Good info on home theater acoustics?

[MitchSchaft]

I'm trying to learn how to square away some acoustic problems in my living room. Lots of echo at higher volume, etc. Does anyone have any good links on research material for this subject? I'm trying to figure how where I could place sound dampening material. I have a book called 'The Master of Acoustics' as a starting place.
From what I gather, I'll have to make this subject a hobby for a while to achieve what I'm looking for.

[sic0048]

You might want to check out AVSForums for a good forum based experience. There is even a section dedicated to building a home theater. Lots of information to wade through, but lots regarding acoustic treatments.

[stanger89]

There's a massive thread over there with lots of good info. Several professionals post over in that thread as well.

[xxLJLxx]

The custom home theater thread that sic linked is very sweet. I have spent a lot of time reading and drooling in that one. There are some pretty impressive builds there.

[MitchSchaft]

Thanks for the link.
Yeah, most of it seems to be for folks showing their systems off . I'm having to find info on google then search that site to find any real content. So far I understand the concept of echos and how to find where they are bouncing off your walls from using a mirror. That's where you would place a sound absorbent/diffusing panel to minimize that initial echo.

[stanger89]

Here's the "Acoustical Treatments Master Thread"
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=255432

[Fuzzy]

A quick and dirty is you want to avoid having two hard surfaces parallel with each other (hard to do in a rectangular room.... so that's what you want to break up. usually the ceiling isn't a problem, if you have carpetted floors. It's the walls across from each other that end up being the problem. Anything to break that up will help. remember, you only hae to soften ONE of the two walls, so this might help it remain asthetic.

[Diginerd]

My favorite tool for modelling accoustics and the impact of all kinds of changes is CaraCAD. I have a "Real" (Not Virtual) recording studio in the basement instead of a HT room.

Unfortunately I don't think they have a Demo, but I'm a fully registered user and I like helping folks with this stuff. Especially as there are a lot of folks out there that profess all kinds of strategies without properly understanding the exact situation.

If you PM me room dimensions and maybe a sketch of the layout, wall construction and what speakers you have and where they and furnature is I can do a rough model for you.

It's not as precise as what it can do with real measurements (Both accoustic and dimensionally), but it should highlight the major flaws and give you some pointers to fix.

http://www.rhintek.com/cara/cara21desc.php

Review does a better job of showing what it does than their site..

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue8/cara.htm

[MitchSchaft]

Awesome, that's what I'm talkin' about. I will check out your links and get that info to you asap.
I do have TrueRTA, but haven't played with it yet. I also found a program from the AVS forums called FRV that you can punch your room dimensions in and it'll estimate your first echo points in a 3D map of your room. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's fun to play with.