[Carlman]

I have a 5' wide by 7' tall opening from my listening room to the rest of the house.  I want to put some kind of divider here to limit sound reflections coming back into the room from the house.

The options I know of so far are:
1: Curtains hung on the inside of the room.  I can do heavy drapes made of velvet or whatever... this is my wife's first choice.

2:  Vertical blinds with strips of thin, dense foam on each blind to add density...

3:  Traditional room divider... like a 3-panel hinged thing with rice paper and wood squares.  I'd line the back of it with foam of some sort.  Does anyone know the properties of Neoprene?  I found this on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3656552570&category=1300

Anyway, any other suggestions or options that would be around 100 to 200 bucks?  or cheaper?  and still be 'pretty'?

Thanks,
Carl

[DTH]

As far as foam is concerned Neoprene would probably do as good of a job as any closed cell foam, the material in the auction you pointed to seems a little thin for your application though. I have never used Neoprene for sound proofing, but it works great as wetsuit material. I have seen a similar product, Volara, used in recording studios & I have done a lot of construction/installation work with good old fashion egg crate foam, it is not terribly difficult to cover with fabric.

I recently found some thick Minicell foam for a good price and am using it to calm down a subwoofer, it seems fine.

This place sells these & similar products:
http://www.foambymail.com/soundproofing.html
http://www.foambymail.com/closedcell.html

[Hantra]

Wood is working wonders for me.  I found that with my vanity area closed off in back of the listening room, my bass performance is astoundingly better.  I would be afraid of going with something that was not very rigid.  I am not sure you would get as much benefit.  

Also, you may want to consider a partial cover.  I covered only about a 6' x 2.75' space in the doorway, and I am afraid to cover more b/c the bass is just right now.  I don't want MORE. . .

If you want something pretty, I saw this thing at Pier1 that I think was around $200 or so, and it looked very nice, and was one of those shuttered room divider things with a nice finish.  It was all wood too. . .

Good luck!

B

[Carlman]

I like the panel idea best so far.  I saw the wood one at Pier 1 but, my wife didn't care for it.. but, it's on overstock.com so, maybe I can do that one.. we'll see...

Another option is getting this:


And then cutting foam to fit inside the frame on one side.  I then have a rice paper light barrier, wood difusers and then the foam... seems like it might be just the ticket.  Total price with foam should be about 150 shipped.

Thanks for the suggestions...

[Hantra]

That looks good.  I would try it two ways just to see which is better.  

In my mind, if you're trying to put something there to keep sound from going back in there and reflecting all around, rice paper won't do it.  Foam might work better, but is not a great solution in my experience.

I would put that up, and then put wood behind it. .  Then try it with foam, and no wood.  I think the optimal would be wood working to keep the sound from going back there, and foam on the back side of the wood would keep the sound that gets back there from bouncing all around.  

See what I'm saying?

B

[Carlman]

Yes.... so it'd look like this:
/\/

.... with the foam on the back parts of the panels.. and the underscore is a big separate piece behind the panel.  That'd work great but, I don't have that much freedom with this room.  I may be able to do something like that but not to the full extent... we'll see when it all gets here.  So far I've spent only $130 for both the screen and the foam including shipping.  So, I'm just happy this solution is cheap-ish... Everything so far has been in the 300 range... and difficult to implement.... I may end up getting better foam, more wood, thick vinyl, etc., but, the core is there.

[Tonto Yoder]

Need more than 295,000 sq feet???

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3455354430&category=25331

What about office partitions???  The fabric covered panels that "define" office cubicles.  These can sometimes be had cheaply at thrift stores or office supply closeout stores.  You'd probably have to fashion some kind of feet to keep them upright, but you could attach foam or other acoustic treatment to them.  If anyone asks, tell them it's a Magneplanar prototype!  

[satfrat]

I like the idea of a accordian-style fiber/bamboo/slats door that rides on an upper mounted rail. The combination of the accordian shape and a material like bamboo would make for a nice natural sound defusion Regards, Robin

[Tonto Yoder]

This site-

http://www.theatricaldrapery.com/pictures/
has some used drapery. It's often of the huge scale of a theater, but they have some smaller stuff now and then.

[Carlman]

Tonto,
That's an excellent suggestion.  Thanks!

[DSK]

Carlman,
I wouldn't use Neoprene. Closed-cell foams are excellent for treating structure borne resonance (ie. in component platforms) and impact absorption, but you need open-cell foams for airborne absorption.

