Heavy drapes on the windows or venetian blinds. Thick rugs or carpets. (Decorative carpeted panels or tiles around the walls and sides adjacent to speakers.) Planters with thick large foliage. Bookshelves with different cloth-bound books, figurines. Teddy bears, throw pillows and stuffed animals on the corners. Heavy matted or impasto paintings (no glass covers pls.) Heavyv Venetian rugs over the headboard. Accoustic tiles for the ceiling (good but not necessary if you already have thick carpets. Rule is no two parallel facing sides should be reflective, treat at least one.) Ofcourse, don't forget the bed which is perhaps the most sound absorbent of all, especially if you use thick matresses, comforters and many pillows. These would be my "treatment" for a room to be both livable and accoustically permissible.
The trick is NOT to eliminate reverbs, but to DECAY them so they hardly reach you at your listening position. A totally accoustically DEAD room is unliveable. You could hear blood gushing through your ears, if not the footsteps of cockroaches. ;D
Since we're talking about our homes, and a bedroom in it, I wouldn't recommended totally deadening it accustically. If you've ever been to an anechoic studio, you'd know what I mean. It's so quiet, you could hear your heartbeat and even the blood gushing behind your ears. And I wouldn't even be surprised if you can hear cockroches coming and going. A liveable and accoustically treated room in our homes is where there's a good balance of liveliness and deadness. Not only would I not recommend it, it will cost a lot. A totally unneceasary expense.
Most reasonable accoustic treatments will tend to DECAY initial reverbs, not eliminate. Eliminating it is what an anechoic studio does. Decaying it is what home treatments will do so the reverbs won't mix and modulated the primary signals as they reach your ears. There probably would still be a few energies left, but an effective accoustic treatment at home would make them too weak to significantly alter the waves reaching your ears or are diverted (diffracted) elesewhere so they don't interfere with what goes into your ears at your listening postion.
How would I know if my HT system is outputting the best sound that it can?
Is there a device that would show this?
Heavy drapes on the windows or venetian blinds. Thick rugs or carpets. (Decorative carpeted panels or tiles around the walls and sides adjacent to speakers.) Planters with thick large foliage. Bookshelves with different cloth-bound books, figurines. Teddy bears, throw pillows and stuffed animals on the corners. Heavy matted or impasto paintings (no glass covers pls.) Heavyv Venetian rugs over the headboard. Accoustic tiles for the ceiling (good but not necessary if you already have thick carpets. Rule is no two parallel facing sides should be reflective, treat at least one.) Ofcourse, don't forget the bed which is perhaps the most sound absorbent of all, especially if you use thick matresses, comforters and many pillows. These would be my "treatment" for a room to be both livable and accoustically permissible.To me, The advise given by av_phille is the most practical one. To decay reverb and no two parallel reflective material facing each other is a good approach.He allows you to use whatever common material is available at hand that you have already. Throw-pillow, rugs , carpet, book-shelves,paintings etc .Try clapping to determine the echo is also a sound advise. Since we are dealing with the most practical(common sense din) theatre set-up in your home , It would be advisable to do it by"trial and error"approach. Determine first your speaker placement set-up and listen then if you think you are satisfied with the sound you hear, minimal accoustic treatment na lang kelangan . In my readings, kahit yun mga consultant- engineers have diferent approach in treating the room acoustically. It's a debate whether side-wall reflections should be absorbed or difused. As layman , just choose one aproach since side -wall reflection really affect the perceived spectral balance. Unless you can choose your room where you can set-up i.e. dapat mataas ang ceiling or dapat this or that. For most , Room is considered a GIVEN., simplify the acoustic treatment with whatever absobent or difusive material you have at hand. Start with loudspeaker placement and putting rug/carpet on your floor. Unless you want to spend dat mucho, you may [want to ]buy a P5,000 tube trap a piece or P2,500 acoustic panel na you can make yourshelf at P150/cost (katsa at wd) per piece at baka lokohin ka pa ng acoustic-scam gimickry . Try av_phille practical solution, hindi naman studio yan gagawin mo. The ultimate judge is your ear , how to satisfy what you consider is pleasant to hear. Once satisfied, just say "ignorance is bliss" if you think baka meron pa dapat gawin. :)
The trick is NOT to eliminate reverbs, but to DECAY them so they hardly reach you at your listening position. A totally accoustically DEAD room is unliveable. You could hear blood gushing through your ears, if not the footsteps of cockroaches. ;D