[marty1]

I would like to make my living/home cinema room soundproof and absorbant, but at the same time keep it passable as a normal living room that'll keep wife happy.

The 13ft x 9ft concrete wall that separates us from our only neighbours is my main area for soundproofing, but before suggesting anything for this please bear in mind i will be fixing a large projector screen to this wall & as the wall needs to be dark in colour, dark brown is the only my wife will allow, it matches the couches!

For the side & rear walls my aim is to make them absorbant to prevent sound reflections but still look pleasing to the eye (no egg cartons or panels all around them). Would a wallpaper with a carpet texture do the trick or will having too much absorbant material be bad for the sound as i have heard this may be true?

I would really appreciate your help.

Regards
Marty

[amioa]

do you want to stop the noise getting to the neighbours or make the sound in the room sound better?

i would avoid any wallpapers that have 'absorbant' qualities, a large chain of shops that I deal with had some of this in many of its stores, but they created a massive mid range problem as the wallpaper absorbed only the very highest frequencies which in turn made the room horribly boomy and reverberant in the speech frequencies. awful.

you could use carpet on the walls, im not a fan of that either but it would be better than the wallpaper

[marty1]

Originally Posted by amioa

do you want to stop the noise getting to the neighbours or make the sound in the room sound better?

i would avoid any wallpapers that have 'absorbant' qualities, a large chain of shops that I deal with had some of this in many of its stores, but they created a massive mid range problem as the wallpaper absorbed only the very highest frequencies which in turn made the room horribly boomy and reverberant in the speech frequencies. awful.

you could use carpet on the walls, im not a fan of that either but it would be better than the wallpaper

I would like to do both if poss, so i can enjoy movies at loud volumes and get good balance of sound, all 4 walls are concrete white wallpapered surfaces, so they're pretty reflective.

Regards Marty

[amioa]

you will have to give up some floor space to soundproof the walls more, having said that, what thickness concrete are they, is it a standard semi-detached type build?

[marty1]

I think its standard semi, I can live with loosing a bit of floorspace at the front of the room where projector will go, but rear and side walls as i said i'm not fussed about soundproofing, i just want to stop sound reflections,

Carpets on the walls i would say are a no no.

Regards
Marty

[amioa]

the choice to soundproof the wall is simple, studwall away from the existing wall, depending on how much sound you want to stop, plenty of info here about studwall construction

you are limited if you dont want to put a lot of stuff on the wall. Printed acoustic panels might be a solution, you can have anything you like printed on them, is that something you can live with?

[marty1]

Originally Posted by amioa

the choice to soundproof the wall is simple, studwall away from the existing wall, depending on how much sound you want to stop, plenty of info here about studwall construction

you are limited if you dont want to put a lot of stuff on the wall. Printed acoustic panels might be a solution, you can have anything you like printed on them, is that something you can live with?

If i could have them the same colour as the walls, that would be acceptable, where can i get them from and how many would i need? How do you know when you have enough absorbant material to improve the sound and when you have too much.

Regards
Marty

[amioa]

post your room dimensions (including the height) and a room plan and I'll work it out for you.

[marty1]

18ft x 13ft and 9ft high, roughly.

Many Thanks
Marty

[marty1]

oh sorry i forgot the room plan!!

The projector and centre speaker is on the 13ft wide wall, in front of the same wall in the corners are the main tower speakers, the couch is centrally in line with the screen, about 14.5 ft from it

The surrounds are on the side walls ft feet from floor in line with couch. Halfway down the 18ft long wall is the window.

Thanks

[marty1]

Did you need more info on the layout?

I cant post any pictures as my only internet access is web & walk on my phone!

Im still in the dark ages.

[amioa]

i will have a look at it and post back in a couple of days, im working over this weekend but i'll get something up soon

[marty1]

Ok Thank you

[amioa]

ok so the basic plan shows the minimm that I would look at for treating a room, absorption behind the front speakers, absorption/diffusion at the sides and diffusion at the rear. Not everyone likes diffusion at the rear so you could use absorbers.

The basic treatment idea doesnt take into account of bass, speaker position or anything else, its purely to vive you an idea of where to start to reduce reflections and improve your sound.

[Ted White]

In your scenario, the detached concrete should be fine for sound isolation (poor for sound conditioning). The ceiling is really the big issue. Consider having multi-layers of plasterboard as a ceiling intersect the concrete walls. This will put a "lid" on the room.

Thick concrete walls and thick, massive ceiling (especially if you can decouple the new ceiling) should work well and be low cost. Take care to watch the flanking paths through ventilation ducts and the door(s)

[marty1]

Originally Posted by amioa

ok so the basic plan shows the minimm that I would look at for treating a room, absorption behind the front speakers, absorption/diffusion at the sides and diffusion at the rear. Not everyone likes diffusion at the rear so you could use absorbers.

The basic treatment idea doesnt take into account of bass, speaker position or anything else, its purely to vive you an idea of where to start to reduce reflections and improve your sound.

Thanks for doing that for me

What is the difference between absorbtion and diffuse panels and what dimensions should they be?

