Macaca Mulatta

• Acoustic Panels
• Bass Traps
• Acoustic Foam Panels
• DIY Acoustic Panels
• Church Acoustics
• Studio Acoustics
• Home Theater Acoustics
• Restaurant Acoustics
• Acoustic Insulation
• Room Acoustic Treatments

I took a long time deciding on components for my home theater. Even with the not so good economy, I wanted to make sure I was purchasing smartly. I demoed many, many systems, read lots of online forums about the right system for my room, and even took some time looking into acoustic treatments. Once I decided on the system I wanted, (a 5.1 Surround Sound package from Yamaha) I followed the manufacturer’s guidelines to the “T” in setting up audio components and placing the sub woofers and satellite speakers around my 20’ x 15’ room. The room is somewhat typical for a home theater in that it is a rectangular room in my basement with one egress window on the right hand side as you face the movie screen. There is a small recreational area behind a sofa which faces the screen. There is a back row of chairs as well with 2 of the satellite speakers in the back left and right corners.

With the system set up and my favorite Jackie Chan movie in the DVD player, I was ready to go. We ran through the previews, and the system sounded pretty good. The movie opened and I sat and watched, and listened. I was really pretty disappointed with the sound, so I popped in another movie to hear the difference. Same thing. The biggest issue was that I couldn’t really understand what was being said. It was pretty smeared overall, and so I went to work looking over the setup and read the manual “again”. I had done everything right according to what was prescribed, but I was not very happy. So, I started the movie again and was walking around the room checking out each speaker. It was pretty strange actually, because no matter where I stood, the sound changed from place to place. In one place it would be really “whoomy” with the bass sounding really muddy, and in others, it was perfect – exactly the way I’d hoped it would sound. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me, so I revisited the home theater acoustic treatment forums I found online while I was researching which audio system to buy. So many people seemed to have the same problem I did, and lot of folks had fixed these issue by simply installed acoustical absorbers.

So, I read all that I could and found that one common thread among all of the people who used acoustic treatments to solve their room acoustics issues, was the installation of broadband bass traps. These are devices that absorb low frequencies and high frequencies in rooms that bounce around and “smear” the sound from your sound system. So, I researched where to get bass traps and found a company called Ready Acoustics online. I sent them some info about my room: pictures and the dimensions, and their experts were able to prescribe a package of panels and even told me exactly where to place them. The bass traps arrived pretty quickly, and I went about installing them. It was easy, painless and the made my room look very nice. The difference in sound, was night and day after installing the panels. Every place I stood in my room sounded perfect. Every word spoken, every car explosion; everything sounded like I had a pair of headphones on, and the bass was amazing. Who knew that such a simple thing could make that much of a difference, but it did for me Thank Ready Acoustics for your help!