Canuck Audio Mart

I bought a new house without a finished basement which forces me to have my HT system on the 2nd floor in a small square bedroom 13 feet X 13 feet. Hardfloors are throughout the entire 2nd floor.

It sounds awfull, lots of echo, harsh upper mid-range and highs.

Can I find simple DIY methods to help correcting this problem? (with materials and can find at Home Depot...). How it looks is a wife factor Would an area rug help?

Thanks for any input.

Sorry Sebtdi, but get ready for some tough love. Thats a freakin' small room for a 5.1 surround speaker set-up. After room treatment, you'd probably get decent results for two channel by setting the speakers up to fire along the diagonal. Even with tubetraps in the 4 corners and 4" deep, 2' x 4' fiberglass absorber panels hung at all key reflection points on the walls, 5 speakers would likely be too much if you are looking for great sound.

Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you in the basement of your new home! Look at it this way- You get to start your new basement media room from a blank slate so it can be as perfect as you like.

Happy Trails!
Vince@Freewheelcycle.com

What about downsizing to 13x10? You could build in wall storage and racks on one side to make use of the 3 feet. This will allow better acoustics and a place for your equipment, hardware and software.

My wife only lets me have a 10 x 9 ft room.


Dry wall, lathe and plaster, glass and hardwoods floors are a disaster for acoustics.
I don't see too many concert halls lined with these materials.

To reduce reverberation in rooms, one technique is to suspend panels about 6 inches off of a wall.

Home Depot has spun mineral glass to designed to absorb sound between rooms and it is fantastic.
But I don't think you would want to hang this off your walls.

Some of the 2 x 4 ft ceiling tiles would absorb high frequencies.
But wouldn't look too great.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is an inexpensive solution, that's aesthetically OK.

Fabric curtains will help - actually some studios open and close curtains to change the acoustics.
However, curtains can get quite expensive.

Apolstered chairs will help.

Have a look at type of Persian carpet called a Gabbeh.
Real Gabbehs start at about $1,500, but there are plenty of Indo Gabbeh knock offs.
.

Totally agree.

Starting with an unfinished basement, is much better than trying to fix up someone else's mess.

Before even thinking of finishing the basement, make sure your wiring, plumbing, insulation and wiring is in top shape.
.

The fiished basement is not for a while..funds not available.

Hopefully I can improve with these methods

MTB Vince is right on all counts. Don't spend any significant money on this room. Consider not even getting a sub. The bass will be just terrible. Two small bookshelf speakers should be all you need or just use the sound from the TV and concentrate on making the space nice to be in.

If the OP decided to either purchase or DIY some hangable absorber panels and tubetraps, they'd be transferable to the new space when and if it became a reality. After all, every room benefits from at least some basic room treatment at the primary reflection points and in the corners.

Happy Trails!
Vince@Freewheelcycle.com.

13X13 is not that bad... sometimes I wonder if most reviewers out there live in palaces. In the real world, I'd be quite happy with that. My current dedicated 2-channel room is smaller than yours. I get beatiful sound with my Harbeth C7's in an 11X11 room. (But my case might be special since I have a 45 degree partial slope in one end of the room.) Don't know how your room is, but my room also has a window, a closet and of course a door - all of which lets bass escape so I don't have any problem with boominess.

Some rooms in audio shows have rooms that size and they cram gigantic speakers in there too.. and still get decent sound. Just don't overdrive the room.

People who complain of boominess in small rooms usually haven't paid enough attention to setup.

Having said all that...

Look into one of the new HT receivers with the Audyssey room correction... I think Denon makes one for as cheap as $1K, but there are others.

But even then, get some plush furniture in there... area rug, thick curtains or blinds that you can angle to reflect the sound UP.

Because you will have speakers all around you, you will be forced out of necessity to sit somewhere in the centre of the room. This is good (for your situation) because there tends to be a null there (but not so good for others in the house who will hear the booming!)

Keep the sub. You will regret ditching it every time you watch a movie.

As someone previously said, to put any money on that room. You'll never be satisfied unless you change the dimensions. If you could cover one entire wall with something like lps or big books, you would have a better room even if smaller.

You sould always avoid similar dimensions. The worst room you could have would be 13 x 13 x 13, a cube.

I had a similar dilemma with a small square room...I built absorption panels with Roxul safe n sound inside 2' by 4' panels made with 1" by 4" pine boards wrapped in burlap....put them at the reflection points including the ceiling, hung curtains on the side walls about a foot from the wall, put in a nice area carpet and it sounded great after a lot of fussing with speaker placement....that was for 2 channel though not 5.1....

Good luck with it...I agree with the other posters, use stuff that can be moved to anther room when you decide to build something in the basement...

If I go with a curtain along one entire wall, which wall should it be installed?

I am surprised that it does not sound good. My previous home I used a den with hardwood floors as the home theater room and it was 10 by 13. I did nothing special except all speakers and components were mounted flush in the walls. The speakers were 5 Koss M/80's from the early 80's when Koss was making real components. The room only had a sofa and a computer desk. Although it sounded fantastic in 5.1 it did not sound great in stereo but I have yet to find a home theater that actually does. So I would think it is the speakers used more than anything else.

If you were only going to make an effort with one wall, it would have to be the one behind the front 3 speakers. That being said, hanging a drapery isn't going to accomplish much unless the fabric is as heavy as a blanket and spaced 4-6" off the wall. Some words of wisdom from those of us who've been where you are right now: Don't waste money on half measures like hanging curtains, throw rugs, or blankets on the walls.

In a room that small and symmetrical with 5 speakers (+ a sub) driving it you really need to address two things: The build up of overlapping bass nodes (all focused very audibly in the mid and upper bass due to compact room dimensions!) and the plethora of early sidewall reflections from five speakers which due to room size, must be placed in close proximity to room boundaries.

The bass boom is dealt with through the aforementioned use of bass traps in the 4 corners, overstuffed fabric covered seating, and possibly forgoing the use of a sub- at least until you can afford either a sub that offers onboard parametric EQ like the Velodyne DD models or a stand-alone sub EQ unit like a Behringer BFD or Velodyne SMS-1. If WAF in this room is a huge deal, the equalized subwoofer and overstuffed furniture will get you half the way there.

To obtain the necessary broadband absorption at the first sidewall reflection point of each speaker, you really need to use purpose built panel style absorbers. 4" deep panel absorbers using fabric covered mineral wool or fiberglass allow you to get rid of exactly what you need without "over-deadening" the room or absorbing too much of one frequency band (high frequencies) and not enough of the other (mid frequencies). This uneven absorption typically happens when you hang carpets or blankets directly on the sidewalls. As far as the WAF of 2'x4' panels hung on the walls goes, the fabric colour can be chosen to blend in unobtrusively with the background wall colour or the can be covered in a decorative fabric. Neither solution is any more visually jarring than hanging rugs on your walls. Panels done well add visual interest to a flat stretch of wall, not clutter.

Happy Trails!
Vince@Freewheelcycle.com