Soundproofing a room
- Thread starter jack21843
- 17 comments
- 1,438 views
- 23,917
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
Turn it down a little.
bevo
Premium
- 2,483
- GTP_bevofrancis
- bevo francis
If you really want to sound proof your room, go hear and you can learn how. http://www.avsforum.com/
It will cost you a fortune though. It would be alot cheaper to buy some really good 7.1 headphones.
It will cost you a fortune though. It would be alot cheaper to buy some really good 7.1 headphones.
Last edited:
AOS-
Premium
- 28,798
- 'Sauga, ON
I remember watching an episode of Popular Mechanics for Kids when I was little and Charlie said a cheap way to kill off the sound is to put up square paper egg cartons all over your walls. The way they're structured helps absorb the sound or disrupt it or something like that so you'll barely hear a thing outside of the room.
"Surround Sound" Headphones would be a nicer option, unless you actually dig the look of lumpy walls (not judging you for that
)....
"Surround Sound" Headphones would be a nicer option, unless you actually dig the look of lumpy walls (not judging you for that
)....You would need ultra thick carpets. You would require blocks of foam for the speakers to stand on so it would absorb the sound. Then you would need those funny egg carton things to bounce the sounds back to you. Then you would need ultra thick walls to keep the sounds in as well.
Cheaper and more effective to just buy headphones and wear them, unless you have a house that is in the countryside, a mile away from everyone else and then you can play whatever to your heart's content.
Cheaper and more effective to just buy headphones and wear them, unless you have a house that is in the countryside, a mile away from everyone else and then you can play whatever to your heart's content.
- 3,446
- GTP_Coxis
- Coxis
You don't need to go all out, you could do some stuff and manage a little bit of proofing. You can buy foam strips and stick them on your door frame(s), buy foam blocks for the speakers, particularly the subwoofers and change speaker placement. For instance, a speaker too close to the wall will cause reverberation, doesn't matter what direction it's aiming at.
What I found works reasonably well is to place the subwoofers as far away from the wall as practically/cosmetically possible.
Of course, like others said, if you want to do a complete sound proofing of the room it won't be cheap.
What I found works reasonably well is to place the subwoofers as far away from the wall as practically/cosmetically possible.
Of course, like others said, if you want to do a complete sound proofing of the room it won't be cheap.
- 997
- Regina, SK
- Turboash
Quality headphones... plus they will probably sound better than your surround system anyway!
bevo
Premium
- 2,483
- GTP_bevofrancis
- bevo francis
One thing that might help would be to put your sub in the proper position in your room. That way you will not have to turn it up as loud for it to be loud where you are sitting. If it's in a bad spot, it might sound good to you where you are sitting, but it might be really loud in the next room, or even across your room. If placed properly, the loudest spot will be at your listening position.
This is going to sound crazy, but here is the easiest way to find the best spot for your sub.
1. Put the sub where you normaly sit when you are using the system.
2. Either download some test tones to play, or just put on some music with alot of bass. Test tones would work the best. Get ones that start at whatever frequency your sub starts at and your main speakers stop at.
3. Start playing either the tones or the music and literaly crawl around your room while the sound is playing. Wherever the bass sounds the best is where you should place your sub.
Most of the time, the worst place to set your sub is beside the tv. My best position in my room is against the wall to the left, in about the middle of the length of the room. If you get your sub placed in the right spot, then you will be able to turn the gain down on it, and it will still sound louder and stronger at your listening position then it did turned up and in a bad spot. There are actually spots in my room that if you put your head there you can't even hear bass playing, but the windows will be rattling. you can move 1 foot in any direction and hear it again.
The gain on my sub use to be set at almost half to get it calibrated with the rest of my speakers. Whenever I found the sweet spot for it in my room, I was able to turn the gain down to 1/4 and get much more sound out of it where I was setting, then I was before.
This is going to sound crazy, but here is the easiest way to find the best spot for your sub.
1. Put the sub where you normaly sit when you are using the system.
2. Either download some test tones to play, or just put on some music with alot of bass. Test tones would work the best. Get ones that start at whatever frequency your sub starts at and your main speakers stop at.
3. Start playing either the tones or the music and literaly crawl around your room while the sound is playing. Wherever the bass sounds the best is where you should place your sub.
