TECHNICAL BULLETIN

Home Theater Room

Acoustical Design
 CinemaSource Technical Bulletins. Copyright 2001 by CinemaSource, Inc.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this bulletin may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission,
except in brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

CinemaSource is a registered federal trademark.

For information contact: The CinemaSource Press, 18 Denbow Rd. Durham, NH 03824
 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin
3

Home Theater Room Acoustical Design

ore and more home theater rooms are being Room Dimensions - Audio Performance

M designed from the ground up. Whether it be a

spare bedroom, an unfinished room in the
basement, or even a completely new addition, many home
Considerations

The laws of nature often provide us with limiting criteria

owners are deciding to start "with a blank slate". The and we have to deal with them in real world applications.
reason for this trend is simple. When you start from Determining the ideal acoustic dimensions of a listening
scratch, you have complete control over almost all room is one such process. Fortunately, however, with
construction details and thus have the ability to optimize regards to audio performance, the subject material has
your room for the highest level of performance. However, been well researched with the result that the acoustical
there's a small catch. When you start from scratch, some behavior of listening rooms is reasonably well understood.
of the more esoteric construction details needed to bring
your home theater into the realm of world-class As a means of introduction, let's look at the character of
performance are difficult to get information on. Getting sound itself. Sound is the propagation of energy that
opinions on these matters isn't hard to do; what's difficult occurs longitudinally among air molecules. When a sound
is finding objective, proven information that you can count generator, for example, a speaker driver, pushes air
on in your design. In this section, we will tackle just one molecules nearby, local molecules push other molecules
small, but important, construction detail you should know and the resultant wave of excitation travels throughout
about; the optimum physical dimensions for a home airspace. You are probably familiar with sound waves
theater room. We will toss aside a lot of the conjecture being compared visually to ocean waves. This is done for
about the subject and focus on known research data. As pedagogical purposes. The reason for this is that water
you will see, the dimensions of the room, and seating waves are easy to visualize, and represent a similar
placement within, can have a dramatic effect on the phenomena. It's just that water waves are lateral in nature
resultant home theater beast. and sound is air molecules excited in longitudinal form.
Both of them propagate with similar effects.
4 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin

interactions to understand the resultant pattern of high

For the purposes of analysis, professional acousticans pressure and cancellations. Our diagram shows the simple
divide up the sonic behavior of listening rooms into four combination of sound energy of two axial modes into
intervals. Each interval is characterized by a frequency tangential mode form. As you can see, complex
range of sound. As it turns out, the physical dimensions of disturbances in the room's sound field emerge. This is
a listening room have the profoundest effect on the exactly what we want to avoid in a well designed home
behavior of the lowest frequency range, the one that bass theater room.
notes (200 hz and lower) occupy. The behavior of this
interval, in acoustic terms, is dominated by "standing wave As it turns out, if you design a listening room with exactly
resonance effects". the right dimensions, you can spread out the high and low
pressure areas so that an optimum sound field is
Standing waves are the phenomena that results when obtained. Roy Allison, founder of RA labs and Allison
waves in an elastic medium, such as air, travel back and Acoustics, has written extensively on this, and in his paper
forth within an enclosure. At certain critical frequencies, "The Loudspeaker/Room System" he examines some of
the waves traveling in one direction combine with those the "golden room ratios" developed by researchers L.
bouncing back, with the result that some areas multiply in Louden and L.W. Sepmeyer. These golden room ratios are
strength and others actually cancel out. In our diagram the result of calculating the modal distributions created by
below, we show low frequency sound waves being low frequency sound waves, and striving for the most
generated by a speaker bouncing back and forth in a uniform distribution. L.W. Sepmeyer's ratios, in particular,
tubular enclosure. The energy in the sound is actually a have been highly utilized. Our table illustrates the three
pressure wave and the combination of the waves traveling famous Sepmeyer room ratios that have formed the basis
in opposite directions yields high pressure zones and low for hundreds of listening room designs over the last 30
pressure zones. If you were to step inside this tube and years.
walk to the areas of low pressure, you would actually hear
the sound disappear. At other points, the sound would It should be noted that if you are starting from scratch in a
sound twice as loud as normal! home theater room project, it isn't absolutely necessary to
design your room around these golden ratios. Often these
A home theater room behaves much the same way as our golden ratios may not fit one's aesthetic needs or other
"resonance tube" but with the added complexity of more constraints. Other options concern modifying the sonic
dimensions. Instead of just two surfaces, we have six (four behavior of the room with acoustical treatments. This is
walls, the floor and the ceiling). Sound waves can, and especially true in existing rooms. The general principle is
will, bounce off not only just two surfaces (axial modes), to tame low frequency behavior by disturbing standing
but four surfaces, (tangential modes) and even all six wave formation with either physical obstructions (furniture,
(oblique modes) at once. A complete analysis of the sound bookcases, etc) or via absorbing objects (furniture, tube
field in a room must account for all these mode traps, etc). (This subject was examined in greater detail in

