[jacket_fan]

This post is about acoustic treatments for Magnepans in a theater.


The latest upgrades to the system have been going to magneplanar speakers. I have Maggie 3.6s and a CC3 center channel. What worked fine for point source speakers may not be the best for the Maggies.


I still listen to quite a bit of music and am 50/50 music to movies. A large percentage of the music is 2-channel. I do listen to SACD, DVD-A and 2 channel via Logic 7 as well, but want to continue to compromise to keep good 2-channel performance. I have read many of bpape's posts about ways to do both theater and 2 channel in the same room. The acoustic details of the room are a size of 22 ft wide by 19 ft deep with an 8 ft ceiling. The ceiling has a soffit around three sides. The right hand side is dominated by a brick fireplace. The room is a dedicated room and is fully closed. The front of the room has a curtain on either side of the screen made from the same material and by a company that makes curtains for theaters. It is a very thick fabric.


The sides have some DIY treatments that I made from pressboard, 1x4s and fiberglass batts. These are at the first reflection points. As I recall, these simple additions really improved 2-channel imaging.


Nothing on the back wall.


I just got a box of 2 in thick OC 705 pieces. (I ended up getting these off the web at about $13 a piece, that's pretty expensive) I guess you could call them panels since they support themselves. I want to integrate them into the room.


The other bit of information is that I am running a DIY sub (adding a second) and have a nasty ~70 Hz room suckout. It is a really nasty null at the listening position that is less as you move away from the sweet spot. I will work this problem after I get the second sub up and running. I suspect that the treatments I am working with now will not affect the lower frequencies, so anything I do while I am waiting on the second sub to be up and running will not affect subwoofer frequencies.


I would appreciate any inputs as to what additional acoustic treatments and/or what you would do to improve the room acoustics.


Should I put some of the OC panels behind the curtains and Maggies?


Should I replace the pink fiberglass in the treatments at the first reflection points with the OC panels?


Is one panel enough or is it better to use 2 or 2 on top of each other?


The pictures show the left side, the front and the right side. The black panels on the walls on the left and right are the current acoustic treatments.

 

[jacket_fan]

Just to follow up on this post,


I stopped by the local high end shop this past weekend and went through the demo rooms and did the "clap" test. All of the rooms were much deader than mine. I asked the proprietor, who is a big 2 channel guy, what he would recommend. He said I should add sound deadening to the rear wall. So I braced a double layer of the 705 on the rear wall for a total of 8 ft wide. I put on some familiar music and listened in the sweet spot.


Could I tell a night and day difference? Unfortunately, I could not.


I think the only result was for a bit deader room which may improve things for movies, but for me it is hard to get a real A versus B difference moving panels around. The only easily recognizable difference that I have noted was putting treatments at the first reflection points. Those panels were moved in and out a couple of times, and I could hear the difference.


I know the room is a major contributor to sound quality, but it seems like I have a long way to go to get it right.