Most of the time, the worst place to set your sub is beside the tv. My best position in my room is against the wall to the left, in about the middle of the length of the room. If you get your sub placed in the right spot, then you will be able to turn the gain down on it, and it will still sound louder and stronger at your listening position then it did turned up and in a bad spot. There are actually spots in my room that if you put your head there you can't even hear bass playing, but the windows will be rattling. you can move 1 foot in any direction and hear it again.
The gain on my sub use to be set at almost half to get it calibrated with the rest of my speakers. Whenever I found the sweet spot for it in my room, I was able to turn the gain down to 1/4 and get much more sound out of it where I was setting, then I was before.
Last edited:
- 7,956
- BradleyH131
Cause you generally won't be able to suspend your sub in mid air.
Also I just want to say, the vast majority of 5/7.1 headphones are a gimmick. Most only have 2 drivers so it really makes no difference, the few that have multiple drivers do make the soundscape slightly better but the trade off is sound quality and level of bass. Just get a decent set of headphones and a good soundcard, and you'll have much better sound experience and directional audio.
bevo
Premium
- 2,483
- GTP_bevofrancis
- bevo francis
Unless you are going to set your sub on a stand then yes. You want to try and be at the level that your sub will be sitting at when you finally decide where to put it. So if your sub is going to be on the floor, you want to try and make either your SPL or ear the same height as where the sub will be setting. You also want to try and place your sub when doing this experiment at the height of your ears, when you have it at your listening spot. I had trouble with that, because my sub weighs 150lb, but I eventually got it up there, and it made a big difference with where it was finally placed.
When I tried it on the floor, it had the best readings to my right, by an archway. I put it there and it sounded really bad. I went back and got someone to come and help me put it on the chair i sit in, crawled around with the SPL and test tone, and it moved the sweet spot about 5 foot forward and to my left. That ended up being the best spot I could find in the room. The crazy thing is though. If I move about 2 feet forward, and a foot lower then my listening position, there is a complete dead spot at 40hz and 60hz. You can lean forward and hear the bass start to dissapear. If I was to sit there and calibrate my speakers, I would have to turn the level way up on my AVR and sub to get much sound there. That would cause everyone in the house to suffer, because then it would be much louder then it needs to be.
Sub placement is by far the most overlooked thing when setting up a system. You could have the best sub in the world, and put it in a bad spot and a 200$ sub placed right will sound much better then the high dollar one.
Last edited:
- 3,446
- GTP_Coxis
- Coxis
Interesting on the subwoofers, but I have a question since I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject... Why would you crawl to find out the best spot for your subwoofer if you're not going to place it at ear level? It's most probably going to be sitting on the floor, so wouldn't finding the best spot for it be better if you were using the chair you normally use, and move it around the room?
- 7,956
- BradleyH131
There are literally 10,000 word articles on the complexities of Subwoofer placement.
But basically it works because theoretically putting your sub at your listening position, and your head on floor, listening to where the sub sounds best (Not loudest, but best), is the same as the other way around. As the sound waves transmit equally in both directions (For the most part).
It's in practice the same as placing your sub anywhere in the room, and walking around and finding the best listening position, but generally it's easier and more practical to move the sub than your listening position, so you do it the other way around.
Obviously if you got a $100,000 sub you can start measuring the exact dimensions of your room and calculating it's acoustic properties, but for 80-90% of people, the the Sub-at-Listening-Position, is the best and easiest bet.
I'll also echo what Bevo said, when I first set-up the speakers in my cinema room I just placed the subs in any old position to see if they worked. Turned them on, and thought 'Hmmm...not as much bass as you'd expect from two 12" Subs', walked into the next room and the walls were coming down, but you could hardly hear anything from my listening position, it's actually really bizarre.
Last edited:
Ibonibo
Premium
- 5,440
- Luxemburg
- Already paying my Isp 4 Access
Don't forget the bacon!!!
every option is listed:
Eggcontainers
Car audio speaker foam (used by professional sound studios)
Head phones
Turn down volume
If your are alone in the room, i would go for the headphones.
Otherwise the foam is really good in soundproofing, but it ain't cheap (still you won't need to cover the 4+2 walls of the room)
Similar threads
