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A few weeks ago we tore out carpet on the first floor of our house and put down hardwoods. The new floor looks great, but now we have this echo echo echo effect in our living room--it has 20 foot ceiling, so really, we shouldn't be surprised, but it never occurred to us this would happen.
In an attempt to correct the problem, I put down an area rug near our couch and put a carpet runner on the stairs (which is located on the back wall in the living room). It may have helped a little, but not much.
The windows are about 15 feet high, and because they look out to our bird feeder and lovely woods, we don't want to cover them with curtains even though I know the expanse of glass isn't helping the echo effect.
When we were searching for a house in the Triangle, I recall that many that we looked at had high ceilings. Surely I'm not the only one with an echo problem around here?
I would appreciate any advice about what to do to absorb some of the sound so that our living area doesn't have that "empty house" sound.
I've looked at sound absorption panels online, but I would rather look at something sold locally before paying that much money for something that could totally change the look of my room. I have searched for a local option, but can't find anything. Have any of you had experience with this?
Artwork, painting on canvas on a frame, not a board, tapestry, textile art...
Anything with a soft surface, texture, multi-faceted that may be hung and not bounce sound so efficiently.
I was considering hanging a Persian rug for decoration, but it is an antique and there is a lot of sunlight. Something like that would help greatly with echo, I think.
And with the 18 1/2 ceiling, we have one side with a balcony, some wall offsets, and very little echo.
Lots of different ways to break up the echo effect.
From very traditional looking stuff to high tech mod looking "speakers as art" I have seen dozens of was to reduce the reverberations.
Sound is not that different than light -- any hard surface is like a mirror and bounces the sound around. If you shine a flashlight at black velvet almost nothing gets reflected -- you can go for the George Costanza solution
Artwork, painting on canvas on a frame, not a board, tapestry, textile art...
Anything with a soft surface, texture, multi-faceted that may be hung and not bounce sound so efficiently.
I was considering hanging a Persian rug for decoration, but it is an antique and there is a lot of sunlight. Something like that would help greatly with echo, I think.
And with the 18 1/2 ceiling, we have one side with a balcony, some wall offsets, and very little echo.
This is good advice, any soft fabric material will help absorb the sound and reduce the reverberation you are getting from all the hard surfaces. In addition to the materials suggested above, you can install acoustical ceiling tiles or sound absorbing batts behind a lattice or grid of varnished wood, that has spaces between the wood slats so sound can penetrate and be absorbed by the softer material behind it. Rampart :: Products :: Acoustic Wall Panels :: RA 6 :: Acoustic Panel with Wood Battens
There are numerous styles of rugs that would look great as wall hangings, available in many different styles and sizes.
The windows are about 15 feet high, and because they look out to our bird feeder and lovely woods, we don't want to cover them with curtains even though I know the expanse of glass isn't helping the echo effect.
You don't have to "cover" the windows, just use panels like this:
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Curtains, valances, upholstered walls, tapestries...
