Hello,
I’m finishing out my basement theater build and ran into an issue I didn’t even think about addressing.
I built a set of alcoves on either side of the TV/Projector area (Wifes idea) where I plan to put a subwoofer in each of the lower parts and some speakers in the upper parts. Since the alcoves are in the same space as the theater and there is nothing behind the theater I didn’t think about adding any dense material in between the walls like rockwool etc to isolate the sound.
The more I read, however, I realize that even putting speakers in alcoves is not the best idea because it can make all the audio sound boomy, echoy etc. I’m definitely going to plug the holes in the back of the speakers but is it enough to add acoustic panels on all 3 sides of the alcove for both the top and bottom part or do I need to rip up the drywall and add something in between the walls? Do I need to add bass traps in here or what would be the best approach to deal with speakers/subwoofers being in these alcoves.
Here is a picture of said alcoves. The lower part is (24"L x 29"W x 24"H). The upper part is (24"L x 29"W x 60"H)
The speakers will be https://arendalsound.com/product/1723-monitor-s-thx/
The subwoofer will be (x2) https://hsuresearch.com/collections/product-collection-grid-subset/products/vtf-2-mk5-subwoofer
Thank you for your suggestions.
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You Sir have PAINTED YOURSELF INTO A CORNER !
Haha at this point I’m determined to make it work…ill show you guys!!!
If you really want to enjoy your Arendals for all they can be, you need to tear out the alcoves entirely. Few things are worse for sound and imaging than surrounding any speaker with walls. For any speaker to sound their best you have to keep them at least 3 feet and preferably 5 feet away from the walls, particularly walls to either side of them.
If you must keep the alcoves, you might as well buy Klipsch. Don’t waste your money on Arendals.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but stuffing any speaker into a cubby and raising a floorstanding speaker off floor is the absolute worst thing you can do to hobble any speaker’s performance. If you haven’t already purchased the Arendals, you can always go for all white speakers like the ones KEF offers which tend to score higher in the appearance category by women.
Harsh but fair. Pretty much have to deal with the space I have and do the best I can.
I will say, like I mentioned to PicaDiet, I have much larger alcoves in my upstairs area and auditioned many speakers and even with really bad acoustics I can still tell a big difference between speakers. Yeah its not ideal but speakers still can sound good in spaces like that even if the layout isn’t. I could go Klipsch or Kef but I tried those in the upstairs alcoves and they didn’t sound as neutral and warm as the Arendals so I’m fine spending a bit more for that sound even if I’m doing the speakers a disservice. I do think the new space with the alcoves will be much better than the upstairs area that also have alcoves and that give me some hope that it’ll sound pretty good :)
My suggestion is to rip out both of those alcove extension. You will fight those for the rest of your days. Now is the time and a dry wall guy could rip and patch in a day or less for not much money. Hard to get to wiring behind TV, messes with the sound, limits good two channel audio options, limits TV size and speaker options, TV and speakers will not be centered in room, hard to place speakers/subs and move them, takes up floor space for future options. Also, are you putting in can lights?
I’m not an expert here, so take this with a huge grain of salt:
Could you open up the sides of the alcoves, without removing them entirely? Like, just cut giant windows in the sides of those chambers, so sound can escape more naturally.
It might look weird, I don’t know. But you could possibly keep the alcoves and get better sound from your speakers too.
Id guess putting some resonant absorbers or a helmholtz resonator behind the speaker tuned to a frequency I imagine will be related to the distance behind the speaker but I’m not sure. The drywall would actually act as a bass absorber as a resonant absorber. But it won’t be good at isolating the sound the reason it works is it absorbs energy by resonating. You can get resonant absorbers which diffuse higher frequencies too.
If you can’t remove the alcoves then save up and get speakers that are designed to operate in alcoves. These would generally be something like JBL Everest - horns and if ported, front ports.
If you can’t do either then you could consider surrounding your existing floorstanders with acoustic treatments, essentially filling the space between the speakers and alcove with absorbing material. Finish with Guildford of Maine acoustically transparent fabric for a clean look.