Simple, easy, economic room acoustic treatment with WAF.

Hello and welcome to whatishifi blog.

For a long period now, I am in constant pursuit of improving the sound and maximizing the pleasure I get from my system, focusing on the equipment or on tweaking them.

In the past, as a teenager, it was possible to experiment with acoustic treatment since I was in my own room and could have acoustic panels wherever I wanted, without minding for something else or apologizing to non-understanding females.

But for a long long time now, my stereo is at my living room so as you guess there are many limitations - or should I better say many right compromises - to be made. After all, it is my choice of keeping my living room the way I enjoy looking at it.

Some of you have dedicated listening rooms where you can place the speakers wherever they need to be placed and hang absorption / diffusion panels at the right places, without female nagging or minding about the design or the practicality of the living environment. Still, I guess you also have a secondary stereo at your living room, so keep reading.

The bug of improving the acoustics of the living room was in me for quite a while, but I had no clue how to do that without making things ugly or spending a fortune. Of course, the first logical step was to find if and how much things could improve, but I hesitated trying just because I felt that even if understanding that things can improve, I wouldn't know how to proceed.

Anyway, one day the experiments started. I invited Panos for some listening tests where we placed some pillows at the corners behind the speakers, a long rag in front of the speakers, a table cover at the glass coffee table I have in front of me (yes, I know) and some pillows in front of the TV screen that is between the speakers. Things improved and improved significantly, so here was some nice food for thought.

The other day we started the listening tests but we changed only one thing at a time. For the listening tests, we choose the following tracks: "A Fool For You" (Carmen Gomes Sings The Blues, Hi-Res) & "Wayfaring Stranger" (Various Artists - 2020 Audiophiliac Sampler from Chesky Records, Hi-Res). First track was mostly used to evaluate the behavior of the room at the low end, the second recording for determining the effect of making the room sounding less bright and harsh.

One of us would listen and the other would stop and start the track, while adding / removing our room redneck acoustic treatment materials.

We started with the pillows in front of the TV screen; (luckily) they didn't make any difference. Seems like the TV at this room is not making any harm.

We continued with the pillows at the corners behind the speakers. They did make things better at the low end; base was better defined and had more energy and feeling of rhythm. After all, corners are notorious for messing with bass.

The rag in front and between the speakers also improved the imaging of the voice and helped reducing the brightness - please mind that there is however a permanent rag in front of the listening position, but it doesn't extend up to the speakers.

 Also, the coffee table cover helped reducing the brightness.

We also verified that it is better to listen with curtains closed - no surprise here.

Unfortunately, like many of you, I can not place the usual bass traps at the corners behind my speakers due to aesthetic and practical reasons.

Fortunately, I found some sound absorber cylinders (60 cm tall, 15 cm thick) made of basotect, a material produced by BASF. These cylinders are designed to be hanged from the roof, but I thought that I can place them on the floor, at the corners behind the speakers. They are not at any way ugly, but rather discrete. They costed me 32 Euro each. You can find the product data sheet here.

The BASF basotect cylinder with a CD on top, so you can have an idea about it's size.

A close look at the material of the BASF basotect cylinder.

Panos on the other had has not such limitations; so I went and bought the basotect cylinders for me, a basotect panel 60 x 120 cm / 45mm thick, two bass traps for him and some acoustic foam sheets.

Back at my living room, making same kind of experiments with the basotect cylinders, we found out that they work like a charm, without messing with the room design. Bass was better focused and had more energy. It is not a night to day miracle difference, but bass was already good after all so I didn't have much to be fixed. It is a small but definite improvement, which we appreciated better by missing it, when we took out the cylinders. There is no going back. Eventually I bought a third cylinder, which I cut in half and placed each piece on top of the cylinders I already had. This way, I increased the benefits without messing the aesthetics - adding a complete cylinder gets higher than my speakers so you start noticing it's existence.

We also experimenting with the basotect panel by cutting it in half and putting it at the wall behind the speakers. At this system / room it made no difference, but I have to note that the back of my speakers is half a meter away from the back wall and the speakers themselves are floor standing, full transmission line design with the ports in front of them, making placement much immune regarding the bass and compared to bass reflex designs with port at the back.

On the other hand, these same panels placed at same position did make a difference at Pano's room and setup, with bass reflex floor standing speakers with the port at the back.

So, here you have it; a basotect cylinder will almost certainly improve your room acoustics, without looking ugly - or being a cause for a divorce.

As always, happy listening!

Chris