Improving sound in rooms with acoustical treatments

Most of us have a room in the house where we would love some sound absorption. Maybe your dining room gets a little loud after your dinner guests have had a few drinks. Maybe your living room rattles and reflects sounds when you binge your favorite crime dramas.

It could be something as simple as ambient noise in your bedroom keeping you up late on school nights. Whatever the case may be, adding some quality sound-absorbing panels will make time spent in your favorite rooms more enjoyable.

When you consider adding a room acoustic treatment or two, you’ll want to focus on what the room is used for. When designing a home theater acoustic treatment layout, you are dealing with a predictable audio source. If you are working with a family room or a dining room, there could be a dozen people trying to be heard from every corner of the room.

Since each room has a unique shape and surface material makeup, acoustic room design is a slightly different beast in each instance.

A bedroom acoustic treatment would be handled very differently from a listening room acoustic treatment or a  home studio acoustic treatment.

What is room acoustic treatment?

Acoustically treating a room refers to the process of optimizing the acoustic properties of the room, especially in recording and other sound studios. The goal is to make the room sound more neutral. When sound waves reflect off surfaces and back into each other, they can cause all kinds of audio issues.

While this can spell disaster in music and podcast recording, it can be equally frustrating in any room where you are trying to concentrate or converse. The correct placement of acoustic panels in any room goes a long way toward creating a calming environment.

How to acoustically treat a room

Now that we know what acoustic treatment is, we should cover how it’s done. The first step is determining the correct products and placement needed to improve the room. You’ll need to learn how and where to place your acoustic panels and other treatments.

There are different types of treatments that are designed to work in different parts of the room. Small room acoustic treatment is different from that of a large room, so they would be treated somewhat differently.

Where should acoustic panels be placed in a room?

Placing acoustic panels in effective spots will help you get the most bang for your buck. In order to understand where to put acoustic panels, you have to find out where your problem spots are. Much of that comes down to the room’s purpose. Are people watching movies there, or are they milling around with their friends?

For a typical room in your home or office, sound diffuser placement will be focused on large walls or other hard, flat surfaces. Space the panels out, and mount them symmetrically whenever possible. Make sure you don’t hang them too high, or they won’t do you much good. Adding acoustic panels so they cover a span of around three to six feet above the floor will keep conversations from becoming loud and overwhelming. 

If you’re working on a home theater or if you are interested in how to treat a room for recording, you will apply slightly different principles for these types of rooms. You want things to sound best in the spots where people will be sitting, so everything is based on the source of the sound and the seating area. For a simple room setup, the main spots you will want to treat will be the area behind each speaker, the first reflection points on the sidewalls, the corners, and the ceiling.

Where to place acoustic panels in a bass-heavy environment?

When marking your placement, sit down in your chosen spot and look at the front speakers. You’ll want a panel behind each speaker, centered on the speaker from your point of view when seated. This will take care of sounds coming off the back of the speakers. Next, you’ll want to place panels at the first reflection point on the side walls. These spots can be easily marked by sitting in your seat and having a friend move a mirror side to side on each side wall until you can see the reflection of the speaker on that side.

Bass traps in the corners and some form of ceiling acoustic treatment are ideal if you have space. If you have high ceilings, adding some ceiling clouds helps a lot.

When you’re watching movies or recording music, you’re working in a bass-heavy environment. Bass traps might be great additions to your treatment plan. They fill the room’s corners with absorptive materials since low frequencies tend to build up there. The CornerSorber™ has a cutting-edge design that is laboratory proven to mitigate low-end frequencies and provide the most accurate sound reproduction.

Also, most rooms only require one CornerSorber™, placed in any corner of the room, making it far more efficient than most other bass products.

As important as acoustic panel placement may be, you still need to make sure your plan fits the room.

How much acoustic treatment do I need?

The key to finding what you are looking for is having a good mix of acoustic treatments in the proper amounts. If you skimp on sound treatment, you likely won’t make a noticeable difference. If you go overboard, your room can sound dead. If you want the perfect setup, it’s super helpful to get help from a professional.

The next steps

If you know of a room or two that could benefit from some sound abatement, it’s time to take action. There are some DIY acoustic treatment projects online that may be what you’re looking for if you are looking to take the edge off a little. Something to make your bedroom TV sound a little better. You already know how to use acoustic panels and other treatments, so give it a shot. 

We offer fantastic professional products and services that will take care of any space. So, if you host regular parties, are working on a room project where quality sound reproduction is important, or you simply prefer peace and quiet, give us a call. It’s not hard to give your room acoustic treatment that will help it reach its full potential. You just have to decide how serious you are about sound.