I built my HT about 5 years ago and now am thinking about changing a few things, but I have a couple of questions:

I will be building a false wall, applying acoustic treatments behind it (the existing wall) and covering them with black GOM (or similar). I intend to have an AT screen and all three front speakers will be behind the screen. I'm currently planning on having a shadowbox screen.

1. Can I cover the entire front wall with Velvet?

The screen will be 124" wide X 52" high, which will leave about 28" above and below the screen and about 13" on each side. Instead of a screen border I want to just cover the whole screen wall in black velvet. Any problem with that?


I will be adding a stage, but since my theater is on the second floor, I don't want to add any sand in it. I also would rather not just put sand in a couple of areas, because I don't know where I'll want my subwoofer and if I change subwoofers, I want to have more options.

2. Can I fill the stage with insulation and put the subwoofer on the stage with a subdude (or Great Gramma)?

3. Or would I be better off having the sub sit on the current floor and not have the stage extend behind the screen (stage begins at the false front)?

I ordered some GOM samples to treat the lower portions of my walls and it led me to another question:

4. When putting material over acoustic treatments on the lower walls, do I need to pick from the 701 series of fabrics they have or will their other fabrics work (i.e Anchorage)?

I ordered some GOM samples to treat the lower portions of my walls and it led me to another question:

4. When putting material over acoustic treatments on the lower walls, do I need to pick from the 701 series of fabrics they have or will their other fabrics work (i.e Anchorage)?

I can field #4, as I recently uncovered this myself; Anchorage, and other acoustically transparent fabrics, are fine. Especially in use over Lin (for panels in front of speakers, I guess there is a blow test, where even though technically something like Anchorage is OK, the FR701 is more transparent, and will not reduce highs as much?). In fact, if you're looking at FabricMate, I even considered some of the CF Stinson fabrics...with a little more pizzazz than GOM...because they have the "acoustical microphone" symbol.

At least that's my understanding.

CD

Anybody else have thoughts?

Anybody else have thoughts?

I'll take a shot -


I will be building a false wall, applying acoustic treatments behind it (the existing wall) and covering them with black GOM (or similar). I intend to have an AT screen and all three front speakers will be behind the screen. I'm currently planning on having a shadowbox screen.

If you are putting all the speakers behind the screen, why the shadowbox? To increase contrast? To provide for a sub? Just curious.

1. Can I cover the entire front wall with Velvet?

Seems like velvet will be more absorbtive than reflective from my non-expert speculative position. If your speakers are behind the screen, not the velvet I wouldn't imagine that to be a dealbreaker, but I'd hope for a pro to chime in. Any thoughts about whether the velvet is fire treated? I know dazian.com sells a lot of velvets and posts flameability info, just something to consider.

I will be adding a stage, but since my theater is on the second floor, I don't want to add any sand in it.

2. Can I fill the stage with insulation and put the subwoofer on the stage with a subdude (or Great Gramma)?

Add regular insulation to the entire stage to avoid having it resonate like a drum. The "pockets" of sand approach doesn't have enough mass to work. Can't imagine a subdude would hurt.

3. Or would I be better off having the sub sit on the current floor and not have the stage extend behind the screen (stage begins at the false front)?

Probably depends on the room. I'd build the stage all the way to the back (within 1/4-1/2" you don't want to couple it to the structure if you don't have to) in case you want to put the sub behind the screenwall. I imagine you are familiar with the put the sub in the seating position and crawl around the room test.

I ordered some GOM samples to treat the lower portions of my walls and it led me to another question:

4. When putting material over acoustic treatments on the lower walls, do I need to pick from the 701 series of fabrics they have or will their other fabrics work (i.e Anchorage)?

Obviously an absorptive fabric will change the performance of a treatment, but I would speculate it to be minimal.

Good luck. PS - going scope?

I built my HT about 5 years ago and now am thinking about changing a few things, but I have a couple of questions:

I will be building a false wall, applying acoustic treatments behind it (the existing wall) and covering them with black GOM (or similar). I intend to have an AT screen and all three front speakers will be behind the screen. I'm currently planning on having a shadowbox screen.

1. Can I cover the entire front wall with Velvet?

The screen will be 124" wide X 52" high, which will leave about 28" above and below the screen and about 13" on each side. Instead of a screen border I want to just cover the whole screen wall in black velvet. Any problem with that?

3. Or would I be better off having the sub sit on the current floor and not have the stage extend behind the screen (stage begins at the false front)?


1. I would be worried about the velvet around the screen especially below the screen as it is likely you may have at least some drivers from your speakers below the bottom of the screen. I'm planning to do mine with black Dazian Celtic cloth around the velvet border of the screen.

3. I chose the approach of not extending my stage past my false wall. So far I haven't found any issues with it and it saved me a lot of hassle of filling the stage with sand. I did fill the stage with insulation to stop resonance.

If you are putting all the speakers behind the screen, why the shadowbox? To increase contrast? To provide for a sub? Just curious.


Well, I need the sides to be 24" or so out from the wall due to room issues and the size of my sub. I only need about 12" or less to fit the speakers. So, I figured I could sink the screen back another 4" - 6" and gain a bit of distance between it and the seating, plus I just think it might look cool.


Seems like velvet will be more absorbtive than reflective from my non-expert speculative position. If your speakers are behind the screen, not the velvet I wouldn't imagine that to be a dealbreaker, but I'd hope for a pro to chime in. Any thoughts about whether the velvet is fire treated? I know dazian.com sells a lot of velvets and posts flameability info, just something to consider.


Thanks, pretty much my thoughts exactly.


Add regular insulation to the entire stage to avoid having it resonate like a drum. The "pockets" of sand approach doesn't have enough mass to work. Can't imagine a subdude would hurt.


Cool, also my thoughts.


Probably depends on the room. I'd build the stage all the way to the back (within 1/4-1/2" you don't want to couple it to the structure if you don't have to) in case you want to put the sub behind the screenwall. I imagine you are familiar with the put the sub in the seating position and crawl around the room test.


Yes, familiar with that, which is why I didn't want to limit myself to sand in the corners.


Obviously an absorptive fabric will change the performance of a treatment, but I would speculate it to be minimal.


We're on a roll.


Good luck. PS - going scope?

Thanks. That's the plan.

1. I would be worried about the velvet around the screen especially below the screen as it is likely you may have at least some drivers from your speakers below the bottom of the screen. I'm planning to do mine with black Dazian Celtic cloth around the velvet border of the screen.


I haven't totally sketched it out, but I don't think I'll have anything below the screen. I'm using Axiom M22's which are only about 22" high, so I should be able to wall mount them (or put them on stands) so that they're fully within the screen frame. Since I'm going scope via the zoom method, I wanted to make sure I had a big enough velvet border to absorb any light spill. With a 124" wide screen, that would mean almost a 10" border. Since the distance from floor to screen and screen to ceiling will only be about 30", I figured I might as well go all velvet to make it look consistent.


3. I chose the approach of not extending my stage past my false wall. So far I haven't found any issues with it and it saved me a lot of hassle of filling the stage with sand. I did fill the stage with insulation to stop resonance.

My first thought was not extending it to the wall. However, the stage will be going over the current carpet and I might need the stage to attach the false wall to. I know I could still attach it to it even if it didn't go all the way back, but it'd be a bit easier if it did.