I saw this on another forum, anyone care to comment?

"While at a movie over this past weekend, my 4 year old daughter asked why there were curtains hanging on the wall. I figure it has something to do with the audio systems in the theatre. But then my wife asked if we should hang curtains on the walls in the TV room in our house, if it will improve sound quality. So should I start buying curtain rods?"
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"The drapes are there to control noise. Notice I didn't say eliminate. Different materials have different sound absorption, reflecting and even sound enhancing properties (depending on your objective and preferences). The enjoyment of a movie or concert requires special attention to the quality of the sound. Theaters, are generally designed to distribute the soundtrack across the audience evenly and with the least amount of loss either through beat oscillation or volume deprivation. The drapes help do this by keeping the sound from bouncing all over the walls, creating echoes (aka a "loud" room).

For example, a basketball court is a poor place for an assembly where sound quality is required. The only reason I can think of why many high school band/orchestra concerts are held in the gymnasium is because they don't have a better place to go, that is large enough to hold an audience of any size. I digress.

I know a couple of people, with extremely elaborate home theater systems, that have hired acoustic consultants to place various materials (including drapes) around their viewing rooms to optimize sound quality. However, these people are "show-off" amateur audiophiles that have more money than sense... trying to impress me with their big woofers. I digress.

I suspect that if you enjoy your TV/DVD/VCR system, you don't feel you are missing the reproduction quality of the equipment you have invested in and since you haven't been introduced to this before.... you probably don't have a problem."