Bruce B
WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
I have about a 3-4' gap behind my triangulated corners. They are built with 4" of 703 on all 3 sides with Guilford of Maine fabric covering.
Corner Bass Traps - Always beneficial?
- Thread starter edorr
- Start date
I'm sure there are some physics involved which dictate how much gap is beneficial.
This would require a little bit of work, but would be quite doable. I guess I could just put a few pieces of 2" lumber as floor to ceiling spacers between the corning and the wall. I'll think about it.
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Clearly, you are not cutting any corners! How thick is the panel actually making up the corners?
I used to work for the parent company / owners of Guilford of Maine, and went down there a few times. I never got the chance to see their acoustic testing lab though
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Thanks. I have a set of swatches for this fabric. Did not realize it had special acoustic properties. I ordered some cotton canvas that I was planning to paint in the color of my walls. Sounds like a doomed strategy .....
As Lee originally posted, it's not the fabric (which is essentially the same as almost all other acoustic treatments) but the perforated foil they put under half the circumference of the Trap.
I haven't made measurements (but I'm sure ASC has) comparing ASC products to less sophisticated bass traps and diffusion panels, but I'm quite sure that the ASC products accomplish the same goals with significantly less volume, for times when that is a consideration in one's choice of treatments. As I already posted, that comes at a financial premium.
I'll try a simple analogy I am sure will get shredded but it's a hand-waving explanation... Simple absorbers like the typical "bass trap" panels work by absorbing sonic energy and converting it to heat. The more energy, the more is converted to heat, and the better they work. If your wall was a perfect reflector (infinte mass, infinitely stiff and all that) then right at the wall the sound wave is zero (since the wall does not move the sound waves come to a complete stop right at the boundary). As you move away from the wall, the sound energy picks up again. So, moving the absorber a little away from the wall to where the sound waves are "moving" more increases the absorption. How large a gap is beneficial depends on what frequencies you want to absorb and the properties of the material.
Moving them out from the wall also makes panels acoustically a little "bigger" since sound waves approaching at an angle from outside the panel may hit the wall and bounce inside the panel.
I suspect Ethan's site has a much better explanation.
HTH - Don
Moving them out from the wall also makes panels acoustically a little "bigger" since sound waves approaching at an angle from outside the panel may hit the wall and bounce inside the panel.
I suspect Ethan's site has a much better explanation.
HTH - Don
Just to be clear, whether a trap fills the corner or is a flat panel is separate from whether it absorbs mids and highs as well as bass. Our MegaTraps fill the corner, and they're also very wide to absorb to very low frequencies, but they have the same semi-reflective membrane as our panel shaped traps.
It's even a bit less than that with our quantity discount.
--Ethan
Due to some spacing issues with my room, the Mega Traps won't work for me. Which is why I am looking at 8 Mondo Traps instead (4 regular Mondos, and 4 Fat Mondos). Which cost a little more than 8 Megas.
A naive question - considering a rectangular room a large bass trap could be built in the back wall? Or its performance will be better if located at the front wall?
For bass it does not really matter since the wavelengths are so long. The exception is when you are actually building broad-band absorbers that are dealing with more than just bass frequencies; then, where you place them depends upon the type of speakers, listening positions, etc. (Now I expect others will chime in with exceptions and reasons I have not thought about.) Soffits and ceilings are popular places for bass traps because they do not take away from the "visible" room area.
I have seen a number of installations pictured that use the front wall because they move the screen out from the wall and fill the area behind with treatments.
All IMO, FWIWFM, YMMV, etc. - Don
No, Greg, IMHO it is not. As long as friendly and knowledgeable people in this forum will answer my questions, I will ask them. I have a room with a null to treat!
Thanks for your concern Greg. If members ask specific questions, then commercial answers are fine. Unsolicited sales offers is what is against the rules.
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