magikamos
Joined: 16 Sep 2008 Posts: 6
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Link Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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This depends on many things. Unfortunately, many of these things also relate to one another.
Wall and room construction: If you have a large wall space not covered by the screen, it might be something to consider. If there are surrounds that point directly at the front wall, as opposed to aimed sideways at the listener, you stand a greater chance of reverberation from that wall. If your front speakers rely on that wall to produce sound by bouncing waves off of it (like BOSE 901's), treating that wall will grossly disturb your sound quality. If you watch movies/tv loud as hell, the issue again becomes more prominent. If your room has lots of angles, like some rooms over garages, some of the sounds will be driven towards naturally absorbent material like carpet, curtains, furniture, etc. If you have hardwood floors or lots of other reflective surfaces, get whatever deadening material you can in place to stop the bouncing.
Wattage and type of system: As stated before, your listening level can greatly affect whether or not reverb makes viewing painful. A 6.1 system with one forward-facing rear speaker is more prone to effects reverberating off of the front wall. Aiming it slightly down, or ceiling mounting it, will diminish this issue.
Size of the room: If the room is huge, the more treatments you have, the better. The size of the reflective surfaces isn't so much the issue as the distance between them. Sound travels relatively slow and reverb becomes more noticable in larger spaces. Think of a gym or a raquetball court.
Speakers: Again, as stated before, if your system relies on reflected sound, make sure the areas the speakers aim at aren't protected. You can cover other areas, but leave the targeted areas open.
Receiver/Processor: Most higher end and many mid-level receivers have built in adjustment software that calibrates themselves to your room. That being said, they cannot make a raquetball court sound like a theater, but they do whatever adjustments they can to compensate for room problems with particular frequencies.
Room treatments: Unless you've got lots of money and no time/skills, you can fabricate custom panels for much cheaper than for what you can buy them for. Don't overkill them because the products are cheap though. Aesthetics are still what you and your guests will see first. There are materials available from all over the web and also retail stores. A simple video link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyYUpkpL0gw
Good luck and please post your results.
_________________ What do you call a dog with no legs? It doesn't matter; he won't come anyway.
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