what's the cheapest way to reduce reflections?

[brainhulk]

and not make the room look ugly

 

[mshan]

http://www.gikacoustics.com/products.html (GIK 242 panels?)

(I think I read that you could barely make similar things yourself, but less professionally finished, for same amount of money).





edit: don't know if they make this product anymore, but box of RPG Profoam might be cheaper: http://www.rpginc.com/products/profoam/index.htm
Looking at musician's website's for studios in a box might be cheap option, too.

 

[vi edit]

A bag of mineral wool is about $30. Two 4x8 sheets of luan board are around $8 each. Some scrap 1x3's are .29 a piece. A can of spray paint is $5. 10 yards of broadcloth is $20. Borrow an electric stapler from somebody to staple the cloth to the back of the luan.

You can make 8 2x4 panels out of that for around $75. Tough to beat in cost & coverage.

 

[vi edit]

ATS is a little more affordable than GIK

http://www.atsacoustics.com/cat--ATS-Acoustic-Panels--100.html

 

[Tiamat]

Depends what frequencies you are trying to absorb. Reflections within the room are problematic for all frequencies. As the frequency decreases, the wavelengths lengthen and become harder to absorb. Conversely, the higher frequencies are very easy to absorb.

Generally, if you have a dedicated space, you can get away with making it deader. However, in a living space, you need to be more careful with how you select your acoustic treatments.

Bass is very problematic in all rooms. If you go after the upper-bass frequencies, you will also get decent absorbing at the midrange and lower treble without worrying about overabsorbing the treble.

The 'problem' with bass absorption is that the panels have to be thick, usually 4+".

While different people advocate different views on treating a room for acoustics, on a budget, I would have to say getting bass traps is the best way to knock away some of the more significant problems while also improving the ambience of the room for person-to-person dialog.

Something like GIK 244 panels, Monster Panels, Tri-corners; RealTraps MiniTraps; stacked into all of the corners of the room as possible should help immensely. In a rectangular room, you have the 4 height-wise corners of the room, and the 4 ceiling-length, ceiling-width corners; as well as the corresponding floor-length and floor-width corners. These are all excellent candidates for bass treatment. You might find that after treating all of these corners, your room is fine for mid frequency and upper frequency echos in addition to less muddy, more tight bass.

If you are a do-it-yourself kind of person, google "SuperChunks". This is basically dense fiberglass cut into triangles. The triangles are stacked to form one large triangular prismatic bass trap that sits into the verticle corners of your room.

Unfortunately, any acoustic material less than 3" in thickness will be nearly useless for upper bass frequencies. Lower bass frequencies are ridiculously difficult to treat on a small budget. The thickness of acoustic material includes the material itself in addition to any air gap between the material and the wall to which it is mounted.

Verticle corner bass traps are the easiest to implement in a normal rectangular room since you just place the trap there and you are done. No mounting, no clue, nails, etc. I, personally, use the GIK tri-corners due to their ease of installation - Floor to ceiling stacked.

Note: By the time you furnish a room with some soft chairs, the upper frequencies (10kHz+) will not be a problem unless you have a ton of uninterrupted glass/wood in the room. Most good bass traps absorb from 120hz-4khz with less absorption beyond that range.