Home Theater Acoustics

Home theater acoustics should be important for any home theater enthusiast because acoustic reproduction is essential in creating life-like performances in home entertainment.

To optimize home theater acoustics, you need to optimize the speaker and sound equipment positions in your room to improve your system's performance.

However, to create the best environment, speakers and sound equipment are not enough to structure a good sound system. You need more; you need a good acoustics treatment.

Acoustic conditions are crucial in increasing the overall comfort level of a space in your home theater room. Considering sound reproduction is paramount to the enjoyment and overall integrity of home entertainment for the sake of those enthusiasts. This means creating excellent sound for everybody in the room.

To achieve good home theater acoustics, you could apply some extra tools to support the work of speakers and sound equipment. You should consider applying acoustical foam for sound absorption in areas that do not have aesthetic consideration. This foam can be used to create an efficient method of energy transfer that works much better than curtains or draperies by increasing the surface area and distributing sound waves over a broad amount of material.

Another treatment that you should consider is a diffuser. By applying diffusers around surround sound speakers, you would be able to create a non-directional 'band' of sound thus creating a more natural sound.

Additionally, put your full effort to stop the volume of sound created in your home theater room from impacting other rooms in the house as it would disturb your other family members and also decrease the whole system performances. Consider using double drywall to create sound rejection at certain frequencies.

Home theater acoustics have become more imperative than previously for quality home theater sound. So, treat the make-up of your room as another audio component and you'll have great home theater watching experience.

Robert Armstrong is a contributor to Master Home Theater Design - an essential guide to designing and setting up your own home theater.