Room treatment

[hudo]

Moving to a new house, and have "carte blanche" with the living room :)
There will be a sofa, rug, TV, small bookshelf, and ikea kallax with records, but need to add a proper treatment with few absorbers/diffusers. Room is about 4x5m.
Plan is to start with setting up the equipment, then getting basic measurements with REW and UMIK mic - see whats the FR, waterfall and RT60 for start. But don't know whats the best place for ordering treatment panels/bass traps?
Or, is there maybe a professional service for measurements (i am noob for that to be honest, even tho looking forwarding in learning more about that subject) and treatment recommendations?

cheers all
Hudo

[Diapason]

Back when Adam was a boy I imported a load of GIK Acoustics panels from the US (Celtic Tiger, we all partied) and they worked pretty well. I think they have a proper European presence now too, so should be easier if you go that route. I had contacted them and shared layout of the room, etc, and they made some suggestions of what to get. To be honest, the end results were far more based on trial and error rather than what was technically "right", and I spent a long time moving them around and listening. I only bought absorption, and I always regretted that, I really could have done with more diffusion. Excessive absorption absolutely sucked the life out of the sound and could make the balance unnatural.

Still, the treatments worked in that they turned a miserable acoustic pig of a room into a serviceable but nonetheless annoying room. If you're starting from a better place than that (and with those dimensions it sounds like you are) my best advice would be not to overdo it. You definitely don't want or need to plaster every wall with treatments. Also, the best sound treatment I ever had in that room was clutter and furniture, so don't assume that an empty box with treatments is a good thing. Good luck!

[hudo]

GIK sells in EU now and its quite reasonably priced, so its one option. But based on their calculator, i should get between 17 (min) and 30 (recommended) panels, which is not happening, not matter the cost:) I guess those numbers are if you don't have any furniture, not sure.

[Fran]

Not much I can say to you here - although please do tell us how you get on. This is one of those subjects that we all could learn more about!

[Diapason]

This is one of those areas where I'd love to get the help of a professional, but would be fearful of paying somebody good money to either do nothing more than I could do myself, or end up with a disappointing result. I think GIK suggesting you should buy 30 of their panels is extracting the urine, and you'd have to wonder what that would sound like anyway. You're not trying to put together a studio here after all, so you'd wonder what the end goal is there.

Good luck with it all anyway, and definitely report back. I'd offer to loan you some GIK panels to see how you find them, but they have all gone to other people over the years, unfortunately.

[hudo]

As soon as i put basic furniture and system into the room (next week or two), i'll start with basic measurements, and try to document everything here as progress! Have only basic REW knowledge, so need to do some upskilling before...
Also found some really easy DIY bass trap instructions, maybe i'll try that also. Little bit afraid how my big speakers (QA Concept 500) will work in smaller room, going from kitchen+living room (~35sqm) to just living room (20sqm). But also have Maggies LRS, they didn't work that well in the old room, maybe they will like more the new one.

[Ivor]

I'd set up the system and live with it for a while. Otherwise you're guessing or predicting.
You might never need to do any treatments (after some furniture or rack adjustments) so, as always, enjoy the music first.

[Ciaran]

I moved to my current house 18 months ago. I have too many books, and I decided to get a built-in bookcase made which would entirely fill one wall of my living room. It took a long time to persuade the carpenter who had agreed to make the bookshelves to actually come and measure up, so it was about a year after I moved when the bookcase was installed. You can see where this is going: once the bookshelves were installed and filled with books, the sound of my system was greatly improved: no science, no planning! The bookshelves seemed quite expensive, but if I'd been paying for that sound improvement on a hi-fi budget, I would have considered it good value! The wall of books is just behind the speakers, which is lucky, because it was the only suitable wall for the bookshelves.

[hudo]

as always, enjoy the music first.

don't we use music to enjoy our systems actually? 🤣

[hudo]

I moved to my current house 18 months ago. I have too many books, and I decided to get a built-in bookcase made which would entirely fill one wall of my living room. It took a long time to persuade the carpenter who had agreed to make the bookshelves to actually come and measure up, so it was about a year after I moved when the bookcase was installed. You can see where this is going: once the bookshelves were installed and filled with books, the sound of my system was greatly improved: no science, no planning! The bookshelves seemed quite expensive, but if I'd been paying for that sound improvement on a hi-fi budget, I would have considered it good value! The wall of books is just behind the speakers, which is lucky, because it was the only suitable wall for the bookshelves.

Bookshelf was an idea, but don't have that many books here. But its a solid option definitely!