Acoustic Treatment Verification: Did Your Panels Work?

TL;DR

You installed acoustic panels, bass traps, and diffusers. The room sounds different — but did the treatment actually hit your targets? Subjective impressions are unreliable. Measurement proves whether treatment worked, identifies remaining problems, and provides documentation for clients or building managers. This guide covers the verification protocol.

Before You Install: Capture the Baseline

The most common regret in acoustic treatment is not measuring before installation. Without a baseline, you cannot prove improvement. Before touching a single panel:

Measure RT60 at 3-5 positions using SonaVyx RT60. Record per-octave-band values.
Capture frequency response at the primary listening position using Transfer Function. Store the trace.
Measure noise floor with SPL Meter for NC rating.
Run AI Diagnostic via /diagnose for a baseline health score.

After Installation: Verification Protocol

Repeat all baseline measurements at the same positions, same conditions (HVAC state, occupancy, equipment). Use the same measurement parameters (FFT size, averaging, sweep duration).
Compare RT60. Overlay before/after octave band RT60. Calculate the reduction per band. Expected improvements: broadband absorbers reduce mid/high-frequency RT60 by 20-40%. Bass traps reduce 125-250 Hz RT60 by 15-30%. Diffusers do not change RT60 significantly — they improve spatial uniformity.
Compare frequency response. Overlay the before and after transfer function traces. Treatment should reduce peaks caused by strong reflections. Bass traps should reduce the amplitude of room mode peaks.
Verify STI improvement (if applicable). For speech-critical rooms, the STI should improve by 0.05-0.15 with appropriate treatment.
Check the health score. Run the AI Diagnostic again. The health score should improve if treatment addressed the identified problems.

What If Treatment Did Not Work?

RT60 unchanged at low frequencies: Your panels are too thin. Panels under 50mm thickness have negligible absorption below 250 Hz. You need thicker absorbers (100mm+) or corner-mounted bass traps.
Room sounds dead but RT60 is still high: You absorbed high frequencies but not low frequencies. The perceived deadness comes from HF absorption; the measured RT60 reflects the dominant LF energy. Add bass treatment.
Frequency response unchanged: Panels are not at the first reflection points. Use the impulse response to identify the strongest early reflections and move treatment to intercept them.

Tool Bridge

Measure before and after with RT60, Transfer Function, and AI Diagnostic. Use the trace overlay to visualize improvements. Generate a comparison report for documentation.