SOUND
When a speaker PRESSURE
GRAPH
drives a column of
air in an enclosed
space, standing
waves occur at
specific frequencies

MAXIMUM MINIMUM MAXIMUM MINIMUM MAXIMUM

SOUND SOUND SOUND SOUND SOUND
PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE
 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin
5

ROOM ROOM
ROOM SOUND SOUND
SOUND PRESSURE PRESSURE
PRESSURE

+ =

AXIAL AXIAL PRODUCES COMPLEX

STANDING WAVES STANDING WAVES TANGENTIAL RESONANCE
PRODUCED ACROSS PRODUCED ACROSS MODES THAT CANCEL SOUNDS
THE LENGTH OF A THE WIDTH OF A AT MANY POINTS
ROOM ROOM THROUGHOUT THE ROOM

our last issue.) However, having a good understanding of

the effect that room dimensions can have on the
distribution of resonance modes can provide you with a
starting point if you are designing from scratch.

SEPMEYER'S THREE GOLDEN ROOM RATIOS

ROOM CEILING ROOM ROOM

TYPE HEIGHT WIDTH LENGTH

ROOM A C 1.14C 1.39C

ROOM B C 1.28C 1.54C

ROOM C C 1.60C 2.33C

6 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin

1.28C
1.54C

EXAMPLE:
SEPMEYER ROOM B

Software designed to help you with

your home theater room project
Ovation Software offers a wonderful software package
designed not only to help you plan your home theater
room design, but also to fully calibrate the audio and
video equipment after installation. The package is called
AVIA (Audio Visual Interactive Aid) and is available for
Windows 3.1/95/NT, MAC OS and DVD. A feature we found
especially interesting is a real time resonance mode
calculator that allows you try out different combinations
of room dimension ratios and see the resultant resonance
modes plotted out AVIA’s Resonance
Ovation Software (614-373-6212) Mode Calculator
 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin
7

acoustical makeup of a listening room can play a

significant role in the total system of sound
Home Theater reproduction. Roy explains: "The acoustical parameters
of a room have a tremendous effect on the quality of
Room sound you hear. The problem is that acoustics as a
science is poorly understood by many audio
Acoustical enthusiasts. However, it should be known that one does
not need a PhD in the field to properly treat their own
Design listening room, a few modest room treatments can go a
long way. The only trick is knowing which ones are best
to use".