The opening, depending on its location and the location of your listening position and speakers, may not even be causing a problem. It is probably acting as a suck-out for all frequencies, which may or may not be a good thing. Unless the opening leads into a very reflective room, it is doubtful that there is much re-entering from that room anyway. If you place some sort of temporary barrier across the opening with absorptive foam on it, you are effectively creating a suck-out area (in the mids & highs) much like the opening itself and bass will not even see your barrier. And, you may even be creating a reflective hotspot (if the foam is on the outside of the barrier). If the opening is on the side wall in your speaker/listener setup, you may be better off adding some absorption to the other side wall opposite the opening. This will bring soundstaging and imaging back into balance. If it's the bass that is troubling you, a temporary barrier will do nothing to improve things, you will need to use some bass traps. They can be made cheaply (see Jon Risch's website) but are very effective and can be made to look rather attractive too for WAF.

Hope this helps,
Darren.

[Carlman]

Darren,
Thanks for your thoughts on this... and it's something I'd considered but haven't yet addressed.  This is somewhat of a trial-and-error situation.  I recognize some symmetry is needed but, I'm not sure how I'll be achieving that yet.

As to the opening, it does indeed "lead into a very reflective room"... The opening goes into an 18' high foyer/hallway and then opens again into a dining room with glass and iron furniture.  All of this is hardwoods.  I've recently put down 2 rugs and pads and it's helped.

I may need to treat my hard wall opposite the opening equally as much as the opening.  I will see what the effects are soon.

-C

[DSK]

 We are in the same boat my friend. The corner over my left shoulder when listening is a floor-to-ceiling opening to a long tiled hallway, with no furniture, that leads to the front door (no other openings off the hallway).....super reflective. The staircase also comes down to this point so it is very difficult to block off.

The reverb time in my room (19'W x 24'L x 9'H) is way too long as the room has a tiled floor, leather lounge suite, windows down one side (covered with heavy drapes) etc. When you clap or cough sharply, you can hear the ring/decay for over a second. A floor rug from speakers to listening position has been added, along with a 5'H x 8'W wall rug (mounted onto a 3"D frame filled with fibreglass batts) on the wall behind the speakers, and some DIY absorptive panels on the wall behind the listening position have all helped but the reverb time is still way too long. Although I have no bass boom problems (due to plasterboard walls and ceiling and windows down the left wall) I built a pair of broadband tube traps for the corners behind the speakers. These made significant improvements to soundstaging and imaging and dynamics and almost totally eliminated an upper midrange peakiness. I have almost completed an additional pair of broadband tube traps to experiment with at the primary reflection points on the wall behind the speakers (dipolar ribbons). Although an earlier test (stringing up a doona across the opening) showed improvement, it seems that better treatment of the primary reflection points and corners are reducing certain faults that I had attributed to the corner opening. I am hoping that the other treatments will make it unnecessary to block off the opening at all ....we'll see. At worst, I will end up putting a small hook on either side of the opening and hanging up a thick blanket or something during critical listening sessions. Unfortunately it is the formal loungeroom, so many of the treaments have to be carried in and out of the room before and after each listening session.  

[Tonto Yoder]

Tonto,
That's an excellent suggestion.  Thanks!

Someone on another forum was trying to replicate a mini-theater in his room and wanted one whole wall to be a "dead end" acoustically and look like a theater visually. That site had some used heavily-lined drapes that fit the bill, cheaper than he could find them elsewhere.

[laserman]

I like the idea of using the Asian Room Dividers with a sandwich of material behind them.

We had a problem at work with different conference rooms and offices and utilized products for the company listed below.  The website does provide some interesting information.  As a mater of fact I ended up using some of the left over pieces very effectively in my listening room.  I never thought I needed anything but thought since it was free and I had the time to try it, why not.

www.acousticalsurfaces.com/fabric_panel/fpswallp.htm?d=4

Good luck with your efforts,
Lou

[Carlman]

Lou the laserman... thanks for that link!  that mineral core may be better than the mdf I was planning to use.  But, for the price, I'll probably to stick to this plan:

My latest idea was to make a sandwich like this:

Code: [Select]


======== listening space


__|__|___|__|_ oriental screen with wood squares facing in

-------------- Volara foam stuck on back in rice paper insets

_____________ MDF board attached


= = = = = = outside of listening space



[satfrat]

Checkout the japanese room treatment panels that I just installed in my room at www.acoustic-revive.com . I'll be doing a review of this product shortly but these tuning panels are the real deal. Mine were mounted on the walls/ceilings but they can also be placed as floorstanders. These lighweight panels reflect and amplify the sound at the same time. Regards, Robin

[laserman]

Hi Carlman,

The material was pretty expense but worked very well.

I am pretty frugal myself.  You might want to consider putting down a layer of that Poly-Batten material used to make quilts between the oriental screen and the Volara foam.  Give it a try and if it goes too far you can always remove it with out too much of a hassle.  Also, depending on how far you are going to spread the tri-fold screen out, you may have to add stablizing feet.  HD or Lowe's have these double thick paint stirring sticks that will work fine cut into six inch pieces and spray painted to a color of your choice.

Again, good luck with the project and let up know how it turns out.
Lou