I live in a 2 bedroom flat and I am going to be swapping my bedroom space for my larger living room space. My current bedroom space is overcrowded and living area very open so ideal swap. Anyway, I have been posting here about new equipment and was advised to acoustically treat my room first, which is why i'm here.

I have been reading various websites, forums, and magazines about creating DIY acoustic panels. If you look at my post link above you will see what panels I have decided to build (unless anyone thinks i should do otherwise)..

The room I need to treat is not square it has 2 alcoves a cylinder cupboard, large windows, a solid door and a balcony door 85% glass (all glass double glazed). I've tried to work out where im going to place my panels at the mirror points but will windows, doors and/or uneven wall distances affect the acoustics negatively? Maybe this helps having an uneven room rather than a perfect square but im not the expert.

Picture of room and my estimated acoustic layout, is this correct?:


Any help is appreciated, thanks!

I suspect that you’ll get poor stereo imaging with that setup, as you’ve got your loudspeakers at different distances from the side walls, while there’s a huge window on the left wall.

I realise that you’ve included the heating cylinder cupboard to make things look symmetrical, but suspect that unless this is of pretty solid construction (i.e. not wood/plasterboard) the lower frequencies will go straight through and then bounce off the brick(?) wall on the other side of the cupboard.

Also, you’re correct in being wary of having your sweet spot about half way from front to back of your room, since this will place it in a bass null. Try to position your ears at 38% from the front wall rather than 50%

Hope this helps!


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Ok, Is there anything you could suggest that would help fix the problem? The cylinder cupboard is as solid as the rest of the walls, i assume the flats were designed with intention to have them fitted. Solid brick walls. BUT the thin wall you see on the right is a (future) stud wall which hasn't been built yet.

Im a laborer and my dads a builder so were going to be building it whenever I'm ready. At the moment its completely open. I cant see there being the possibility of building it out of brick as its 10 times as much work and money. All I can do is insulate it the best i can, using recycled rubber sheets and dense rock-wool. The wall will then be plaster boarded, skimmed and plastered. A solid wood door is to be fitted thereafter. Is this wall yet another problem?

My speakers are Yamaha HS80M's - just for reference.

The sweet spot i ended up with is almost my only possibility as this is the closest i can get them to my desk so the measurement between the two tweeters gave me that result. Or are you suggesting leaving the speakers where they are and me just moving my chair forward? I cant sit where my sweet spot is now because of the bed being in the way.

Thanks for you help Martin

Quote SkamUK:

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All I can do is insulate it the best i can, using recycled rubber sheets and dense rock-wool. The wall will then be plaster boarded, skimmed and plastered. A solid wood door is to be fitted thereafter. Is this wall yet another problem?

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Just one point - it is the plasterboard that stops most of the airborne sound so don't skimp on it. Things like rubber sheets can help with stopping sound transmission through structures. Rockwool will stop the sound bouncing around but it doesn't do much to actually stop airborne sound passing through a wall. If possible, use two sets of studs and only plasterboard one side of each as plasterboarding both sides of a single stud wall is a bad idea from a soundproofing point of view.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net