How to dress up your room so your wife is cool about it

I don't know any wives who want their husband's music listening area to look like an over-damped hi-fi shop. By the way, WAF in audiophile-speak is an acronym for Wife Acceptance Factor.

Sometime ago, when working in more acoustically neutral living/listening spaces, I went away from simply damping the first sound wave reflection points in favor of absorption and diffusion. In my case, the treatment was strategically placed ficus trees (leafy trees). Silk trees seem to work very well. Of course they could be real, but some rooms have little available sunlight.

It's important that they be leafy, especially at your listening height. They cannot be sparsely populated with leaves.

Using trees (real or silk) makes the room much more inviting. And the effect on the sound may be more satisfying than simply using deadening panels.

It may be more satisfying than using absorption panels because, all too often, too much absorption is introduced into the room with acoustic panels, even by installers who should know better. I'd still prefer acoustic panels in a dedicated room, IF they were the correct panels for the job, correctly placed. Here I'm suggesting a tree for those listening spaces that are also living spaces, serving multiple duties.

In a highly reflective room, leafy trees won't work. I'm referring to rooms that already have a reasonably natural acoustic. Not too much echo, and not too dead.

I also employ them in corners wherever I can, as well as any other points that need treatment that would benefit from a nicer feeling listening environment. A tree will in no way take the place of a corner bass trap. But it can help to reduce corner-generated slap echo.

They work like a combination of diffusion and absorption. I also use them at shows, where you need instant flexibility and you can't hang anything on hotel room walls.

Jim Smith

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