Websters

• Acoustic Panels
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• DIY Acoustic Panels
• Church Acoustics
• Studio Acoustics
• Home Theater Acoustics
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• Acoustic Insulation
• Room Acoustic Treatments

The study of sound is called acoustics. Acoustic engineers work to design not only audio equipment such as loudspeakers, but also spaces in which quality sound is important. These spaces might include concert halls, public buildings, theaters, sports stadiums, and many others. Of course, many acoustic engineer are drawn to the field because of their love for music, and many of them are musicians themselves.

Acoustic engineers and musicians both tend to be very particular about the way their music sounds. Whether it is a recording they are making, or a live presentation in a newly designed amphitheater. They expect the sound that reaches the listener’s ear to be the same as it was when it was created by the musical instrument. However, once the variables of room acoustics and electronic amplification are added into the equation, getting the sound just right can be a nearly impossible task. Walls, ceilings and floors tend to reflect sound waves and cause echoes within confined spaces. These echoed sound waves then interact with newly arriving sound waves and cause audible distortions in the sounds perceived by the listener. Certain frequencies may be unduly amplified or partially cancelled out by the combination of echoed sound and original waves.

By proper placement of the speakers, management of the hard and soft surfaces, wall angles, and other factors, acoustic engineers can “tune” a room to have a minimal effect upon the sounds being created within it. However, it is important to take into account such variables as the people who will be in the room during a performance. Because a seated audience represents soft, acoustically absorbent surfaces with many different angles that scatter sound waves, they can have a dramatic impact upon the sound in a crowded hall. If a room is tuned to sound good when empty, it will likely sound much different when the audience arrives.

This is particularly true of the sound level or volume of the performance. The absorption of sound waves by the soft bodies of the audience combined with unavoidable background and masking noises caused by the audience can make subtle musical passages seem to disappear before they reach the ears of the intended listeners.

Good acoustic engineers, and experienced musicians, take these factors into account when planning a performance or designing a sound system for public performances. However, when the average consumer is buying off the shelf equipment for their home, they often don’t have such expertise to help them deal with room effects. Beyond tinkering with the system’s equalizer, they have little recourse when trying to make their newly purchased sound system sound as good as it did in the show room.

There are specialty companies like Ready Acoustics (readyacoustics.com) that offer expert consulting and products to help consumers tune their own rooms for optimum acoustic performance. Ready Acoustics, for example is comprised of musicians and acoustic engineers who began designing affordable room treatment products when they could not find what they needed to make their own music rooms sound the way they knew they should sound. Seeing a larger need, they began marketing the products nationally, and now, with their help, there is no excuse for your stereo or home theater system to offer less than it did when you first heard it demonstrated at the audio store.