Spare room about 3.5 by 4.5 metres, monitors on a desk against the short wall, currently nothing on the walls. I have around 200 and can build or buy. Everything I read says corners first, but the reflections off the wall behind my monitors seem like the more obvious problem when I clap. What would you do with that budget, and does the order actually matter that much?
Mild disagreement on order: if your speakers are close to the front wall and you can't move them, that reflection is a real audible comb filter and one thick panel behind each monitor helps immediately. I'd do two corner traps and two front panels rather than all four in corners. Compromise, but it's a small room and you'll hear both.
Corners first, and it does matter, though not for the reason people usually give. In a room that size your worst problems are low frequency modes that make the bass wildly uneven from seat to seat, and thin panels on the front wall do nothing about those while making the room sound deader in a way that fools you into thinking it's fixed. With 200 I'd build four 10-15cm thick mineral wool panels and straddle them across the two front corners floor to ceiling, then use anything left for first reflection points at the sides. Thickness beats coverage every time.
Exactly, the gap is where the low frequency work happens. A 10cm panel with 10cm of air behind it behaves far more like a 20cm panel than like a 10cm one.
Straddling the corner rather than flat on the wall, is that just for the air gap behind?
Before spending anything, try moving the desk. In a 3.5x4.5 room, going from the short wall to the long wall, or just pulling the whole setup 40cm further out, can change your low end more than 200 of treatment. It's free and reversible.
@milkcratepress · 9mo ago · 2 replies
Build, don't buy, at that budget. Mineral wool slabs, some cheap timber and fabric will get you four proper thick panels for around 150 where 200 of retail foam gets you a nice looking room that measures identically to an untreated one. Takes an afternoon and one trip to a builders merchant.
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@rackmount_rina · 9mo ago
Agreed, and wear a mask and long sleeves while cutting the slabs. It's not dangerous but it's deeply itchy.
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