite costly.

speaking of that are there any preferred brands of trapping?

Making your own is cost-effective. You could make 4 traps for the price of 1 retail trap.

"bass trap" is one way of describing it - they're called broadband absorbers.

As ethan suggested - if you fire long ways into the room towards the closet - it would be much more beneficial than firing towards the flat wall.

Absorbers need to be placed in all 4 corners and early reflection points to start.

You will need a bit for your small room - but not every inch of the wall needs treatment.

Read up on some DIY absorbers - you can make them fairly cheap on your own with nothing more than some screws, fiberglass, cloth and a staple gun.

If you can make a rectangular frame out of 4 pieces of wood you are good to go. That's about as hard as it gets.

The idea is to deaden the room - with a smaller room you'll have more reflections since any pressure wave will reflect off of more walls before losing energy than a larger room.

Absorption will ensure that you get less reflections back to the listening position, creating peaks and nulls.

Perhaps we should make a sticky about small rooms (since large rooms *can* be easier to treat) with some basic starting guidelines.

[jsipich]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

^^^ Yes, I'm a co-owner of RealTraps. Why would I be offended?

--Ethan

+1 Ethan

Magnum, be sure to heed Ethan's advice. Check out his website, too. He has tons of useful information to get you rolling

[localhost127]

Originally Posted by jsipich

"bass trap" is one way of describing it - they're called broadband absorbers.

a true bass trap will not necessarily be a broadband absorber

Originally Posted by jsipich

Absorbers need to be placed in all 4 corners and early reflection points to start.

broadband absorbers are placed at first (early) reflection points (or areas whereby an early specular reflection is incident from)
bass traps are placed into the corners (12 in a rectangular room) - and do not necessarily need to perform broadband absorption.

Originally Posted by jsipich

You will need a bit for your small room - but not every inch of the wall needs treatment.

it depends on the response one is looking to achieve. Hannes had interesting commentary regarding his setup and he literally had to treat every surface to get to where he wanted (in his testing).

Originally Posted by jsipich

The idea is to deaden the room - with a smaller room you'll have more reflections since any pressure wave will reflect off of more walls before losing energy than a larger room.

the idea is most certainly not to deaden the room. the idea is to absorb early reflections that are detrimental to quality (comb-filtering, stereo imaging issues, impeding on the RFZ).
broadband absorption to combat early specular reflections needs to be surgically placed and measured/verified with ETC --- not blindly placed throughout the room unless one is looking to specifically create a 'dead' room.

[jsipich]

^^ now you're just nitpicking.

Apparently, everyone's advice I've been following must be wrong despite the fact that you basically repeated everything I've said by just adding specifics and even questioning things I've never mentioned.

Are we here to put words in my mouth or help the OP?

[Magnum29465]

I pretty much know I'm gonna buy some corner bass traps for all four corners. and Im gonna get some (hopefully 4) flat bass traps from somewhere and some early reflection absorbers. and 2 absorbers for the ceiling. thats my basic beginning idea. I focus on things like ceiling to wall corner traps at a later date.

Im going to position my monitors according to the article I read in this thread. Im now basically trying to lower cost as much as possible but I know complete Diy for my position (diabled) is out...

[jsipich]

^^ How much and where your absorption goes depends on how you want your room to sound based on first measurements using programs like Room EQ Wizard or FuzzMeasure.

Early reflections on the sides 50% between you and your monitors are a must - same place for a cloud is a good idea, too. Not to mention the front wall, as well.

With my small room I'm making sure to have plenty of absorption on the back wall, as well - to limit reflections from the rear wall. Again tho - placement and what type depends on your room measurement and how much you're willing to do.

Small rooms can be a pain to work with tho due to massive amounts of energy in such a confined space.

[localhost127]

Originally Posted by jsipich

^^ now you're just nitpicking.

Apparently, everyone's advice I've been following must be wrong despite the fact that you basically repeated everything I've said by just adding specifics and even questioning things I've never mentioned.

Are we here to put words in my mouth or help the OP?

i was just expanding on your comments

[Magnum29465]

Originally Posted by jsipich

^^ How much and where your absorption goes depends on how you want your room to sound based on first measurements using programs like Room EQ Wizard or FuzzMeasure.

Early reflections on the sides 50% between you and your monitors are a must - same place for a cloud is a good idea, too. Not to mention the front wall, as well.

With my small room I'm making sure to have plenty of absorption on the back wall, as well - to limit reflections from the rear wall. Again tho - placement and what type depends on your room measurement and how much you're willing to do.

Small rooms can be a pain to work with tho due to massive amounts of energy in such a confined space.

Im doing my early reflections based on the equation in that article above. and I plan to use as much traps and absorption as I can afford but for now Im not aiming for perfection if I can get a decent response I'll take it. better than a plain untreated room I would imagine.

[jsipich]

Originally Posted by localhost127

i was just expanding on your comments

I apologize - I had a bad day that day. Everyone was just like "Hey let's completely f*ck over Jack today!".

I probably shouldn't internet when I get like that.

[Jens Eklund]

Originally Posted by localhost127

the idea is most certainly not to deaden the room.

+1!