Room Acoustics / Romakustikk
Frames for acoustic modules:
Acoustic modules use polyester-fiber absorption material. No dust, no skin irritation, stays in shape, very good absorption. 10cm and and 20cm thickness used in this project.
Poly diffusor with mount:
Another poly diffusor:
Poly diffusors with wall mount, adjustable horizontal angle:
A customer wanted just a quick guide for a temporary room. We did a "Acoustic Project Mini", where we show the acoustic treatment in images, and everything is described in a compressed format in the project documentation.
This room had some treatment already in place, that could be kept and adjusted for improved performance.
Free-standing poly diffusors, adjustable height:
Prices are updated, work in progress on updated product page for Acoustics.
There are 2 options now:
Acoustics Project:
Complete guide for fixing a room.
Mini Acoustics Project:
Quick assessment of acoustic treatment for a room. Includes 3D renderings of the room with acoustic treatment, and a brief documentation describing what this consist of. Does not include detailed construction drawings and no follow-up for construction.
A Mini can later be expanded into a full Acoustic Project, and you pay only for the upgrade. This makes it ideal as starting point, if you want to see the solution before going all-in.
Trendy: Slat wall
Slat walls seems to be a new trend in interior design, they pop up everywhere. So now you can have it both - nice acoustics and trendy at the same time.
The typical interior designer's slat wall consist of wooden slats of even width (and depth) placed evenly spaced on the wall surface, with some sort of black behind it, sometimes a thin layer of absorptive material. Is this any good for sound? They look kind of similar to the modules and walls in the pictures I show?
Though it is better than a flat wall surface for sound, it really does not take out the potential, because the design simply does not take acoustic properties into consideration.
First, there is no real absorption behind the slats, and that absorption is really what makes those acoustic modules with slats work. Real absorption material of proper thickness, at least 10cm, is needed.
Then the slats are evenly spaced, equal width, which creates a reflection pattern with distinctive pattern, resulting in uneven frequency response of the decay, and lobing of the reflected energy. If there is proper absorption behind, the slats with this similar spacing will also create a Helmholz-resonator effect at lower frequencies, giving better absorption at some frequencies and reduced absorption elsewhere.
Amount of reflective area vs. openings into absorption behind determines how reflective the surface is. This reflection ratio must be considered and adapted according to location of the surface in the room, on relation to speaker and listener location. So the surfaces you see in the pictures form my room designs have different amount and distribution of slats, depending on where they are mounted. For a reason.
Then the slats are unevenly distributed, to avoid creating a pattern in the reflected sound.
So, for such a slat wall to work properly, it must be designed with proper absorption, the right amount of slat density, and the slats must be distributed in a random pattern.
Slat wall examples:
Take a look at these 21+ Missed Opportunities..
https://www.houszed.com/wood-slat-wall-ideas/
If they did it properly, the rooms would benefit huge from improved acoustic atmosphere, even if they are not used for sound reproduction.
The customer with the Mini Acoustic Project has med progress, installing this on the right wall, and this actually works:
Room2 has a front wall with slats, sparsely distributed:
The room mentioned in post #6 has made progress, looks nice:
(Images updated)
Back of the room now looks very nice, still some work left to do on the front wall.
Origins of the Acoustic service
I design loudspeakers and sound system solutions, and obviously room acoustics is a part of that, which simply can not be ignored if the highest level of sound reproduction quality is to be reached. I have a background from dynamic systems, simulation and software, with electroacoustics and general acoustics acquired through building speakers and working with sound over decades. This gives a solid theoretical and practical foundation to build on, when designing new solutions and searching for new ways to improve sound experience. So I have the necessary theoretical background to understand acoustics, I can read a book on acoustics and understand at least much of what is described in there.
My approach to most of the challenges in the art of sound reproduction is a combination of theoretical using general knowledge about signals and systems, combined with practical experiments to test things. Test how things work, how we perceive a change in the sound, how important it is to fix a specific property of sound.
I am more focused on finding solutions that actually work and gives a real improvement, rather than using methods and solutions developed by other audio professionals. Because much of what is out there, simply is not that important for the sound we perceive, some things are plainly wrong, some things are wrong because someone wants to sell a product, sometimes with deliberate disinformation.
My approach has resulted in such as the F205 speaker and Compact Horn subwoofers.
The room acoustics part have developed quite significantly the last few years, where I now can make a solutions for acoustic treatment of any small room, and know that it will actually work very well. This knowledge I have now decided to share, through this Acoustics Service. Yes, it is not free, like most things of any real value, you have to pay for it. And what you pay for this, will give you more value for money than any other purchase you have done in hifi equipment, guaranteed.
Back to early 80-ies..
When I was 14 years old, I built my first loudspeaker that actually worked. It had a quite large midrange horn, a 12" high-efficiency woofer in ported enclosure, a horrible piezo HF horn. This design deserves its own story, but, another time.
I observed that the sound when installed outdoors, was much better than indoor. And some rooms were less bad, such as a living room with lots of furniture and carpets and curtains, were much better than a bedroom with bare walls.
Acoustics. Obviously, acoustics had major impact on sound quality. So this was a profession, someone knew about this, and they surely must have a solution. And indeed. The term "Sabine" was the metric to use, a parameter describing sound absorption on a surface, and in a room, you need a certain amount of those sabines, then it should work out all right.
So my first attempt at acoustic treatment was to hang a blanket on to a wall, pretty much all that was practically possible anyway, and while it may have been possible to both hear and measure a difference, we understand that it did not work.
Story continues, hopefully..