Acoustics for 26*19 dedicated HT

[samcruise]

Too often, when we first hear of the supposed benefits of acoustic treatment
we immediately go out and buy stuff, without first diagnosing and evaluating the extent of the problem.

So to find out how bad the acoustics in your room really are, heres what you do:
Walk around the room, clap your hands as loud as you can from every spot, and listen closely to the reverberations that follow.
Next, you need to decide how much wall coverage you need to solve your particular acoustic problem

Then later on, when you begin installing acoustic treatment in your room, use the clap test constantly throughout the process to observe how the sound changes.
With each new addition, that nasty ringing should be becoming less prominent, until it disappears completely.

Getting your room to sound great with acoustic treatment requires of a combination of 3 items:

Bass Traps to absorb the low frequencies
Acoustic Panels to absorb the mid/high frequencies
Diffusers to scatter the remaining frequencies

Seek professional advice if required... spend wisely on Acoustics.

Will do the clap test asap then . Like you said, i want to spend wisely on acoustics and that's the reason i am trying to make sure i get things right before i start

 

[sdurani]

Please can you explain a generic way of calculating this and inferring the results

I use a room mode calculator from Harman (free download): Room Mode Calculator | Harman

if my proposed room is 11*13, where would the nulls be?

From the post you quoted:

If you look at the graph above, you'll notice that nulls fall at even divisions (half, quarters, sixths, eighths) of room length, which means you should place the listeners' ears at odd divisions (thirds, fifths) of room length.

 

[sdurani]

Walk around the room, clap your hands as loud as you can from every spot, and listen closely to the reverberations that follow.

That only works if you plan on having your speakers at arms length (where the clap is being generated) and listening from different parts of the room. Sounds in the nearfield can be loud enough to mask reverberations, which is why recording studios put speakers on the mixing console, within arms length of the recording engineer.

IF you do want to use the clap test, then a more realistic approach is to sit where you plan to put your seating and have a friend/spouse clap where you plan on putting your speakers. This way you hear what reverberations will be generated from the speaker locations AND you get to hear how audible the reverberation will be at the seating location. Why worry about how things sound where no one will be sitting?