The foam has arrived

danali · « **on:** 13 Jan 2005, 02:21 pm »

After scouring several sites, my decision to turn a foruth bedroom/office into a dedicated listening room (Thanks for the advice Nathan!) led me to foambymail.com.
The fibergalss diy projects appeared to difficult/dangerous(?)/messy/scratchy/low waf etc etc etc.

I will try and post some pics when completed, but essentially,
12 x 14 room with 8 foot ceilings
6 - 2 foot by 4 foot panels of acoustic foam. (4 inch wedge).

These will be glued to a 3/16 inch thick piece of pegboard.
1x1 slats and l brackets for legs.

They will be postioned in the appropraite places of the listening room

4 bass traps to be placed in the upper four feet of the front corners.
6 blocks, 1 each in the bottom of the fropnt corners, the remainder to be glued onto another pegbaord and hung behind the seating position.

All exposed wood/metal to be painted black.

3 diy helmholtz radiators

Sliding wood doors with slats serving as rear diffusers.

Will update when completed as to improvement level.
BTW, mention the e-bay ads and receive almost half off as well as the free blocks and glue from foam by mail.

jolida 202a with svetlana el34's and mullard's/eh and brass cones
vandersteen 1c with sound anchors
zu wax cables supported on styrofoam cups
amc cd8b and brass cones
(total, under $750)

nathanm · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 04:50 pm »

(I had to look it up to make sure you were talking about me and not the 8th Nerve guy. Heh!)

Sounds like a cool project Dan, I'm sure you will notice the benefits quite easily. Once you start bringing in the absorption and the room ambience starts dying down you will know it's going to be an improvement even before you get the speakers playing. You'll walk into that room and it's like your senses become hyper-accurate. You can hear every little noise all that more clearly. If there is such a thing as "too dead" I certainly haven't experienced it! "Dead" sounds pretty good to me so far! I'd like "more dead" too if I had the money!

Granted, bass peaks\nulls in a room that small is going to be a problem, as they still are in mine. But I know what you mean about the fibgerglass bit. (I wouldn't say "dangerous" but definitely "a pain in the ass" or rather "itchy as hell") Seems like a boatload more work and mess.

But if your speakers don't play much in the 40-50Hz range and below that huge 40Hz-ish peak you'll likely have won't be as noticeable. If I turn off my subs and let the Tannoys play alone I don't notice the humpy bass. In my case foam alone was definitely not enough to tame the 40Hz MONSTER Mode, EQ had to take over.

So you got the 4 inch, eh? Cool, even more spikey! Definitely post some pics if you can, I'd like to see the results. I like the free-standing panel concept too. Good luck!

John Casler · « **Reply #2 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 05:24 pm »

Quote from: nathanm

Sounds like a cool project Dan, I'm sure you will notice the benefits quite easily. Once you start bringing in the absorption and the room ambience starts dying down you will know it's going to be an improvement even before you get the speakers playing. You'll walk into that room and it's like your senses become hyper-accurate. You can hear every little noise all that more clearly. If there is such a thing as "too dead" I certainly haven't experienced it! "Dead" sounds pretty good to me so far! I'd like "more dead" too if I had the money!
...

Good luck Danali,

I'm with Nathanm on the "too dead" concept.

All a live room is, is a "highly reflective" room. Nothing wrong with that if you like to listen to the room (many of which can sound quite good), but at the end of the day, I prefer to hear the recording "only" as much as possible.

And I might mention there are two methods to reduce reflections.

1) block/absorb them at the wall/floor/ceiling

2) block them from reaching the wall/floor/ceiling (as they leave the speaker)

angelo · « **Reply #3 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 05:56 pm »

i'm experimenting with rigid fiberglass and placed them behind and sides of my speakers and noticed good result, but you're right, it's ITCHY

i bought the armstrong 301A $3.40 ea. at home depot (just half an inch thick 2x4 panels)

i'm going to mix fiberglass and foams to "KILL" my room

angelo

davejcb · « **Reply #4 on:** 13 Jan 2005, 08:01 pm »

Hey, me too!

Just installed 6 square feet x 2 on the ceiling, and 6 square feet x 2 on each side reflection, noticeable improvement in focus and imaging. Defnitely worth the 40 bucks I paid for the 2" wedge.

danali · « **Reply #5 on:** 25 Jan 2005, 04:58 am »

Well after a couple of weeks of construction, the panels are finished.
The spray on adhesive sucks.
ended up using liquid nails for adhering the foam to the peg board.Jon Risch also recommends silicone rubber. I am confident that would work equally well.
If I had to do it over again, I would go to walmart and buy some cheap fabric and just cover it.
The portable stands are the way to go imho.
As for the results, Nathan was dead on. Do not invest in anything until you treat your room.
Wow what a difference.
Making four more panels, three for the front wall, two behind the speakers, and one centered and an addional behind the seating area.
All in all a fun and inexpensive project. As well as easy.
It also looks pretty kick ass, if I wasn't digitally challenged I would post some pics.
If you have not treated your room yet, do it!
It is cheap, easy, looks and sounds great.
Now off to search for a dac

danali · « **Reply #6 on:** 25 Jan 2005, 05:00 am »

Well after a couple of weeks of construction, the panels are finished.
The spray on adhesive sucks.
ended up using liquid nails for adhering the foam to the peg board.Jon Risch also recommends silicone rubber. I am confident that would work equally well.
If I had to do it over again, I would go to walmart and buy some cheap fabric and just cover it.
The portable stands are the way to go imho.
As for the results, Nathan was dead on. Do not invest in anything until you treat your room.
Wow what a difference.
Making four more panels, three for the front wall, two behind the speakers, and one centered and an addional behind the seating area.
All in all a fun and inexpensive project. As well as easy.
It also looks pretty kick ass, if I wasn't digitally challenged I would post some pics.
If you have not treated your room yet, do it!
It is cheap, easy, looks and sounds great.
Now off to search for a dac

lt5dude · « **Reply #7 on:** 25 Jan 2005, 02:33 pm »

Just a reminder- you can get double sided tape at Home Depot that will hold the foam to the wall (or panel). It works great and is very easy to use. It's made to attach signs to walls and that sort of thing. I used it to attach foam pieces as large as 6' X 4' (2 inch wedge foam) and they've held up just fine. It was easy.

davejcb · « **Reply #8 on:** 25 Jan 2005, 08:38 pm »

What make of tape did you use? The kind I got didn't work worth ass, so I ended up using thumbtacks.

danali · « **Reply #9 on:** 26 Jan 2005, 01:57 am »

after one day the liquid nails for foambord has held up wonderfully!
1/2 tube per 2 foot by 4 foot sheet.

lt5dude · « **Reply #10 on:** 26 Jan 2005, 07:12 pm »

I can't remember if the tape I used was 3M or Scotch, but it was one of those brands, I think. There was "normal" and "heavy duty" and I used some of both depending on the panel size. It was right next to the spray on adhesive in the home depot.

nathanm · « **Reply #11 on:** 26 Jan 2005, 08:21 pm »

Another bonus with acoustic treatment is that you get a little "free" thermal insulation. My place has separate electric baseboard heaters in each room and the room with the foam in it I have the thermostat set much lower than the others. It doesn't get quite as cold in there. So hey, maybe if the W is nixing the foam idea on aesthetic grounds a guy could whip out the "but we'll save on energy bills!" argument. Maybe?