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.
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.