Acoustically
Treated Ceiling ($1000)
The
original room had a low ceiling (7’) tiled with
those pressed fiber squares, and was a narrow
room with wood paneled walls. This was very
harsh acoustically. Playing at even modestly
high volume levels was painful at best. My wife
wanted a tin stamped-ceiling.
It was time to find a solution and be
creative. Otherwise, either the wife doesn’t
get her ceiling (very bad on the WAF meter)
or my HT becomes a very expensive loud noisemaker.
Off
I went, surfing the web and making phone calls
to educate myself on room acoustics, acoustic
treatments, suppliers, techniques, and etc.
Now, armed with enough knowledge to be dangerous,
I consulted with Tim Campbell at A-V Services.
His company had provided the home theater
gear and Tim had handled the initial installation,
setup, and calibration, during which we had
seen and heard the limitations that were caused
by the interaction between room and gear.
Tim suggested that my choices were to
add an equalizer to the system or do something
to change the acoustics of the room. I decided
that while acoustic ceiling treatment would
be more expensive than adding gear, I wanted
to re-do the room anyway so I decided to change
the sound by changing the room. But what about
the WAF??? What about her “tin ceiling”? Let’s
cover the acoustic ceiling panels first, and
then I’ll get to the WAF.
I
designed the ceiling panels to a size and shape
that could install easily between the joists of
my ceiling AND be such a size that they could
cut it out of their “scrap”. I also brought my
wife to the manufacturing plant to pick out colors
and materials from the big rack
of remnants (2 birds – one stone on this one…cheaper
to use the remnants…WAF on the color!). Installation
was a snap with drywall screws and plastic washers
painted to match the ceiling materials.
…Back
to the tin ceiling thing.
Here’s
where my creative side comes out (OK, self preservation
had a play in this): “Well honey," I said.
"How about we cover the ceiling over by
the bar area with the tin ceiling…and over by
the home theater I’ll put up acoustical fiberglass
board?”
This
ended up being a difficult “sell”. “Two different
ceilings in one room”? “It’ll look stupid”.
Somehow I convinced her that the two rooms-one
room thing would be OK (I’m still not sure WHAT
I promised her, but she let me do it).
