Good, better, best budgets for room treatment

amirm · Jul 15, 2010

What is the expense range for three levels of room treatment? The minimum to make a noticeable difference for starters. And at the other extreme, having an expert come, measure, and spec? And something in between?

People who have gone through this, what have you spent? And do you feel it hit the target of one of the buckets?

es347 · Jul 15, 2010

The only treatment I plan to do is corner bass traps that I plan on building in my workshop.

amirm · Jul 15, 2010

Are you making the triangular ones or a flat one with air gap behind it?

RUR · Jul 15, 2010

Amir, I started with two of Ethan's corner mondos in the front and a pair of mini traps at the first sidewall reflection points. That, alone, made a big difference. For aesthetic reasons, I replaced the mondos with 16" ASC tube traps front and 13" rear, then added two of Ethan's 6" Guilford traps on the front wall to absorb the rear wave from my ML's, as well as a pair of micro traps directly to the left/right of the speakers. All of this made a rather huge difference, both measured and subjectively. Total outlay as of this point $6-7K.

Far from done, and I'll probably add a few more tube traps and some diffusors on the rear wall.

es347 · Jul 15, 2010

amirm said:
Are you making the triangular ones or a flat one with air gap behind it?

Triangular with no air space..

DonH50 · Jul 15, 2010

Here's what iestimated for my recent room build with about 20 panels and a couple of corner traps (flat, 12" of foam with air gap behind):

Buy own panels, sheets for covers, gorilla hooks = $1000 - $1500
Cheap Auralex line ~$2200
DIY kits from Ready Acoustics with frames ~$2500
Assembled from Ready Acoustics ~$3500
Aurelax upper line ~$4k
Real Traps ~$4500 (but they never got back to my email with pix and stuff to negotiate; probably an email issue)
Kinetics custom panels (commericial grade, mounting supplies not included) ~$5k
I checked one other but can't remember -- it was commercial with install and over $10k.

This was all for roughly the same level of treatment, but the actual panels varied in thickness, size, and quantity (only a littl ein panel count as I had a design to work to).

FWIWFM - Don

vinylphilemag · Jul 15, 2010

DonH50 said:
Real Traps ~$4500 (but they never got back to my email with pix and stuff to negotiate; probably an email issue)

That surprises me: I had an email exchange a year or so ago with Ethan and (IIRC) Jim, so I think your guess of "email issue" is on the money.

terryj · Jul 16, 2010

Luckily for those of us with a DIY bent, Ethan is remarkably generous with data and how to's.

Which very much alters the cost question asked originally.

The expense for the minimum to make an audible difference??

In my case, about sixty bucks. And in the end that was rather extensive treatment.

All I did was go and buy a couple of packs of fibreglass, crack them open and proceed to hang them around the room. Big room, hard walls, lots of echo and ring. Those issues became clear after treatment, it was 'just normal' before!

Anyway, not that these are permanent, but as seen by previous posts room treatment can be rather pricey, so what to do until you can experience for yourself how much change it can make?

Do as I did, just for an experiment, then after you hear it place your order with confidence. And then throw the batts into the ceiling and save on electrical bills!

Me? I will diy my own and make them look good.

I am now building PRD diffusors. They are on hold for a little while whilst I muck around with some system changes, then back into the shed to build some more.

Have built three, will build another three at least, but when I have six that is when I'll take them into the room and see how they go. I doubt one will make an appreciable difference, so will just have to be patient I guess.

audioguy · Jul 16, 2010

DonH50 said:
Here's what iestimated for my recent room build with about 20 panels and a couple of corner traps (flat, 12" of foam with air gap behind):

Buy own panels, sheets for covers, gorilla hooks = $1000 - $1500
Cheap Auralex line ~$2200
DIY kits from Ready Acoustics with frames ~$2500
Assembled from Ready Acoustics ~$3500
Aurelax upper line ~$4k
Real Traps ~$4500 (but they never got back to my email with pix and stuff to negotiate; probably an email issue)
Kinetics custom panels (commericial grade, mounting supplies not included) ~$5k
I checked one other but can't remember -- it was commercial with install and over $10k.

This was all for roughly the same level of treatment, but the actual panels varied in thickness, size, and quantity (only a littl ein panel count as I had a design to work to).

FWIWFM - Don

Check these guys out: http://www.acoustimac.com/
As an example, they sell a 2 foot x 4 foot by 2 inch fabric covered panel for $49 !!

amirm · Jul 16, 2010

terryj said:
I am now building PRD diffusors. They are on hold for a little while whilst I muck around with some system changes, then back into the shed to build some more.

