Acoustics Hi-Fi listening room
Good acoustics in a Hi-Fi listening room is essential for an ultimate sound experience. After all, you have invested in a complete audio / Hi-Fi set with high-quality speakers. Naturally, you want to make the most of it.
On this page, we provide solutions and tips to optimize the acoustics of your listening room. For more information, please feel free to contact us.
Good acoustics for your Hi-Fi
In 4 steps
Every listening room is different and so are the acoustics. The acoustic solution for better music reproduction in your living room is different than when you have a closed listening room.
To make the music from your music system sound good, there are four steps you can take:
Listening position
The listening position is important in a Hi-Fi Room. In general, the speakers and the listening position are in a triangle and equally spaced from each other. The speakers should be placed about 50-100 cm from the wall. The listening position is roughly 2/5ths of the room (in length).
Reflections
In a Hi-Fi listening room, we want to prevent disturbing reflections from walls and ceiling. This can be done by absorption or diffusion, in which a balance is usually sought so as not to make the room sound too 'dry' and not too spacious.
Low frequency
Low frequencies play an important role in listening rooms in the form of bass tones. Flutter echoes and under-response are improved by absorption and bass tubes (or traps) placed in the corners.
Diffusion
Depending on your situation and preferences, placing diffusers is a solution for obtaining more spatial sound reproduction. Diffusion does not provide absorption, but a distribution of the sound energy.
Step 1:
Speaker and listening position in the ideal situation
In a listening room, the placement of the speaker and listening position is essential. In an ideal closed listening room, an A=B=C ratio is chosen. This means that you create an equilateral triangle with the speakers and the listening position.
Place your speakers at a distance of 50-100 cm from the wall. Due to resonances, the output (strong or weak) of low frequency varies in a room. This has to do with the wavelength and size of a listening room. In short, in an ideal situation, we use as a general rule that your listening position is at 38% in the length of the room. In practice, this can sometimes be from the rear wall.
Of course, you can deviate slightly from the 38% rule. You must avoid a position on 25% or 50% of the space.
Step 2:
Reducing reflections through absorption
In this example, we assume a listening room of 5 x 6 meters and a maximum height of 3 meters.
In an empty space, the sound reflects off walls, floor and ceiling. In a listening room, we want to create a 'Reflection Free Zone'. We have to add sound absorption to places where reflection takes place. That is in any case the walls and ceiling.
You can move a mirror along the side walls to determine the reflection points on the sidewalls. The places where you hang the acoustic wall panels are at the places where you can see a speaker in the mirror from the listening position.
We recommend adding at least 50% of the total floor area to absorption. In this example, we have applied roughly 16m2 of absorption in a room of 30m2. That represents 55% of the floor area.
- 11 pcs of EASYultra wall panels of 120 x 60
- 3 pcs EASYceiling Cloud ceiling island of 240 x 120 cm
Step 3:
Diffusion
In listening rooms, absorption often alternates with diffusion elements. More diffusion of sound, with the help of diffusers, ensures better distribution of sound energy. Diffusers will give you more spaciousness in your room.
Diffusers are placed on the sidewall in our example. In practice, the rear wall or ceiling may also be suitable. Especially with a ceiling that is low, or when you are seated near the rear wall.
Step 4:
Low Frequencies
Low frequencies play an important role in listening rooms. We are talking about frequencies below 250Hz. A good listening position is important to avoid spikes or dips of low frequencies as much as possible. Dampening these low tones is also essential.
A response that is too low is improved by absorption and bass tubes (or traps) that are placed in the corners. These are elements with such a thickness that they can dampen low frequencies. In the corners, the low tones manifest themselves the most, making this the place to place bass traps.