Back to school
our decision is finally made. After weeks of reading

Y reviews and driving from store to store, you finally

decide on the speaker system that's going to make
your home theater room come alive. It's a little more
Before we can dig deeper into the subject of listening
room acoustics, a basic review of the physics of sound is
prudent. By understanding the way that sound waves
travel in listening environments, we can more fully
money than you wanted to spend, but your local specialty
understand how to keep them out of trouble.
retailer has offered you a deal that's hard to refuse. The
next thing you know you're back home pulling speakers
Although the exact acoustical sound field that occurs in an
out of cardboard boxes, and draping speaker cables all
enclosed space can be quite complex, there are three
over the place. Finally, when all the connections are
components that predominate. The first is the direct sound
made, you plop yourself in the front row center seat, hit
from the speakers themselves. These are the sound
the play button and....Hey, wait, what's going on. Where's
waves that travel in a straight line directly from the
the center channel detail I heard in the store! And where's
speaker drivers to the listener’s ears. These direct sounds
that thundering bass!
are considered the most
significant component of
Welcome to the mysterious
sound reproduction
world of room acoustics!
R because of their relatively
large amplitude and direct
The reason that your
F transmission
speakers sounded different
characteristics. Their
in the dealer's demo room D successful propagation
most likely had to do with
merely requires an
the difference between the
unencumbered line-of-
acoustical characteristics
sight path from the
of his room vs. yours.
speakers to the listeners.
Audio experts have known
for years that the physical
LISTENING ROOM Next are the first
attributes of listening
reflections. These are the
rooms are every bit as SOUND COMPONENTS:
sound waves that bounce
important as the audio D = Direct Sounds off surfaces flanking the
equipment involved. As F = First Reflections R speakers and the
matter of fact, some would R = Reverberations listeners. As our diagram
argue that room acoustics
illustrates, these sound
are far more important
paths typically bounce off
than popular equipment
nearby walls, ceiling and floor surfaces. Acousticans feel
features such as gold connectors, polypropylene
that these early reflections are important to the perception
capacitors and the like. Now don't get us wrong, it's not
of the “sound stage" and a failure to properly attenuate
that these details are unimportant; it's just that room
them can result is a marked reduction in “breadth” of the
acoustics are far more important. And often overlooked.
recording.
One of the first scientists to investigate the role of room
The last component is reverberation. Reverberation
acoustics in high quality sound reproduction was Roy
consists of the countless random reflections that bounce
Allison. Roy's seminal research in this area was
off other surfaces in the room and eventually arrive at the
revolutionary and led to a new way of looking at speaker
listener's ears. These sound reflections reinforce the
and equipment design. The basic premise is that the
feeling of room size and ambiance. When you are in a
8 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin

All of the Some of the All of the

soundwave soundwave soundwave
bounces off is absorbed is diffused
How soundwaves
reflect off
room surfaces
ACOUSTICALLY ACOUSTICALLY
ACOUSTICALLY
REFLECTIVE SURFACE DIFFUSING SURFACE
ABSORBING SURFACE
(WALLBOARD, WOOD) (BOOKCASES,
(CURTAINS, CARPETS)
ACOUSTICAL PANELS

