Fully soundproofing a room involves placing soft, light materials on the room's surfaces—walls, ceiling, and floor—to absorb sound. Not all voice actors have the means to create a fully ...

Cut down on the noise coming into or going out of your living area with these proven sound-dampening materials and techniques.

Killing control room ceiling and floor reflections (Image credit: Future) ... This increases efficacy, as sound hits the MelaTech, goes to the ceiling, and then goes back through the MelaTech again.

Fortunately, we can use the ‘38% rule’ to find a position in the room where we’re least likely to encounter bass nodes or interference. This rule says that a point 38% into the length of the room is ...

…Sound Group 4 – STC 50 or better. Very loud sounds within the SCIF, such as loud singing, brass music, or a radio at full volume, can be heard with the human ear faintly or not at all outside ...

How to make sure the sound fills your room. You don’t need all these extra drivers if your living room isn’t much bigger than a shoebox. Likewise, a puny one driver will act like a fart in a hurricane ...

So, why does it sound like the apocalypse when you fire it up? Chances are you need to balance the audio system to best suit the characteristics of the room. Here's how.

As you'd expect, the most expensive options sound the best, like Sonos's Arc ($899) and Vizio's Elevate 5.1 system ($799), but you don't have to spend that much to get a decent surround experience.