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Writer's pictureSteve Elford

Room Acoustics – Part 1

Okay, although I've started a listening optimisation series on coupling and isolation, I though I would jump across to room acoustics as well, as there have been a few conversations flying around about some basic room acoustics tips. In reality, all of the elements of listening optimisation are important – speaker positioning, supports, mains, plus room acoustics should all be considered in a balanced way.


When we start out on our hifi journey, maybe spending a few £k on a nice setup, we are unlikely to dive into the realms of specialist room acoustic treatments. But at that time, we may well be thinking about our living environment and the room that we listen in, as being a little bit sympathetic as a listening space. We are all readily aware of a room being bright, splashy and plagued by echos for example. And we can, and do, easily gauge the basic acoustic characteristics of a room by the tone of voices.


So as we start our considerations, we can look to put in place normal decorative and furniture choices that will really help our cause. I'm working through the refurbishment of the ground floor of my Georgian house and implementing acoustic improvements as I go. And as the work progresses, I can already hear the telltale improvements with the clarity and ease of conversation. And in essence, these are the three elements I am implementing:


  • Restoring or adding decorative room features. In our house, at some time in the past, the original Georgian coving and ceiling roses (at the central light points) were removed. So for the overall refurbishment I have installed new coving and ceiling roses. And even in the un-carpeted bare rooms, the reduction in acoustic splash this brought about was quite considerable. But in modern houses, with no room features and hard surfaces everywhere we really don't do ourselves any favours, but do give it some thought that you might have an opportunity at some point in the future to add some modern coving around the room say.


  • Hang mirrors or glass covered pictures. As I'm working through the ground floor, I've already hung a large mirror and several glass covered pictures in the front lounge (the listening room). The mirror and pictures all have relatively chunky frames and with the glass too, they are very effective early reflectors that break up the flat plane of the walls. With these in place there is clearly a significant reduction in echos and upper-mid brightness with speech.


  • Lay good carpets. The third thing we will do (after all the painting is finished) is lay a thick underlay and decent fitted carpet right through the whole of the ground floor. Up to now, the ground floor has been hardwood floors with rugs and is clearly always bright and splashy sounding in its fundamental nature. The first floor (where the home cinema is) is essentially the same layout but carpeted throughout and as you climb the stairs, the improvement in the overall sonic character of that floor is clearly evident.


So there it is, some basic elements to consider. And if you can't do all of these steps, try the ones you can and see how much improvement you can get. In my experience, these fundamentals make the world of difference. By the way, by just glancing at the images below you can immediately determine the acoustic characteristics of these two rooms.




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