Elegant Accent Furniture for your home

Ever imagined how important acoustic treatment is for home theatre? Ever imagined why we keep talking about acoustics when it comes to home theatre? We will be discussing on the same in this article.

Let’s start with an empty room. Now, if you talk in that room you will hear your own voice again and again. This phenomenon is called “echo. Now let’s assume ourselves in a room with furniture and curtains and other objects. When we talk in this room the voice won’t create much echo. The reason behind this is “Sound absorption”. All the elements which are present in the room say furniture, curtains, and others they happen to absorb the reflected sound from the wall and help it to decay faster reducing the reverberation time of the sound.

And when we talk about home theatre where we use surround speakers its important to treat the walls floors and ceiling with acoustic treatment. Its advisable to treat 25% of the room with acoustics. But unlike other room treating acoustics inside the home theatre is much of a task and also requires knowledge about the same like how to treat it and where to place the panels.

WHY SO?

Home theatre uses surround speakers which produces sounds of different frequencies and wavelength. You don’t want to hear the sound clashing and mixing with the other creating a muddled noise while reaching your ears. Because if you are using your favourite speakers and woofers in your home theatre and acoustic treatment is not done properly you will definitely have a bad experience. Though it will sound good but somewhere it could be the best.

The acoustic of home theatre revolves around them-

REFLECTION

Reflection is the phenominon where the sound gets reflected back from the surface instead of getting absorbed. And in the home theatre it is very important to ensure the sound doesnt travel outside the defines room creating disturbance in other rooms and the house. this is the very thing we keep in mind while treating the room with acoustics. After making sure the sound remains inside the room absorption panels are installed based on the wall areas where the sound is getting reflected from the surround speakers and front speakers.

ABSORBTION

First thing is to get the reflection of the sound from the speakers to get the location of the acoustic panels. Mirror is the best way to find the reflection. Sit on the located seating and place the mirror on the side walls which gives the location of the acoustic panels. Using the same method, we can get all the reflection point on the walls and ceiling too. After knowing the spots of the sound reflection, we place the acoustic panels.

First priority is always the side walls where the sound from the front speakers reflects which is called “first reflection point”.

Second priority goes to the bass traps which are installed in the corners of the room to absorb low frequency sound form the surround speakers

The acoustic panel should have 2” to 3” of insulation for absorbing the sound inside the home theatre. The same panels can be used on the ceiling covering the reflection points. Now comes the corner of the room where the low frequency from the speakers reflects from which has to be treated with bass traps. These bass traps should have the thickness of 4” which is a bit thicker than the panels.

While making the home theatre sound proof make sure you cover all the windows and other glass surface with heavy blackout drapes which helps to absorb the sound. If you have a hard wood floor or tile floor its recommended to use rug to treat the reflecting point of the sound on the floor. Normal rug is a good option to achieve that.

DIFFUSION

So far, we have discussed about how to absorb the sound inside the home theatre for a perfect audio experience. But absorbing the reflected sound from the surround speakers is not the only way to achieve the acoustic treatment. With the absorbing, diffusion is also something which we need to keep in mid for the best experience. Diffusion panels are used to reflect across the room in different angles. Diffusion panels are placed at the back wall

All together its very important to use right panels of right thickness at right places.

So, if you think using the absorbing panels on the walls is all you need to have a good audio experience in your home theatre you perhaps be wrong because a good home theatre is where reflection, absorption and diffusion of the sound is treated with perfection.