My home theater room will be sealed off and I will need a return air vent in the lower rear wall of the room (only option). How would this best be accomplished with best results for room acoustics? The room is 17'X18', around 310 sq. ft.

Thank you.

Got a picture of the wall and what the vent needs to connect to? My one size fits all recommendation is to use TRUE acoustical flex duct. See Flexmaster web site product 6B.

Sorry no photo.

I just need a thru the wall vent to a large hallway that will pick it up from there. The actual return with a filter to the HVAC air handler is at the end of the long hallway.

I'm curious if this home theater air return vent should somehow be baffled so it does not unnecessarily impact the room acoustics?

Thank you.

I'm curious if this home theater air return vent should somehow be baffled so it does not unnecessarily impact the room acoustics?


Yes you should build a serpentine path baffle box for the air vent if you are interested in mitigating the sound containment or sound proofing of the room.

I'm now thinking that if I have a seating piece somewhat in front of a smallish return air vent room acoustics might not be compromised much. True? I'm not concerned about sound containment or migration outside of the room.

Thank you.

It will not have much of an impact (if any) on the acoustics of the room... other than it will be like having an open window.. some of the sound will naturally escape.

However, you state that you are not worried about the sound escaping, so I'm not sure what you are asking. If you want to do it right, make the return vent larger and tie it directly into the return on your HVAC. This is much more efficient than just creating an opening into a hallway and expecting the air to be drawn out of the room.