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

If you’ve ever walked through a new apartment or house that has not yet been furnished and has no carpets, then you’ve heard a clear example of how a room can affect the quality of the sounds within it. Empty rooms with hard floors are highly reverberant, sending noticeable echoes bouncing all around the room. Sounds can seem amplified or distorted in these kinds of areas.

Later, when furniture and window treatments are added to the room, the acoustics are dramatically different. The echoes are not nearly as pronounced, and sounds within the room, especially those in the upper half of the audible acoustic spectrum, are more muted by far than they were in the same room when it was unfurnished. The room may also be quieter as the softer surfaces of the furniture and rugs or carpets tend to absorb sound waves rather than reflect them back into the room.

We are much more accustomed to the sound of a furnished room than we are to the way a completely unfurnished room sounds so empty rooms sound quite noticeably odd to us. Just because a room is furnished, however, doesn’t mean that you are getting the best possible acoustic performance from your home theater or home stereo system. Music and theater effects cover a much broader range of audio frequencies than the spoken voice and the ordinary sounds we might make while walking through the home.

Higher frequencies help provide us with the sense of direction to orient upon the source of the sound. In today’s surround sound home theater systems, movies are recorded with these spatial effects in mind to help make the sounds seem to originate in locations corresponding to the visual information presented on the screen. Off-screen sounds may occur to the sides or even behind us, while on screen action may be accompanied by sounds that pan across the screen in accordance with speeding vehicles or other moving objects.

If, however, there are echoes in the room caused by hard, flat surfaces like walls or glass windows, then the echoes can interfere with not only the intended directionality of the sounds, but also with the clarity of the speech, music, and special effects. For windows, curtains may be used as acoustic treatments. Heavier draped material tends to work better. For walls, acoustic treatment panels can be used. These panels are specially designed to damp sound waves and greatly reduce or eliminate audible echoes within the room. They are often upholstered and can be purchased in colors and patterns that complement the room’s décor.

For most rooms in the home, the normal acoustics of a furnished room are perfectly adequate. In rooms dedicated to home theaters or in which the home-owners expect to listen to music on a regular basis, acoustic room treatments may be needed to get the most out of their electronic gear.