Home Theater
Acoustics

One goal of a home theater is to re-create the same sound that the music director heard when the soundtrack was recorded. But every room adds its own characteristics to a given sound, and the same speaker can sound differently from room to room.

The most elusive enemy of the sound system is the standing wave. Standing waves are any sound waves of a particular length that will be greatly enhanced by the size and shape of the room and the way it resonates. In reality, the standing wave is the source of acoustical problems.

The shape of a room has a lot to do with sound. A square room is most likely to cause problems with standing waves because sound waves will bounce back at themselves and, depending on their wavelength, cancel themselves out. When this happens, a "hole" is created in that frequency range.

Bare surfaces in a room can be problematic for home theater sound. Sound waves reflect off bare walls and floors and cause fuzzy dialogue and grating, distorted sounds.

Simple Solutions

If possible, choose a room that has walls of different lengths to fight acoustical problems before they begin. Rooms with carpeting and padded furniture are better choices than room with hardwood floors or paneling, or lots of bare walls.

One of the easiest and most helpful things to minimize acoustical problems is deaden the room. This can be done by hanging curtains or other sound-absorbing items on walls, and furnishing the room with big, soft furniture.

Moving speakers around to change the way they reflect off surfaces can help. Keeping subwoofers out of corners is a must because corners are notorious for creating standing waves.

Once the room has been made "friendly" to sound playback, an equalizer can be used to balance and fine tune the sound to personal taste.

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