Acoustic curtains
 

I’m lAttachment 52696Attachment 52696ooking for specific advice on brand or type curtains. The wall in front of my speakers is glass and needs diffusion. I think esthetically, and very importantly for the WAF, putting attractive curtains in that would allow the intended purpose of viewing the room plus allow diffusing the glass is key. I tested by putting blankets up temporarily and could hear an improvement. Can you recommend a specific curtain brand or type to use?

As always your vast experience is appreciated!

Have you had a look at Svana S-wings? They are available in acrylic (see through).
Have a look at http://www.diffusor.com/Nyheter.htm
And scroll down to the hedline "SMT S-field reference room in Taiwan". There you have a picture from a customers room where the wings have been placed in front of a window.

I'm guessing you want absorption there instead of diffusion but that's a different topic. I have a sidewall of glass that I also need a solution for. I found this recently: http://www.rosebrand.com/subcategory...-and-foam.aspx

I was thinking I could have someone make curtains out of this fabric for me. Have a look at the pictures, I guess this is the material auditoriums would use.

I was also thinking about a quick and dirty solution of just buying a few yards of that fabric and hanging it up when I want to have a serious listen.

Thank you both for your response. Honestly I am not sure if diffusion or absorption is what I need for the glass in front of the speakers. How do you determine which level (rating or coefficient) fabric works best for a particular wall or room?

I also have glass (mirror - floor to ceiling) on one wall and traditional sheetrock on the other. I was planning to put a wall treatment in the appropriate reflection spots. Cost is a factor for me and finding an affordable but effective plan is important. Anything you learn or discover I would appreciate hearing about.

Any idea of the s-wings pricing bigblue?

The wings are not cheap. 800-1000 USD each is my guess.

If blankets provided an improvement as you say in your post, that indicates you are looking for absorption. Absorption is what acoustic curtains would give you. Curtains will not be thick enough to absorb low frequencies. So, they will reduce some of the high frequency glare that I suspect you are getting with all that glass.
As for what rating I assume you’re talking about NRC ratings. They usually vary from 0 to 1 or so. The higher the NRC number, the more it will absorb. However, a fabric’s absorption will vary with frequency. The easy answer is the higher the better.
A common confusion is NRC v STC. STC is about sound transmission. It measures how much sound gets through. It is used to make things quieter as opposed to absorption. For a fabric it’s likely true that the higher the STC, the higher the NRC.
The bottom line is you want a thick fabric, as heavy as you can deal with. That will absorb the most. You room has lots of glass so I expect it would be difficult to over-absorb with curtains. With all of Ivan’s experience with home theater I suspect he would be a good source for where to buy.
And......if I come across as an expert, I am not. I did a lot of reading as I was trying to fix the acoustic issues with my small listening room. So, this is just some stuff I learned doing research and talking to people.

Agree on the don't worry about over absorbing now. What are the room measurements?

You guys are awesome! Thank you very much for the input. I am on the road now and should get back home this weekend to take some measurements for room size. It is a large room in terms of volume and odd since behind my listening chair is another room that opens up to a 24’ plus ceiling and about 40’ wide (wag). The width of the listening room is ~13.5’ wide and about 16’ cieling.

Interestingly it is not too bad overall since it is not a squared box. The room has odd shapes and heights all around. There are slap echos and some nodes that still prevent me from geting the best my equipment can present so it has to be addressed. Ill share the info when I get it down. I’ll reach out to Ivan for info as well. So far I have not been able to get a definitve read on diffusion versus absorption and bet a room analysis will best answer that question.

Olskool

Hi Olksool couple of questions,

Have you considered custom made? Curtains do not necessarily have to be "acoustical" or "pro". I had mine made of one specific kind of cloth (Madraz) due to its absortive properties but also because they go with everything else in my room.

That leads us to my second question -WAF. What is your room like aesthetically speaking (meaning, what style are you guys going for) and has your significant other, from hereon referred to The Dictator :) , given you any hints?

Personally I didn't quite like the acoustic purpose - driven options out there, at least not in my country of residence, so we ended up going with custom made Madraz and couldn't be happier.

I have not considered Madraz or any other fabric at this point. My considerations at this juncture have more been about correcting room issues and gaining sound quality. I definitely have WAF in mind too, and she agrees with my efforts to un-clutter the room (amazing how quickly a listening area can get cluttered with equipment - mainly albums and audio peripherals, in my case, over time).

We are working on having built in shelves for equipment and albums which will allow me to get rid of furniture and other album clutter, thus opening up the room for sound to improve while allowing another listening chair for her to join me for music when she wants. (A two for one win :-). By the way, how did Madraz affect your sound?