Some more tips:
Use a mirror to determine which areas may require acoustic tiles – if you can see your speakers in the mirror while facing forward, you may need to treat those surfaces.
Don’t cover all your walls in carpet (it’s amazing how many times I have seen this).
You have little chance of ever stopping the low frequencies from bouncing around anyway, so you should allow for an amount of reflections across the rest of the spectrum in order to balance the tone of ‘all’ the reflections.
Shock mount monitors to prevent vibrations traveling through the materials of the room, which can reach your ears as sound before the direct speaker sound!
Also consider mounting absorption/diffusion ‘above and below’ the listening position.
The larger the room, the better. Low-frequency sound waves need space to develop down to their long wavelengths. A tiny room will reduce your accuracy in monitoring the low end.
In addition to being the author of The Audio Mastering Blueprint, David S. Eley owns TGM Audio Mastering and operates the website MasteringTuition.Com.
