Acoustics In A Box™ Systems for Home Theaters
Return to: Acoustics In A Box™ Overview
Home theaters are increasingly available in larger new homes. Unfortunately, these rooms nearly always suffer from too long a reverberation time due to hard surfaces throughout, with the result that your fabulous 7.1 surround sound theater system yields remarkably underwhelming performance. Fortunately, the cure is to shorten the reverberation time, which can produce remarkable improvements in the quality of the sound in your home theater. That in a nutshell, is exactly what Acoustics In A Box™ sound absorber panels are specifically designed to do. (For more on the problem of excessive reverberation, see our White Paper.)
The addition of Acoustics In A Box™ sound absorber panels, properly mounted using the patented black hole™ mounting system, can greatly improve the sound quality by shortening the reverberation time of virtually any room. In general, the more panels installed, the shorter will be the reverberation time of the room and the better it will sound.
The Acoustics In A Box™ system is quite simple to use, by design. Ideally, a 14' x 20' room would call for 8 panels, a room that would seat 25 people would need about 16 panels, one that would accommodate 50 people would need about 24 panels, and beyond that, a good starting place would be about 8 more panels for each additional 50 seats.
In most rooms you will find natural limits to the number of panels you can install due to conflicts with doors, windows, artworks and other decorations and furniture. Accordingly, the most effective way to begin is to examine your room and identify the number of places you have where the 2' x 4' panels can be installed. The panels should be mounted so that the bottom of the panels are at about 6-7 feet above the floor, or if the room is not tall enough to accommodate this position, then mount the panels about 6 inches down from the ceiling. If you need more panels than you have room for, you can substitute horizontal mount panels which you may be able to install above doorways or windows, and you may also be able to install some additional panels on the ceiling.
If after considering these general principles, you simply do not have enough spaces where you can install panels, you will get better results by choosing the 2" thick panels instead of the 1" standard panels. The 2" panels are about 25% more effective in absorbing sound across the audible spectrum, at about 25% greater cost, so they offer a significant improvement potential for those with limited wall or ceiling space to work with. The 2" thick panels are also highly recommended if you have a lot of boominess to contend with as they offer greater bass frequency sound absorption.
One more tip to consider: the down sloping wall panels can be airbrushed to turn them into artworks. Just know that covering them with a solid coating of paint will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the panels, so use a light airbrush approach to any artistic efforts.
See some small room configurations to help visualize a typical Acoustics In A Box™ installation. For your room, the configuration may be drastically different, but these sketches should help.
To order, please choose the components you need here, then send us an email: or give us a call to place your order: 1-918-478-5500
Or, if you have more questions or need suggestions, please provide us with the following information and we will respond with a recommendation and a quote:
- Room purpose (vocal presentation, music presentation, group meetings, other (please specify))
- Description of the acoustic problem you are trying to remedy.
- Room dimensions (length, width, ceiling height)
- Ceiling type (hard surface, acoustic tile, cathedral)
- Seating capacity of the room