4 Easy Ways to Improve your Room's Acoustics

You have a great sound system, but it doesn’t sound quite right? Maybe your room is not ideal as a “listening room” but you need to make the room work for your needs. While there are plenty of ways to acoustically treat a room with an unlimited budget, there are simple and budget-friendly tips available to help achieve a similar effect (without breaking the bank).

Move your speakers

This may seem overly simple, but it can actually have a massive impact. If your speakers are too close to the wall, or too near furniture, then your sound is reflecting off of those surfaces before it gets to your ears. This means two sound waves are reaching you at the same time, one milliseconds past the other. The result is a loss of the crisp sound. Even just a small physical adjustment can go a long way.

Hang things on your walls

Sound waves bounce off any surface, but they bounce off some better than others. The goal is to reduce reflectivity; solution, hang something on your wall. Just about anything will be an improvement over your bare walls. As an example, a nice decorative tapestry will help. Try it!

Cover your windows

While hanging a tapestry in your listening room might be asking a little much, putting up some nice heavy curtains might be more realistic? If your room has windows, simply draw the shades before you pump up the system. The shades alone will be less reflective than the window.

Install carpet

Depending on the size of your room, this solution might not be cheapest, but it is worthwhile. If you’ve got hardwood floors your room is going to be overly reflective no matter what you do, so consider replacing it with carpet. Furthermore, using rugs or even a rubber mat near the most reflective surfaces, think down-firing sub on porcelain tile, could make a world of difference.

Have more tips? Share them with our readers!