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RE: How to treat the corners in my room?

Posted by David Aiken (A) on April 24, 2011 at 00:36:03

In Reply to: How to treat the corners in my room? posted by steven d on April 22, 2011 at 09:13:23:

A lot depends on whether you mind blocking the windows in the corners or not.

If you're using panels like the GIK or my RealTraps, they work more effectively at low frequencies with an air space behind them. That extends their absorption bandwidth lower and helps them absorb more at low frequency as well. Diagonal placement across the corner should work better than placement on the side wall, even if you leave space behind them and the side wall.

Going floor to ceiling is better than only covering part of the height, and increasing the thickness of the panels can help as well. Instead of staggering 2 panels in each corner as shown in the photo, try placing them in contact with each other one in front of the other across the corner, effectively doubling the thickness of the panel, or in contact side by side across the corners effectively doubling the width and increasing the depth of the space behind them if you can. You may get better results that way than the way they are at present.

You can also place traps along a wall/floor or wall/ceiling junction and get similar benefits to placing them vertically in the corners.

Sheer curtains won't absorb much at all, a little at the top end but the glass of the windows is also reflecting more high frequency content than a normal wall would. Thicker curtains may help, but it's also possible to get noise absorbing linings for curtains. The linings are intended to reduce the level of noise from outside which they do, but they also absorb sound inside the room. You could try running a noise absorbing liner on a separate track behind the sheers so you can cover the windows with the liner when listening and open the liner, leaving the window covered only with the sheer when not listening. We're talking about using absorption across the whole front wall here and that will have a noticeable effect on soundstage and imaging and the general presentation of the sound which you may or may not like. If you try that, you may end up only pulling the liner part way across the windows when listening, leaving some bare window behind the sheers to provide a bit of reflection back into the room. This is the sort of thing where I believe a bit of experimentation before you buy is a good idea, and you can experiment easily and cheaply by hanging a blanket across the windows from the curtain rail to see whether you like the result or not. Trying that experiment should give you a good idea of whether you want to replace the current sheers with thicker sheers or curtains, or get something like the noise absorbing linings installed. Bear in mind that none of those options will do much at bass frequencies, their operating range will extend from the highs down into the mids but how far they will extend down in frequency will depend upon the material used.



David Aiken

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