Curtains versus sound quality

[Iulian]

Hello. I am trying to dedicate one of my house rooms for media room for myself and my family.

In the end, I will want to have 2 systems:

- one Atmos soundbar system (already have it = Samsung Q990N) for the TV/Movies

- one stereo system (I am considering Focal Chora or B&W 603 and an amplifier) in a 2.1 configuration for music

I don't have enough money or space to create a complete traditional surround system, so my goal is to reach my target in time.

 

To issue itself:

- the only suitable room for my scope has one big window (almost an entire wall) and the curtain covers the entire wall. Is a transparent curtain, not a blind one.

- from the listening position, that curtain/wall would fill my entire left side

- the room is 4(L)x4(l)x3(H)m

- what I am already experiencing with the atmos soundbar system is that the reflections/bounces coming from my left side is weaker that the right side. So, my initial solution was just to move myself to the left, in order to get closer to the left wall

 

The question:

- is it only my placebo or does indeed the curtain have big impact ?

- secondary: will it affect the future stereo system quality ?

 

As removing the curtain is out of the question (if still want to remain married), I would like to know some oppinions.

 

Thanks !

[sphinxsix]

13 hours ago, Iulian said:

- is it only my placebo or does indeed the curtain have big impact ?

it has.

 

13 hours ago, Iulian said:

secondary: will it affect the future stereo system quality ?

yes.

 

The cure - a curtain on the other wall (some experimentation with its thickness/density advised.

 

[fas42]

Most here would disagree with me, but the rule of thumb is, the better critical aspects of the SQ are, the less the nature of the room matters; I had a system a decade ago with the same sort of room as you have: glass all along the left wall, with curtains that were open or drawn, as dictated by weather, etc. And this never gave me problems - that is, you never noticed anything untoward in the balance of the sound.

 

What are the critical aspects of the SQ? These are its ability to present all the low level detail of the recording, in the first place, and then to do this with the minimum amount of blurring or addition of disturbing distortion. This key information provides all the cues that produce a correct soundstage, and essentially negates any impact of the room you're in. When well done, the speakers are replaced by an enormous window onto the recorded space(s), and this is the most accurate presentation of the captured musical event.

 

 

[sphinxsix]

@fas42 I'm a huge fan of your mental processes and of your imagination they feed upon 

🙂

[fas42]

10 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

@fas42 I'm a huge fan of your mental processes and of your imagination they feed upon 

🙂

 

They feed upon, mostly, what enters my ear canals - imagination comes into the picture when contemplating what to do about things, to make it better, .

 

Unfortunately, I have been spoiled too much from hearing live music, to put up with what most audio systems achieve ... and that's a burden, .

[sphinxsix]

1 hour ago, fas42 said:

They feed upon, mostly, what enters my ear canals - imagination comes into the picture when contemplating what to do about things, to make it better, .

 

That's how I imagine your fantasy ears..

😉

       

  

[fas42]

I can't 'elf laughing ...

 

All audiophiles have no trouble hearing sub-par SQ; reports from audio shows are full of prose relating this ... where most stop is then working out the What? and Why? of the issues they hear. Easiest for many is to just sweep it under the carpet, and, ahem, imagine that what their rig does, at that moment, is "as good as it gets!"  - the really interesting bit, at least for me, is to then move to the How To Fix It? err, step ... do it right, and no fancy earparatus then required, .

[sphinxsix]

Peace yo.

[GregWormald]

My guess would be that the glass is more influential than the light, translucent curtains. Windows vibrate quite a lot and much of the difference may be the sound that's not reflected but passed through the glass.

 

What's on the right-hand wall? anything to absorb/diffuse the sound? If not, then try hanging up a large, heavy blanket and see what happens.

[ecwl]

Wow... So many things to unpack. Didn't expect it from the title.

 

First, for @Iulian, the reason why you notice such a distinct difference between the left curtained/glass "wall" vs the right wall is because HW-Q990B soundbar has speakers that fire off to the side intentionally at the side walls so that there will be sound bouncing off the wall to create the fake surround sound for you. If you think about it, no commercial movie theatre would remove all the surround speakers and just let speakers from the front of the movie theatre bounce sound off the side walls. But we all have to live with what we are willing to compromise in our home environment. So you'll just have to decide whether to leave the curtains open, half-open or change the texture of the curtains for the sound. I don't think hanging another curtain on the right wall is necessarily a good idea for the soundbar because then you'll just get less surround sound effect off that right wall too.

 

And while I agree with @sphinxsix in general, I strongly suspect that @fas42 heard what he heard because we are now talking about two-channel audio. And different speakers have completely different dispersion patterns so the amount of sound that bounces off the side walls would depend on the speakers, how much they're toed in, how far they're from the side walls would change how much that large glass window on the side matters. I have to admit though for me, I do have the curtains drawn in front of my large glass window as it makes a significant enough difference in my system. That said, it is likely that my speakers have a wider dispersion pattern than most (including my previous two pairs of speakers which were Paradigm and Dynaudio).

