i'd like to give my homestudio a basic acoustic treatment. i'd like to achieve a somewhat nicer response without having to push much stuff around or building walls.

i would like to put up some absorbents and basstraps or do some other basic stuff. i have a budget up to 400 euros for this.

could you guys refer me a nice article describing what i need to know/buy or give me some advice whats useful for such a task?

(up until now i had to move around much and mostly worked with headphones or in pretty small untreated rooms. now i realize i don't know what to do when you get a room for good and want it to sound better)

 

repeat after me, "BROADBAND BASS ABSORBERS". and put them where ever you can. most importantly in your "first reflection points" and then all the corners and wall meets wall and ceiling meets wall. In a small room the least you can do is put these wherever you can manage them, really.

google search what i put in quotes.

they are 2' x 4' x no less than 4" thick hung OFF of the wall NOT against the wall and made with roxul, owens, cornings. The thicker the better and the more you can hang them OFF the wall the better. but really what your room can accommodate, you must still be comfortable. You can buy them $$ of if you have the tools and a little bit of skill make them yourself, like I did.



I based my design off: http://www.radford.edu/~shelm/acoustics/bass-traps.html


you can look into places like GIK Acoustics as well. their stuff is beautiful but $$.

 

Last edited: Jul 7, 2016

I used muslin to wrap them. then hombre dyed and tie dyed them. (well my wife did ;)))) except for the "clouds" i had some of that stuff laying around. as long as you can blow air through it it will be fine.

people may tell you otherwise, but after the amount of research I did and who I talked to, when it comes to a smaller room, there's not much
more or less you can or should do, TRUST ME I'M A PROFESSIONAL ;)

 

thanks - i'll look into this. i need to add, my current room is not small anymore - the dimensions are 5,6 x 4 x 2,6 (meters) - i have a KRK 10S and JBL LSR 305

 

Last edited: Jul 7, 2016

Broadband for first reflections. 10-15 cm of rockwool.

For bass traps... SUPERCHUNKS just google it... also rockwool, but less dense, softer.

All super workable as DIY!

 

other things to consider then, given you have room to work with, keeping your monitors at least 2' (feet) from the front wall. If you can afford it put super chunks (solid triangles floor to ceiling) in all corners, and you could also go as far as diffusion on the side walls behind the 1st reflection points as well as the back wall.

the bare minimum you should do would be plenty. 1st reflections, back wall front wall and corners. then find the best placement for the sub by moving it around the room, maybe put it on a skateboard or something to make it easier with some long cables. also make sure you're setting everything up in the room length-wise. so speakers aimed down the longest dimension, this issn't written in stone but it's the usual placement.

 

thanks again i searched a bit and found these: http://www.thomann.de/gb/hofa_basstrap.htm?ref=search_rslt_basstrap_267841_0 or these http://www.gikacoustics.com/product/freestand-bass-trap/ which one would you recommend (i have more $$$ to buy stuff than time to DIY) but still i'd like to know how much it would save in $$$ to DIY the same amount of the stuff (i think i would need 8 hofa or 4 gik ones but plz tell me if i'm wrong and more would be better). also which 1st reflection broadband absorbers would you for example recommend? the stuff i linked is all freestand, nothing to hang/put on walls because i'm not allowed to drill any holes.

 

if cheap is your concern (less building)
than you could get this kitt for about 250
Primacoustic London 8

and buy yourself some rookwool (density 040 if i remember correctly (2-4packs) and put em in a bag in the corner(s).
the higher the better

and later expand (celing and such)
play this and sit where you normaly sit, and you get a sense what is needed for your room
what is louder and what not (it should be all the same volume)

gs article

 

https://audiosex.pro/threads/basstraps-and-acoustic-chamber.22948/

 

if you can't put anything on the walls then use the gik freestanding broadband, the ones i built and stuck straddling my corners I attached to the walls but they are essentially just standing on top of each other, like in my my kitchen pic of the grey ones. you could do that.

remember, it will sound "good" in the sweet spot, where you're sitting. but anywhere else in the room won't sound like that. that's when you need to address other areas of the room to make the entire room sounding good. for example, my sweet spot sounds super dope, but behind it near the back of the room it gets a little bass heavy. I don't really care, but if you have 'customers' sitting on the couch you want it to sound real to them too. then you would treat those areas as well. i hope that makes sense. you could also maybe stack those cylinder gobos in the corners. don't forget if your room is big enough, it might sound good already and you could do less treatment. it really depends.

your priority should be the reflection points. and google how to use mirrors to find where to put them. something like, you sit in your chair, and have someone put a mirror on the wall and slide it towards the speakers. once you can see the speaker in the mirror you "hang" panel.

also since you have the space make an equalateral triangle with your speakers and sit at the top it. if i remember correctly it's 67.5 inches from tweeter to tweeter with your speakers pointing 30° inwards and you sit with your ears just inside the apex of the triangle. that's your listening position. from there you can start putting the panels around with the mirror trick.

 

Last edited: Jul 13, 2016

thank you very much for all this info @almightyshux and others! i'm really digging it. i just bought two 1000x650x140mm thick packs of rockwoll and will start with building and positioning stuff this weekend - ill see where it goes from there. if i need more go and buy some more

 

word up!

btw, i didn't go as far as using the white stuff between the muslin and frame in the radford design. I think they were splitting hairs adding that in.