[amioa]

absorbors work to reduce reverb times by absorbing sound in a particular frequency range, thicker types of absorbers work in a wider area (bandwidth) and so are refered to as broadband absorbers. The problem with using too much absorption is that the rooms can sound dead, which can actually leave the user feeling fatigued.

diffusors work to reduce reverb times and soundpressure by scattering the sound that hits them back into the room, this has the effect of lowering the reverb time but leaves the room feeling more spacious than a room tuned with pure absorption.

Dimensions of panels..well absorbers and diffusers are generally around 4'x2', but absorbers can be bigger to cover critical while diffusers can be grouped to work better

[marty1]

[QUOTE=amioa;10540542]
diffusors work to reduce reverb times and soundpressure by scattering the sound that hits them back into the room, this has the effect of lowering the reverb time but leaves the room feeling more spacious than a room tuned with pure absorption.

I'm probably gonna sound a bit thick here but doesn't sending the sound back into the room risk certain sounds cancelling eachother out?

Regards
Marty

[amioa]

[QUOTE=marty1;10543711]

Originally Posted by amioa

diffusors work to reduce reverb times and soundpressure by scattering the sound that hits them back into the room, this has the effect of lowering the reverb time but leaves the room feeling more spacious than a room tuned with pure absorption.

I'm probably gonna sound a bit thick here but doesn't sending the sound back into the room risk certain sounds cancelling eachother out?

Regards
Marty

no. not thick at all, perfectly logical, but no you wont, the sound reflected back by a diffuser should be scattered in all directions

[marty1]

[QUOTE=amioa;10546638]

Originally Posted by marty1

no. not thick at all, perfectly logical, but no you wont, the sound reflected back by a diffuser should be scattered in all directions

Thanks, where is the best place to get these absorbers and diffusers from?

Especially somewhere that does them to look like part of the walls, blend in nicely in other words?

Kindest Regards

[amioa]

there are many places that sell different types of absorbers and diffusors, custom audio designs do many different brands - Soundproofing Acoustic Insulation Sound Proofing Noise Consultants - Custom Audio Designs Ltd Hampshire

[marty1]

Originally Posted by amioa

there are many places that sell different types of absorbers and diffusors, custom audio designs do many different brands - Soundproofing Acoustic Insulation Sound Proofing Noise Consultants - Custom Audio Designs Ltd Hampshire

Ok thanks for all your help

Kindest regards
Marty

[amioa]

pleasure.

[marty1]

I know it has been a while but I put this on the backburner, now I am looking into it again, I have given up on sound proofing so I just want to get the best sound possible and get rid of that annoying echo, some companies have told me they have sound absorber/diffuser with a printed picture on it of your choice, is it possible to have a panel that does both?

Also how high should the absorbing/diffusing panels be placed?

I now have blackout curtains covering most of the side wall, a dvd rack covering the rear right hand corner of the room on the back wall, my surround dipole speakers are now on the back wall behind the couch 3 feet apart, so really apart from the right hand side of the room and the corner of the rear wall, everywhere else is bare wall.

The left side of the room just has a leather couch.

So has this changed the original suggestions?

Any suggestions for the ceiling?

Your help would again be appreciated.

Thanks

[amioa]

Originally Posted by marty1

I know it has been a while but I put this on the backburner, now I am looking into it again, I have given up on sound proofing so I just want to get the best sound possible and get rid of that annoying echo, some companies have told me they have sound absorber/diffuser with a printed picture on it of your choice, is it possible to have a panel that does both?

RPG BAD Panel-Thin flat acoustic diffsorber

I think CAD do a printed finish? Not sure about the ATP stuff hes listed..

Also how high should the absorbing/diffusing panels be placed?

I now have blackout curtains covering most of the side wall, a dvd rack covering the rear right hand corner of the room on the back wall, my surround dipole speakers are now on the back wall behind the couch 3 feet apart, so really apart from the right hand side of the room and the corner of the rear wall, everywhere else is bare wall.

The left side of the room just has a leather couch.

So has this changed the original suggestions?

Any suggestions for the ceiling?

Your help would again be appreciated.

Thanks

height - go for around mid height, so if you have a panel 4ft high, you would have around 2ft above and below.

can you draw your room again, showing the items in it

ceiling, depends on what you can do, most times just some sort of reflection control works

[marty1]

I will post some pictures on here later tonight, I will give cad a call tomorrow to see what they can do.

Thanks again

[marty1]

Here is a 360 of my room, the curtain is tucked behind the radiator temporarily, just until it gets a bit warmer

[amioa]

if you have the curtains drawn on when viewing, then you need something similar on the opposite wall to help balance the room, the curtains will give a nice little bit of absorption.

[marty1]

Originally Posted by amioa

if you have the curtains drawn on when viewing, then you need something similar on the opposite wall to help balance the room, the curtains will give a nice little bit of absorption.

The problem is that I got wifes approval for the curtains as they are covering a window and a door with a window, curtains on the other side will be a definate no!

What can you suggest for the rear wall?

Also that left side of the room with bare wall, those panels you suggested going mid height, as you can see half of that wall is taken up with a leather couch??

Is there anything discrete that can go on the ceiling?

[amioa]

panels on the other side is fine, move the couch forward perhaps or position the panels just above?

the rear wall I tend to treat with diffusion, this is to remove the small room feeling. Obviously you wont get a lot in that area between the speakers, though...whats the distanace between them?