The Audio Expert, 2nd Edition

Chapter 22

Room Measuring

Myth: You must measure your room’s acoustics in order to know how best to treat it.

Why We Measure

I measure rooms as part of my acoustics business, so it may seem strange for me to say that measuring isn’t always needed. But there are some valid reasons to measure a room: First, many people have no idea how skewed their rooms are, so measuring can provide a badly needed wake-up call. Figure 22.1 shows the low-frequency response in a typical small, untreated room. It makes no sense to fret over the response of a sound card that’s half a dB down at 20 KHz, while ignoring peaks and nulls as large as 35 dB due to room acoustics.

Another reason to measure is to confirm the improvement after adding bass traps and other ...