large room with hard surfaces, such as a gothic stone residential structures.
church, the reverberatory echoes bouncing off the stone
walls are the components that give you that sonically The other technique used to control sound is diffusion.
cavernous feeling. The principal here is to take the sound waves directed at
the diffusive surface and break them into many small
Listening Room Physics components. This resultant sound field is then scattered
around the room at greatly reduced magnitude. This
So how do these sound components effect your listening technique can also be augmented in a listening room via
room? When you fired up your new home theater speaker natural room components like bookcases, furniture or with
system, all the sounds bouncing around the room specially engineered diffusion panels.
combined to form a unique acoustical room signature. This
acoustical signature effectively becomes superimposed on How to do it
the primary recording and modifies it. It is almost as if
there are two separate sound systems in the room playing There are dozens of methods and hundreds of products
at the same time. available to whip your listening room into shape. Rather
than catalog all the products and techniques available, we
Acousticans agree that the best way to design a listening will take a more pragmatic approach. We will consider
environment is to strive for sonic balance of these each room surface individually and suggest appropriate
“systems”. For example, you do not want an treatments.
overemphasis on reverberatory energy components or it
sounds like you are listening in a tiled bathroom. On the First, lets look at the floor and ceiling surfaces. These can
other hand, you do not want a room void of reflections or be the worst offenders in a listening room because they
the room sounds dead and lifeless. The ideal listening are often constructed of extremely reflective materials.
room allows some of the first reflections and some of the The absorption coefficient, for example, of your standard
reverberatory components to appear at the listeners ears. plaster/gypsum board ceiling is approximately .05 (at
Just enough of each to balance the resultant sound and 1kHz). In other words, sounds bounce right off this stuff.
make it sound natural. And hardwood and tile floors aren't much better with
absorption coefficients of .01 and .07 (at 1kHz),
There are two ways to control the first reflections and respectively. Fortunately, though, there is a standard
room reverberations to achieve sonic balance; absorption household building material that does a wonderful job of
and diffusion. Absorptive surfaces consist of materials that soaking up sound waves; carpeting. Both wall to wall
dampen sound energy so that only a fraction of the energy carpeting and area rugs do a wonderful job of absorbing
is reflected. The portion that isn't reflected is actually incident sound energy. And fortunately carpeting goes
converted into a tiny amount of thermal energy which quite well with most listening room decors.
dissipates into the air. Acousticans use "Absorption
Coefficients" to indicate how well a material absorbs Ceilings, however, can be more problematic. One could
sound. The scale ranges in value from 1 to 0. A material glue carpeting to the ceiling but we doubt your interior
with a absorption coefficient of “1” means it absorbs sound decorator (read: spouse! ) would approve. The next best
energy completely. A material with a “0” coefficient reflects thing is to install acoustic ceiling tiles. The least expensive
it entirely. As you might imagine, real world materials lie option is to use the standard 1' x 1', fiber-based, tongue
somewhere in between. The chart on this page shows the and groove tiles sold by building supply stores. Typically,
different absorption coefficients of typical surfaces found in these are installed 12" on-center, on 1"x 3" strapping that
 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin
9

is firmly screwed into the ceiling joists. Proper installed,

these fiber-based tiles actually do a pretty good job of If these conventional wall taming approaches are
absorbing incident sound waves, particular in the higher inconvenient, you can consider professional products.
frequencies. RPG Diffuser Systems, for example, offers their Acoustic
Tools For Home Theater™ line. This line contains several
Even better sound absorption can be obtained via drop panels that can be used to attenuate wall reflections.
ceilings, and most building supply stores offer a wide Armstrong also offers a line of decorator styled acoustical
variety of acoustical tiles designed for this purpose. The wall panels designed for easy installation. Their
standard "worm-hole" pattern tile is common in SoundSoak™ panels are available in many woven fabric
commercial applications, because it provides a good mix colors and are constructed from 79% recycled materials.
of absorptive and diffusing properties. One thing to note: if
you plan to listen at very high sound levels, drop ceilings
can rattle. This could be quite annoying but several The remainder of the surfaces in the room contribute to
companies offer small rubber hangers to isolate the drop the reverberatory ambiance. Amateur acousticans often
ceiling structure and thus reduce this problem. test the reverberatory tendencies of a room by standing
near the listener's position and clapping their hands
You can also consider the professional acoustical ceiling together loudly. The resultant echo can tell you a lot about
materials. Various companies sell materials that are decor reflected sound signature of the room. If the clap
friendly and specifically designed for ceiling use. IIlbruck, produces a distinct echo, you probably have some
for example, offers their famous Sonex™ panels made surfaces that need to be toned down. Generally, the main
from a new, Melamine™ absorptive foam. These panels offender is the rear wall. If it is flat and open you should
are available in a number of consider
different surface textures, some
and in a variety of colors. treatments.
For those who are opposed As in the
to the commercial "anechoic"
Room Diffusers other
look of Sonex, there are surfaces,
plenty of flat-faced products this does
available. These are typically not always
constructed of fiberglass or necessitate
foam materials. Acoustical professional
Solutions, for example, products.
offers a number of panels Anything to
that can be applied to the reduce
ceiling. Their Alphasorb™ reflections
panels are constructed of is
fiberglass sheets wrapped appropriate.
with woven decorator fabrics Bookcases,
and are offered in 65 pictures,
different colors. Several drapes, etc.
companies also offer special can absorb
ceiling diffusing panels. These panels come in a multitude and diffuse the sound energy.
of shapes and sizes and designed with intricate diffusing
surfaces. The last issue to consider is "standing waves". Standing
waves occur when lower frequency sounds bounce off
Listening room walls often promote sonic misbehavior opposing walls and combine to produce unnatural
because they are typically constructed of hard substances sounding peaks or dips in the bass response. First of all,
such as gypsum board or wood. Since the wall surfaces unless your room has large areas of opposing surfaces,
located near the listener are directly involved in first this may not be a problem. However, if your room is stark,
reflections, it is especially important that they be standing waves could occur. Absorption is the technique of
addressed. For the economy approach, ordinary drapes choice here and one of the best ways to soak up standing
can go a long way. You can also place furniture, plants or waves is with furniture. Plushly upholstered seating does a
other items in the way to diffuse the sound. For example: great job. Several manufacturers also offer high tech
it is hard to beat an upholstered couch or chair for sound professional approaches. Acoustic Sciences Corporation
absorption. If an object like this is placed right at the spot offers their Tube Traps™ to reduce standing waves. These
on the wall where first reflections occur, a remarkable devices are tall free standing cylinders that are designed
improvement in sound can result. to absorb specific sound frequencies. Half sections are
10 CinemaSource Technical Bulletin

