Interesting Article on Home Theatre Room Acoustics

According to this article at Beststuff.com, room acoustics are the most important factor in making a truly engrossing, quality home theatre system. The author, Norman Varney, says that a high end audio system can be wasted in an acoustically poor environment and that a decent system can sound great under the right acoustic conditions.

From the article:

Don't believe it? While working at the Science and Technology Center for Owens Corning, we built two identical rooms of average home theater size. Both included the same equipment, set-up and furnishings. One room had acoustic treatment in it and the other did not. I ran bio-feedback tests with a couple of dozen engineers playing the same 'Das Boot' clip for them in both rooms. We found that when subjects were in the room that was acoustically treated, their heart rate and blood pressure increased. Acoustics controlled their emotions. They did not understand why it was happening, or even care, but they all wanted it at home. A similar thing happened when I gave a little acoustic seminar for about a dozen teenage boys. In the untreated room they behaved like teenage boys, but in the acoustically treated room, it was like flipping a switch; they were totally focused on the movie, motionless, involved. So you see, it's real, and it's for everyone to enjoy. It's not just for audiophile geeks like me with golden ears.

Now don't get too carried away with improving your home audio experience or you'll soon find yourself dropping nearly $500 on volume knobs and the like.

Article: Room Acoustics Number One Component