Heavy curtains as acoustic room treatment?

[TonyCena]

Do floor to ceiling curtains do anything to treat a room's audio? I don't need them to control light (room is already pitch black) but is there any benefit to getting really thick curtains around the entire room as a form of deadening the room and reducing audio reflections?

Or is it a waste of time and I should use rockwool filled boxes hung on the wall or similar sound treatment foam blocks etc? (not my room, just some pics off the net to explain what I'm talking about).

View attachment 374084

Hey, @decryption
Yes — heavy, floor-to-ceiling curtains can help with room acoustics, but they aren’t a full replacement for other treatments. They tend to absorb the higher frequencies and reduce reflections (echoes) from walls, windows, floor-to-ceiling hard surfaces, which makes the room sound less boxy. But for bass and mid frequencies, or really bad resonances, you’ll need something more robust (panels, bass traps, etc.).
And if you opt for curtains, choose heavy, thick material, ensure they are from ceiling to floor, and cover as much of the wall/window space as possible. Have a bit of breathing room so the material drapes freely (not stretched taut), so it can absorb sound more effectively.
For specialty acoustic configurations + aid in selecting treatments that both look & function well, businesses such as Colorado Shutters (Colorado-based) can aid — they provide choices that are attractive and assist with sound management.

 

[TonyCena]

Hey, @decryption
Yes — heavy, floor-to-ceiling curtains can help with room acoustics, but they aren’t a full replacement for other treatments. They tend to absorb the higher frequencies and reduce reflections (echoes) from walls, windows, floor-to-ceiling hard surfaces, which makes the room sound less boxy. But for bass and mid frequencies, or really bad resonances, you’ll need something more robust (panels, bass traps, etc.).
And if you opt for curtains, choose heavy, thick material, ensure they are from ceiling to floor, and cover as much of the wall/window space as possible. Have a bit of breathing room so the material drapes freely (not stretched taut), so it can absorb sound more effectively.
For specialty acoustic configurations + aid in selecting treatments that both look & function well, businesses such as Colorado Shutters (Colorado-based) can aid — they provide choices that are attractive and assist with sound management.

@decryption for more information click here

 

[Keith_W]

Welcome to ASR @TonyCena . May I strongly suggest you do not post your home address for all to see.

 

[TonyCena]

Welcome to ASR @TonyCena . May I strongly suggest you do not post your home address for all to see.

Thankyou for advance

 

[Bjorn]

And if you opt for curtains, choose heavy, thick material, ensure they are from ceiling to floor, and cover as much of the wall/window space as possible.

A recipe to over dampen higher frequencies and create an unbalance result considering how band limited they are. Such treatment needs on the contrary to be used very limited.

It's only truly broadband treatment that can be used more extensively without making the room too dead.

 

[Beave]

Welcome to ASR @TonyCena . May I strongly suggest you do not post your home address for all to see.

I strongly suggest he stop spamming the forum.

He's the owner of the business he linked; the home address he shows is also the business address; and the link is about his window shutters business, not curtains for use as acoustic treatment.

He probably used AI to write his first post.

 

[dlaloum]

A recipe to over dampen higher frequencies and create an unbalance result considering how band limited they are. Such treatment needs on the contrary to be used very limited.

It's only truly broadband treatment that can be used more extensively without making the room too dead.

Rock and a Hard place - large floor to ceiling windows, with reflective glass surface, or Heavy curtains...

I know which one I would pick!

 

[Holmz]

Rock and a Hard place - large floor to ceiling windows, with reflective glass surface, or Heavy curtains...

I know which one I would pick!

What kind of music?
People in glass houses, should not rock.

 

[nathan]

Rock and a Hard place - large floor to ceiling windows, with reflective glass surface, or Heavy curtains...

I know which one I would pick!

Except that was not the OP's question. The OP asked:

"is there any benefit to getting really thick curtains around the entire room as a form of deadening the room and reducing audio reflections?"

And the answer is, no, that would do a lot of damage. There are better solutions (eg, less coverage / thicker material in fewer places). Nothing about windows, etc. In fact, the OP said they don't have any windows that need covering:

"room is already pitch black"

And their other idea is much better:

"I should use rockwool filled boxes hung on the wall or similar sound treatment"

 

[Mojo Warrior]

Back in the 1970-80s heavy drapes were pretty much "The Standard" for Audiophile Salons and High End demonstrations at annual electronics shows, typically held in hotel rooms. No doubt to reduce harsh high frequencies and room reflections. Go with whatever sounds best to you.

 

[nathan]

Or go with industry standards which have evolved considerably through the use of double blind listening tests and a whole love of science over the past 60 years.

The ITU has a nuanced document about target RT60 (aka Reflected Decay Times in domestic sized rooms) numbers for rooms that is based on their size, discussed here which can be downloaded here:

https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1116-1-199710-S!!PDF-E.pdf

called: "Rec. ITU-R BS.1116-1 1. RECOMMENDATION ITU-R BS.1116-1*. METHODS FOR THE SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF SMALL IMPAIRMENTS IN AUDIO SYSTEMS INCLUDING MULTICHANNEL SOUND SYSTEMS"

which gets into how room size can make the targets a little different, to achieve the desired effect.

Decades of testing different size rooms and different amounts of decay with many many people, who were then asked what rooms sounded best, resulted in such consistent preferences that there is an equation to get it "right" or best. The ITU paper listed above is highly technical.

A simpler version (same kinds of targets and the same science behind it) was summarized in CEDIA / CTA RP22 a couple of years ago:

TLDR, curtains are not likely to offer the broad band impact that thicker materials offers, so the consistency of the reflection decay time in the room across all the critical frequencies is likely to be compromised by using curtains as your solution. This is NOT about how much of the walls are covered. This is about how much of the frequency range is impacted and to what degree.

That makes is seem complicated. Here is a good video about why it is not.

 

[dlaloum]

Except that was not the OP's question. The OP asked:

"is there any benefit to getting really thick curtains around the entire room as a form of deadening the room and reducing audio reflections?"

And the answer is, no, that would do a lot of damage. There are better solutions (eg, less coverage / thicker material in fewer places). Nothing about windows, etc. In fact, the OP said they don't have any windows that need covering:

"room is already pitch black"

And their other idea is much better:

"I should use rockwool filled boxes hung on the wall or similar sound treatment"

I have previously responded to the OP's question, my response was to other comments, especially those involving large glass areas..... you might have noted there have been a couple of postings since the OP.

 

[nathan]

I have previously responded to the OP's question, my response was to other comments, especially those involving large glass areas..... you might have noted there have been a couple of postings since the OP.

My mistake. I saw you quoting bjorn who was responding to a post about covering all the walls in a room with curtains by TonyCena and erroneously assumed that OP’s post was the topic you were responding to.