In a home theater or 2 channel listening room these bounce off the nearby walls and produce very noticeable second order reflections which compete with the direct.
Acoustic panel placement mirror trick.
Recording studio designers and acoustical engineers use a technique called ray tracing to find early reflection points.
Place the panels on the hard surfaces to the left and right of the mixing position and the ceiling cloud above which is the minimum treatment expected.
First reflection point mirror trick and placement i did the mirror test with a mirror that was the same length as the panels and found that i could see a reflection of the speakers when the mirror was touching the wall i am facing in mix position the monitors are 6 inches from the wall can t move them back any farther unfortunately to.
We didn t do the geometry calculation but used a mirror instead to find the best placement.
If i lay it flat on the wall along one wall i won t.
I didn t have to worry about placement because the room is only 11 x10.
But if your room is already built there is an easier way to find your first reflection points.
In most cases you re better off with thicker panels e g 8 inches because they absorb to lower frequencies.
It may not matter but i had to ask.
4 6 inch thick rockwool or rigid fiberglass acoustic panels will do the trick.
Hi all i am setting up my acoustic panels tomorrow and was wondering about the mirror test.
Call a friend.
Acoustic foam works by reducing the amount of sound energy within a room.
The easiest and cheapest way to treat your first reflection points is to use broadband absorption.
Sound above 400hz is considered to be directional.
This is great news.
Absorption is a very popular method of acoustic treatment because it is both readily available and relatively inexpensive.
Acoustic panel placement the mirror trick.
You will notice the improvements.
The panels on the front wall are mounted vertically mostly because they would not fit horizontally.
Placement of listeners within the room.
We suggest ceiling clouds be at least 12 inches deep.
The difference the panels add to such a small room is astounding though.
2 inch thick panels are an absolute minimum.
My room is an odd shape and curious if the mirror should be held flat against the wall or 90 degrees to the wall.
Realizing many people don t want to drop 250 on the hardware for that the mirror trick will get you in the ballpark for placement.
Placement of equipment within the room.
I made this visual to simplify the explanation.
In fact the higher the frequency the more directional the sound waves tend to be.
Fwiw the panels in my room are mounted horizontally on the sides.