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Is The Window Behind My Speakers Causing Problems?

By 15 Comments

If you are working out of a home studio, you probably have a window somewhere in your room that you’ve been wondering about.

Is it causing a problem that you don’t know about? What’s the best way to treat the reflections coming off of the glass? Will curtains help?

In this video I want to show you why you can think of windows just like any other surface of drywall in your studio.

I’ll also show you why it’s better to work with a combination of deep absorbers and a thin curtain, rather than a thick acoustic curtain covering the entire window.

 

  • Hi:
    Great video!
    So: my right wall has a 6 ft by 3 foot window just where the 1st reflection point on right side starts.

    I have a full range 48 inch high absorber standing in front of this window ( but not to the very top ),
    What type of “ blind” material should I buy for this window, – not absorbing blind but “neutral “ as the OTHER left wall is drywall with same Full range absorption panel covering 1st reflection point.?
    Thanks
    Howard’s

  • Hey!
    That depends on the type of plexiglass, mainly a mass question. If it’s a similar mass, it probably behaves similarly.
    J.

  • Hey thanks for the vid on windows!!
    My window is plexiglass. I that any different than actual glass?
    Its a standard studio setup with the glass behind the speakers into an iso booth.
    Thanks

  • My approach to dealing with the windows issue appears to have solved all the previous problems i was having, instead of setting up having a large bay window behind speakers, I revolved everything 180° placing my couch in front of the bay that my mains now point towards and having now
    used Jescos setup techniques, the room sound is astonishing. Eddie.

  • Hi Jesco thank you for all this valuable information. I have a Fairly big Window on my right hand side wall, it’s a little less than a third of the wall in area. The thing is this, even when the Drywall and Glass behaves pretty much the same acoustically , the Drywall area has a fairly thick brick-wall behind it with 5/8 inch or so gap in between I’m pretty that makes a difference maybe more towards the mids, I’m sure it has to affect also my stereo imaging. How can I work this around?

  • Hi Emil.

    It doesn’t really matter that much in terms of sound, you’ll need to treat both, just like a regular wall. So it’s more of a question of esthetics and light.

    J.

  • Hey Jesco,

    Is it better to have the windows behind the speakers/in front of you rather than having them on your sides?

    Cheers!

  • Hey Sascha,
    I feel you. Square rooms are simply the worst. In the long run, think about if there is any way you can move to a more suitable space. But for now:

    1. If you mean the “middle” from a left/right perspective: You do want left right symmetry if at all possible. Of course you can compromise on this, if it helps with the bass. But it is exactly that: A compromise. Getting a detailed, focused stereo image is going to be difficult at that points because of the asymmetry.

    But remember that you can also move out of the middle of the room on the front-to-back axes. And THAT you want to use as best as you can. Apply the Bass Hunter technique. Make sure you speakers, stands, desk are all suited to allow you to sit in that ideal spot. That’s going to make the biggest difference by far.

    2. Short answer: yes. That is exactly the problem with sqaure rooms. Use all the tools you have available to you. In this order: Positioning -> bass trapping -> EQ.

    4 bass traps? Get more. A LOT more.

    🙂

  • Hey ,

    thanks a lot for that video. I have a very problematic room, it’s square, one wall is an entire window (It has a thin curtain covering it and i have a big wooden cabinet i can’t put anywhere else. also – part of that window wall is a door that has to be opened.

    1. is it necessary to sit in the middle of a square room? if the room isn’t good in the first place, can i just sit off center to begin with?

    2. did you encounter a lot of 200hz in other small rooms? its SOOOO boomy and i can’t get rid of it. (i can work against it on my neumann speakers by lowering the bass – but is that really what one should do?)

    I have 4 basstraps and wall panels. I’m pretty lost with this room for a year now.

    Video suggestion: “Do you have to sit in the center between two walls?” or something

    Thanks so much for what you are doing and maybe answering my questions.

    sascha

  • Hey Mikko,

    technically that is true, but the issue here is the window cavity and not the window itself. And in that sense it is the same as any other geometric irregularity in your room’s shape. Some people have chimneys in the rooms for example, those will have an even stronger effect.

    That’s why it’s so important to test the actual response of your room and adapt to it.

  • Hello,

    thanks for the video. There’s something that I feel is still left out though, and I think it’s time.

    Usually there’s a windowsill in front of the window so the window is not in the same plane as the wall and therefore there should be some phase issues due to time.

    I can imagine this would also affect stereo image, should the window be on the left or right hand side of the studio near the listening spot and if the window is behind speakers then some problems might occur due to differences in SBIR. Comb filter in the higher frequencies come to mind.

    Maybe put out a part two on the window problems?

    Anyway, thanks for your contributions and have a great week (:

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