Don't leave the cost of acoustic treatments for the room out of your budget for home theater design.

It's easy to get wrapped up in your projector, screen, speakers and the seating choices. However, to get the most bang for your home theater design buck, acoustic wall treatments should pay a major role. There are essentially two ways to approach acoustic treatments: complete room or specific locations.

1. For room treatments - The Acoustrack system from Acoustical Solutions or Snap-Trak from SoundNice is a nice way to go.

2. For specific locations, you will need absorbers on the front and sidewalls and diffusers on the back. You can purchase these from a multitude of places (search: 'acoustic panel') or you can build them yourself.

Extra tip: Just don't go crazy with this stuff or you'll end up with a room that's dead -- sound-wise, that is.