Wow. Even as a woodworker I cringe at the thought of building diffusers. My hat is off to you

.

rblnr · Jul 16, 2010

When I renovated and rebuilt my present room, I did a level 1 Rives consultation -- frankly, I think the free advice I got from Bryan Pape at GIK Acoustics was much more helpful. Whole package from GIK, 4 triangular bass straps (129 ea), 8 or so absorbers (60 - 80ea) of various thicknesses was cheaper than the Rives consultation. With companies like GIK and Acoustimac, I let go of DIY.

An anecdote: while I was helping a friend setup his home theater, he was initially skeptical about room treatment as a concept, and partly for aesthetic reasons. Discussing this as we walked down into my basement and got toward the front of the room, he noticed how our conversation got much clearer, and was sold. Want to cry when I see 2K + speaker cables sitting on the floor of an untreated room. Room treatment is far and away the most cost effective improvement you can make to a system

Wow. Even as a woodworker I cringe at the thought of building diffusers. My hat is off to you .

Agreed!

audioguy · Jul 16, 2010

amirm said:
Wow. Even as a woodworker I cringe at the thought of building diffusers. My hat is off to you .

Or you could go purchase one RPG Skyline and then buy and cut up a bunch of Balsa wood and glue them together using the first real one as a template. Probably cost $100 each but that is a lot less than the $175+ that RPG sells them for.

amirm · Jul 16, 2010

rblnr said:
An anecdote: while I was helping a friend setup his home theater, he was initially skeptical about room treatment as a concept, and partly for aesthetic reasons. Discussing this as we walked down into my basement and got toward the front of the room, he noticed how our conversation got much clearer, and was sold.

Indeed. My next acoustics job is actually our new living room which echoes so badly, you can't converse with anyone! I thought once the furniture went it, it would make a difference and it barely did! We are talking hard surfaces everywhere and an open floor plan to maximize the view so no place to hang anything. Our kitchen next door is nearly as bad and that one is impossible to treat as there are cabinets everywhere.

Nyal Mellor · Jul 16, 2010

amirm said:
Indeed. My next acoustics job is actually our new living room which echoes so badly, you can't converse with anyone! I thought once the furniture went it, it would make a difference and it barely did! We are talking hard surfaces everywhere and an open floor plan to maximize the view so no place to hang anything. Our kitchen next door is nearly as bad and that one is impossible to treat as there are cabinets everywhere.

Not so impossible Amir, use the ceiling!!

Bruce B · Jul 16, 2010

Bob Hodas did our room acoustics. He charges about $3500. This is just analysis/diagrams/consultation. No materials!

Regards,

Steve Williams · Jul 16, 2010

My entire room correction was designed by Art Noxon from Acoustic Sciences. The entire plans were done by CAD after I provided drawings to scale, where the sitting position, speakers and gear were located. I did the room in stages starting with the four corners and then the sidewalls and the the front wall. Total cost was ~$35K

Johnny Vinyl · Jul 16, 2010

And here I am eating Mac & Cheese! LOL! (Just kidding).

John

Steve Williams · Jul 16, 2010

John72953 said:
And here I am eating Mac & Cheese! LOL! (Just kidding).

John

The funny thing is so am I

Johnny Vinyl · Jul 16, 2010

I made light of the cost involved (jokingly, of course) to set up your room, when I really shouldn't have as it's all a matter of scale. I have my humble setup placed in my new apt, which is larger, and I can hear the difference. It's like night and day. I realized right away that I needed to do something to tame the echo, shrillness and boominess I am experiencing at the moment. Room Acoustic implementations have therefore become a primary focus for me and, as I mentioned in the ROXUL thread, the DIY approach is the one I can afford to execute. I'm looking forward to get it started shortly and will certainly let everyone know how I made out.

John

Nyal Mellor · Jul 16, 2010

Good
Treatment of the major problem area of your room. Most rooms have one or two things that can be tacked fairly easily and that will provide a large improvement.

Cost for treatment: $800+

Better
Treatment of all sources of acoustic distortion through treatment and/or EQ: speaker boundary interference, early reflection control, bass trapping/EQ to control room modes, other absorption as needed to control excessive reverberation.

Cost for treatment: $2500+

Best
Custom build room; good dimensions to start with, flexible yet damped wall construction, designed in acoustic treatment and EQ as appropriate, fabric stretch wall system or other way of reducing the aesthetic impact of treatment.

Cost for treatment: $6000+

Good, better, best budgets for room treatment

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