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Can cellular shades help with reflections?

mglobe

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My listening room has two pretty big windows, on on a side wall, and one behind my listening position. Both windows are about 60”w x 72” high. They are currently covered by wood blinds. I have not yet measured RT60, but the room is pretty reflective, and I know from a clap test that I need to tame it. Heavy curtains are not an option. I could put panels on stands, but not really what I want to do either. I’m wondering if cellular/honeycomb shades might help. Something like this:

https://www.selectblinds.com/blog/choosing-the-right-cell-size-for-honeycomb-shades/

Just to be clear, I’ve got dual subs, and Dirac that’s tuned pretty well, so I’m not worried about bass.
 
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ozzy9832001

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I have 4 windows in my room and unless they are a primary reflection point, I've never had any issues with them. Mine leak sound like crazy -- they are only single pane, and the outside is stucco/concrete, so I'm not sure the framing is 100% air tight. Depending on their construction, type of glass, thickness, and how many panes, I could see them maybe becoming an issue -- but standard single pane window is probably not causing much of an issue.

If you'd like to see for sure...if you have a 4ft acoustic panel floating around you could place it in the window frame and see what it sounds like with or without some absorption in front of it.

How is the rest of the room treated?
 

LTig

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My listening room has two pretty big windows, on on a side wall, and one behind my listening position. Both windows are about 60”w x 72” high. They are currently covered by wood blinds. I have not yet measured RT60, but the room is pretty reflective, and I know from a clap test that I need to tame it. Heavy curtains are not an option. I could put panels on stands, but not really what I want to do either. I’m wondering if cellular/honeycomb shades might help. Something like this:

https://www.selectblinds.com/blog/choosing-the-right-cell-size-for-honeycomb-shades/

Just to be clear, I’ve got dual subs, and Dirac that’s tuned pretty well, so I’m not worried about bass.
I doubt that such blinds reduce RT60 significantly. But you can also treat the opposite wall to prevent flutter echoes.
Better get a UMIK 1 and REW and measure RT60 to find out in which frequency range it is too high.
 
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mglobe

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I doubt that such blinds reduce RT60 significantly. But you can also treat the opposite wall to prevent flutter echoes.
Better get a UMIK 1 and REW and measure RT60 to find out in which frequency range it is too high.
I’ve got the UMIK 1 and REW, which along with my MiniDSP Flex were used to set up the subs, just have not really addressed reflections with treatments. My ears say it’s the mids and up that need to be tamed, but I definitely will be making measurements. I ask about the windows because they are in particularly bad places I think, and because they represent a fair amount of the wall areas.
 

subframe

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Hunter Douglas makes the vague claim that their Duette cellular shades ‘absorb up to 70% of sound’. I emailed them asking for test day, but haven’t heard back yet.
 
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mglobe

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Room is 16.5' x 20.5' with 10' ceilings. There is a half-wall on one side of the room that is ~bar height. Two windows. One on the wall behind my seating position, on mid-wall on the full wall side. KEF R3's + two Rhythmik subs. Speakers are on the 10' apart on the 16.5' wall. I need help!
 

Hov

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It's a hard, flat surface which is capable of some reflections, and one of the hardest things to relocate or change about a room. Also a huge impact on the look and feel of it, so I can appreciate the challenge. The opposing wall as @LTig mentioned would be a good place to consider as well (if possible).

Can't say for sure, but I also feel a little doubtful of the effectiveness of the cellular shades. If they currently have wood blinds, depending on the design, you may be able to replace the panes of the blinds with a material (and pattern on the material) that is better-suited for the job. Or maybe some added acoustic panels on top of the blind panes. But this might be a long-shot and probably very situation-dependent.

If you're able to share some images (or drawings, no matter how crude!) of the layout, a visualization may help with the help-getting.
 
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mglobe

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It's a hard, flat surface which is capable of some reflections, and one of the hardest things to relocate or change about a room. Also a huge impact on the look and feel of it, so I can appreciate the challenge. The opposing wall as @LTig mentioned would be a good place to consider as well (if possible).

Can't say for sure, but I also feel a little doubtful of the effectiveness of the cellular shades. If they currently have wood blinds, depending on the design, you may be able to replace the panes of the blinds with a material (and pattern on the material) that is better-suited for the job. Or maybe some added acoustic panels on top of the blind panes. But this might be a long-shot and probably very situation-dependent.

