Why Your Home Theater in Atlanta Needs Acoustical Treatments
It’s not as fun as talking about Dolby Atmos. It’s not as technical as analyzing receiver specs. But if you want to get the most out of your home theater surround sound system, you’re going to need specialized acoustic treatments. We spend a lot of time talking about the different components you can put into your Atlanta home to get great sound, but if the room isn’t properly designed to both absorb and reflect sound in the proper way, your components can sound muffled, muddled and will generally go to waste. Read on to find out why your home theater needs acoustic treatments.
SEE ALSO: Get the Most Out of Your Dolby Atmos Home Theater
What Do You Hear?
The two major factors in determining the use of acoustic treatments are absorption and diffusion. No matter what room you choose, you’ll have to calibrate it – just like your components – for optimal sound quality.
Absorption happens when sound waves hit a surface and don’t reflect back. In a room with no carpet, no furniture and nothing on the walls, you’ll hear a resounding echo. That’s called diffusion. The sound is bouncing back at you, making it sound hollow and cacophonous at the same time.
When you add furnishings to a room, it generally sounds fuller and more welcoming. That’s because soft materials like fabric absorb the most sound. Flat surfaces, like glass, reflect the most sound. When a surface is rough, like unfinished wood or concrete, it diffuses the most sound, spreading it around the room.
What Do Acoustics Treatments Do?
When you walk into a commercial movie theater, it doesn’t look like your average living room. The floor is only carpeted in the aisles. The walls are carpeted or draped with curtains, and usually segmented. This is all to create the perfect atmosphere for the surround sound system.
Of course, unless you built it yourself, your home probably wasn’t designed to accommodate commercial-level movie viewing. In a perfect world every home theater would be housed in a square room, with upright, plush seating and enough room for all of your friends and family.
However, because each room in your home is different, we are able to install wall panel acoustic treatments that are capable of absorbing sound. We can also craft wood moldings that look great and help diffuse sound, as well as calibrate your room for perfect audio.
Kinetics Noise Control offers a solution known as Stretch TRAK, a fully customizable acoustic treatment solution. This gives you the option of stretching fabric across curved walls, ceilings and non-square rooms. Not only do you have more options when it comes to the sound of the room, but you can tailor a look that works great too.
Are you ready to optimize your home theater sound with acoustic treatments? Contact us today.