Room Acoustics

Acoustic Room Dividers

Maximizing the acoustics in your room is an important part of making sure you have the best possible home theater system. Part of room acoustics is understanding the types of speakers you can have and how they work.

Dipolar and bipolar speakers are typically used for surround speakers, as they can create a more enveloping sound field. Due to their design, bipolar speakers can be wall mounted. When your listening area is up against a wall or space is limited, bipolar or dipolar speakers may be a good option for you. Placement of the rear speakers will differ between bipolar and dipolar speakers and with each individual room.

Acoustic Room Treatment

In-wall speakers are another great way to maximize your room acoustics. In-wall speakers offer a more permanent, but less intrusive surround sound solution. In-wall speakers are placed into the wall, so that the front of the speaker is nearly flush with the wall. Often, the protective grill is painted to match the color of the wall. Although they save space, in-wall speakers generally do not perform as well as free-standing speakers, because of the space-saving compromises that are made. In-wall speakers also use the wall as their enclosure, which puts them at a disadvantage over speakers using a designed enclosure.

When you start to understand how speakers work for your room acoustics, it’s important to note that bi-wiring is a common practice for high-end applications and home theater users who want to ensure they are getting the absolute best performance possible from their speaker system. The term bi-wiring refers to running two separate sets of speaker cables from a power source. The theory here is that the bass frequencies can overpower the rest of the signal, causing the overall sound to suffer. Fans of bi-wiring point to better sound reproduction in the higher frequencies with less distortion.

Room Acoustic Calculations

When you shop for a home theater speaker in terms of room acoustics, it’s important to look at the speaker’s sensitivity rating. Sensitivity or efficiency is measured in decibels. Sensitivity is calculated by measuring how loudly a speaker plays when given one watt of power. The higher the number, the louder the speaker plays back when given a certain amount of watts. A speaker with a sensitivity rating of 104 db reproduces 104 db of sound from a single watt of power under standardized settings. Sensitivity rating is an important part of room acoustics that will be featured in a budget home theater system. A speaker that features high sensitivity plays louder than a speaker with low sensitivity when given the same amount of power.