SOUND TRANSMISSION CLASS (STC) RATINGS Wall Construction Methods

STC RATING CHARACTERISTICS

50-60 Loud sounds do not pass through

40-50 Loud speech heard faintly
2x4
35-40 Loud speech is heard but is not understood Wall
Studs
30-35 Loud speech is heard and understood 5/8"
Drywall
25-30 Normal speech is heard and understood
20-25 Faint speech is heard and understood
STANDARD WALL, STC= 33 (empty cavity)

Keeping The Bad Sounds Out

So far we have concentrated on the sounds inside the
VE/VO
home theater room. Often overlooked are sounds that 1/4"- 1/2"
Adhesive
Damping 5/8"
originate from outside the room. These extraneous Drywall Material Drywall

sounds typically travel in through windows, walls and

ceilings and can range from quiet conversations in
adjoining rooms to fire trucks outside with sirens going DOUBLE WALL with SANDWICHED DAMPING
full tilt. Whatever the source, these noises are MATERIAL, STC= 36 (empty), STC= 44 (with insulation)
unwelcome sonic intruders.

The solution : Acoustic barriers. Acoustic barriers do

exactly what they indicate. They stop sound from
traveling through the structure and entering the home
theater room. On the right we illustrate four common Resilient 5/8"
wall construction techniques and their Sound Channel Drywall
Transmission Class Ratings (STC) ratings.
Air Space

The standard wall, with 5/8” wallboard screwed to 2x4

wooden stands, is a relatively poor sound barrier with DOUBLE WALLBOARD with RESILIENT CHANNEL,
a STC rating of 33. As the chart above shows, this will STC= 40 (empty), STC= 48 (with insulation)
allow loud speech to easily pass from one side to the
other.

By isolating the wall surfaces from each other, STC

ratings can be dramatically improved. The second wall
surface diagram shows how a second sheet of drywall
can be isolated from the wall structure with VE/VO™
damping material from American Acoustical Products.
1"
The next diagram shows a similar isolation but with
metal resilient channel used to “float” the drywall.
Resilient channel is available at most large building Doubled 5/8"
supply stores. Drywall

The last diagram shows one of the most secure ways

to inhibit sound transmission; build two independent, DOUBLE WALL, DOUBLED WALL BOARD,
uncoupled walls. This structure can have an STC plates separated by 1",
rating up to 63 and will impede sound transmission STC= 58 (empty), STC= 63 (with insulation)
about the same as a 8” reinforced concrete wall (!) A
home theater room constructed of walls like this should
be dead quiet.