If you're able to share some images (or drawings, no matter how crude!) of the layout, a visualization may help with the help-getting.
I’ll try to draw the layout later but likely not today. Both windows are currently covered by wood blinds. I want to keep them as windows (ie not put acoustic panels in them), and the boss says no curtains. I tend to agree on the no curtains thing actually. Hence the original question.

Note I expect only some incremental help from the shades at best, but thought it was worth discussion.
 
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mglobe

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It's a hard, flat surface which is capable of some reflections, and one of the hardest things to relocate or change about a room. Also a huge impact on the look and feel of it, so I can appreciate the challenge. The opposing wall as @LTig mentioned would be a good place to consider as well (if possible).

Can't say for sure, but I also feel a little doubtful of the effectiveness of the cellular shades. If they currently have wood blinds, depending on the design, you may be able to replace the panes of the blinds with a material (and pattern on the material) that is better-suited for the job. Or maybe some added acoustic panels on top of the blind panes. But this might be a long-shot and probably very situation-dependent.

If you're able to share some images (or drawings, no matter how crude!) of the layout, a visualization may help with the help-getting.
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Just to be clear, I’m fully aware of how underdamped the room overall is, and that simply adding furniture will help. As I said my initial question was about cellular shades. Happy also to hear other suggestions.
 
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Hov

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Nice and thank you for the clear photos!

Definitely some side and rear reflection points on the wall that can be addressed that should help a lot more than cellular shades. You can get nicely-designed panels to fit in with the decor, or something more neutral but still compatible like the panels you have behind your main speakers.

The carpet is great to see and probably helping already as well.

I also have a "popcorn" ceiling so it's bit more challenging to address, I suppose it may be worth considering something up there too.
 
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mglobe

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Is that a stone floor?
Patterned concrete. :-/. I like the way it looks, not so much how it sounds. Full carpeting isn’t happening, particularly with the effing cats.
 
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mglobe

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I’m figuring treatment on either side of both windows and also on the half wall. Not sure if it will be absorbers or diffusers. The shades are going to happen because my wife wants them anyway. If they help great, if not I still have a happy wife. More seating will also be coming.

I wonder about the opening over the half wall and how much opening my room up to the bar room across the wall is contributing. I put one of my absorbers on the wall to test and didn’t see much change, but that’s likely because I took it off the wall and moved it to a place where it’s contribution is possibly less anyway.
 

Mnyb

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Some more smaller carpets/rugs then , wall to wall carpets are a bit 1975 :) I agree I could not live with that either.

The windows have no curtains at all ? That could be a start ?
 

Hov

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A rug behind the seat might help as well, but may not agree with the design or the boss lol.

I like the idea of the existing walls. The area above the half wall will be tough to approach without some sort of floating panel of sorts. Without being there and/or measurements, it's hard to tell whether that or the other treatments would be more helpful or necessary.
 

Mnyb

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Is the perspective a bit off in the picture ? I would sit closer to the speakers and toe them in a bit ? More of a equilateral triangle. Closer will give you more direct sound.

But maybe this your best seating for other reasons .

Btw I think more furniture rugs and curtains, bookcases with actual books in them ? Would help without looking to horrible .

It could be worse my only possible seating is close to a back wall.
 
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Hov

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Agreed, I think I'm going to just buy, assemble and install, a tall behind-the-couch console one day and hope my wife reacts positively to it. Even 10-12 inches ahead of the back wall should help a lot!

That said, I do agree that sitting a bit closer and (maybe) with some toe-in, you could improve the sound. It would also change the reflection points, and may improve the experience in a room that long or deep. I know it's not always favourable, but even moving the seat toward the speakers aligned with the back edge of the carpet (or even a bit closer) would probably help.

As usual, you will probably need to move things around and make notes of what seemed to work/measure best. But it's worth it in the end!
 
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mglobe

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Is the perspective a bit off in the picture ? I would sit closer to the speakers and toe them in a bit ? More of a equilateral triangle. Closer will give you more direct sound.

But maybe this your best seating for other reasons .

Btw I think more furniture rugs and curtains, bookcases with actual books in them ? Would help without looking to horrible .

It could be worse my only possible seating is close to a back wall.
It’s a wide angle lens photo to show the room. Listening position is an equilateral triangle.

As I mentioned previously, there will be more furniture coming to help absorb some sound, but it will never be packed with furniture. Neither of us like too much stuff in a room. Curtains will not happen.
 

Cbdb2

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Those shades arnt perfect but they should help. They only work above 500hz. Funny how there stc graph doesn't show heavy curtains.
 
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