Glass or curtains for sound bouncing?

  • 30 July 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 206 views

Hi there, I just bought an Arc for my tv room and have a very basic doubt. One of the side walls of the room has a large wide glass door. It goes from floor to ceiling and covers most of the wall, except for the front corner right at the side of the Arc, where there's a wooden door, and the rear corner where there's another wooden door. So what would be better, in terms of Arc’s virtual surround: closing the drapes (black-out plastic layer outwards, thin blue-jean layer fabric inwards), or just leave the bare glass? I obviously lean towards the first option to avoid glare, but I wonder what would be better for audio accuracy’s sake.

Thanks in advance for any input!


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4 replies

Every room is different. Which sounds better? Only you can choose.

Glass will reflect sound, especially higher frequencies. Fabric will tend to absorb them. 

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You might want to try it both ways and see how it sounds. Then run TruePlay (requires a supported Apple device) both ways and compare the sound there too.

I’d lean to using TruePlay with the shades closed as my default option and if necessary tweak the sound for the times you want them open.

Note: TruePlay is buggy for some folks with the Arc in the current 14.12 controller release.

I closed the drapes and did the Truplay configuration several times and run the Atmos channels test afterwards. At last all of them are sounding accurate-ish except for the surround (rear) of the side where the bloody window is. I tried leaving the drapes open, but the reflection is just impossible, its like having a second tv on the wall. So I guess this is as good as it gets... or maybe there’s some material I could put over the wooden door at the side of the Arc, to help the bouncing of the sound...? 

You could test your door hypothesis by temporarily draping a plush blanket over the door.