 

Going back to @Iulian, I think when you are ready to setup a two-channel stereo system, you're actually going to find that it's the right wall that's bouncing off too much sound. I don't think you need to hang huge curtain there for the whole wall. You just need to figure out where your listening position is, sit down and have someone place a mirror on that right wall and move it around until when you look at the mirror, you see the tweeter of the right speaker in the mirror and that's where you need to put something to reduce the sound reflection from the right speaker. That way, you can keep the surround sound bar to bounce sound off the right wall. But you can always make sure your stereo right speaker doesn't bounce too much sound off the right wall.

[cjf]

17 hours ago, Iulian said:

Hello. I am trying to dedicate one of my house rooms for media room for myself and my family.

In the end, I will want to have 2 systems:

- one Atmos soundbar system (already have it = Samsung Q990N) for the TV/Movies

- one stereo system (I am considering Focal Chora or B&W 603 and an amplifier) in a 2.1 configuration for music

I don't have enough money or space to create a complete traditional surround system, so my goal is to reach my target in time.

 

To issue itself:

- the only suitable room for my scope has one big window (almost an entire wall) and the curtain covers the entire wall. Is a transparent curtain, not a blind one.

- from the listening position, that curtain/wall would fill my entire left side

- the room is 4(L)x4(l)x3(H)m

- what I am already experiencing with the atmos soundbar system is that the reflections/bounces coming from my left side is weaker that the right side. So, my initial solution was just to move myself to the left, in order to get closer to the left wall

 

The question:

- is it only my placebo or does indeed the curtain have big impact ?

- secondary: will it affect the future stereo system quality ?

 

As removing the curtain is out of the question (if still want to remain married), I would like to know some oppinions.

 

Thanks !

Hello,

I'm curious if the Window wall must be located on the left side as it is now? In other words, do you have flexibility within the room to change the current location of the speakers to another position within the same room? As an example, make the Window wall be the Front Wall (ie..directly behind the speakers) vs being on the Left side? I believe having the Windows behind the speakers would be a better option if you could do it. You could then use a heavy curtain in the center location (ie..between the two speakers) which could play the role of a harder surface for soundstage purposes.

 

If you can't rearrange the room then I'll be different and recommend you perhaps purchase a heavy curtain to either replace the light see thru curtain or be an in addition to the existing light see thru curtain. This could possibly allow the Wife to remain happy when the room is not being used for listening purposes. But when its time to sit down and listen, you can pull the heavy curtain over the Window wall instead.

 

I guess my thought being, it may be easier to try and match the hard wall surface on the Right via a heavy curtain on the Left.

[Iulian]

Thank you all for your replies. I find these open topics so engaging and helpfull.

Yesterday I found a newly opened HiFi store in my city and they were so helpfull and let me test a pair of Focal Chora 826 for almost 2 hours, in their own controlled listening room. I called my wife and she joined me for the last half an hour. Man...oh... even if I know that these were the lowest ranked Focals in the store... this was an emotional experience for both of us. I also know that the listening was provided by a 10k+ setup that I will never afford ... I felt the angels whispering into my ears and soul.

So, returning home with my wife we spent the entire evening searching for positioning solutions for the floorstands. We haven't found one yet, but we both agreed that the atmos soundbar system is a joke in comparison to the real deal and we decided to return the Q990N and to focus on building a Focal based surround system, starting with the floorstands and building up gradually.

I know that the initial topic of bouncing/reflections remain as a future topic to look into, as my wife told me that she agrees to redesign the entire room, for having a happy husband 😄

As a side note: the Q990B sounds and feels very very good with atmos movies. But music is where it lacks big time. And returning the soundbar is providing me more money to invest in the real system.

Thank you.

[NOMBEDES]

 

 

Well, we have, in the past, determined that only hand made Persian rugs/carpet (pre-1960) (if possible) are audiophile approved floor covering.  Now we must delve into curtains.  I would guess, based on the carpet thread, that only European fabrics are suitable for the audiophiles curtains.....Italy, France, some obscure UK products may fit the bill.  Avoid all Asian fabrics except for William Gibson approved Japanese small batch production.  I do hope helps.

[GregWormald]

19 hours ago, Iulian said:

<snips>

we both agreed that the atmos soundbar system is a joke in comparison to the real deal and we decided to return the Q990N and to focus on building a Focal based surround system, starting with the floorstands and building up gradually.

Good choice!

 

Unless the surround/atmos is really important to you then a good two-channel system is going to be more enjoyable than a mediocre multi-channel system.

 

I run my TV sound through my two-channel system (optical out from TV) and no-one who's heard it that way has missed the surround. Dialog is also clearer. And, of course, for music there is no comparison.

[Gilles]

Hi All,

Here is something that I picked up on AS (when it was CA) about 6 or 7 years ago.

You may find it helpful.

Best,

[mav52]

Just now encountering this very subject with my wife. So curtains will stay, but I can replace those on the wall with an acoustic curtain. Interesting.   https://acousticsfreq.com/sound-control-acoustic-curtain/#:~:text=Acoustical drapery is a good,during non critical-listening functions.

 

So some investigate research is required, and no doubt a chat with my cousin who plays with the Jacksonville Symphony and managers their sound.