Let's discuss bass traps and room treatments

MWalt

MWalt

Super Member
In another thread, a member suggested I try some room treatments to enhance sound quality. Is anyone using such devices in their listening rooms?

If so, is there an inexpensive way to accomplish this task? Let's discuss the use of room enhancements, etc.

What is the upside? The downside? :scratch2:
 
Register to hide this ad
The definitive forum for discussion of room and studio treatment is:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/bass-traps-acoustic-panels-foam-etc/

I've read quite a few books and papers on room treatment. For small rooms you get people promoting the idea of treating most walls with absorbers while others claim a lively room is better.

I have built 8 corner angled traps that I have stacked in the front corners of my listening room, mainly to tame the boomy effect of the loudspeakers being close to the front corners (room a tad too narrow).

When the room was empty it would ring like a bell and flutter echo was exceptionally obvious.

But with the addition of a carpet, a couch, several shelves with LPs (they absorb while CDs tend to reflect more) the flutter echo and first modes were attenuated greatly. Still have the 31.5 and 63Hz main and first harmonic modes prevail (guess what the room length is) which are pretty easy to avoid (in my case) by placing the couch after some thought.

I don't mix and don't record in that room, so i'm not critical. For such applications, you really need to treat the room properly (small or large) both with absorption and diffusion.
 
The more the better. Seriously, the more traps you install in a room, the flatter the low frequency response will be. It's probably not possible to have too much low frequency absorption, but you can definitely make a room too dead sounding at mid and high frequencies. Carefull about room treatement.
 
I have four "Auralex" (knock-off) bass traps in my listening room - all adjacent to the front (speaker-end) of the room. While they are arguably the poorest of bass traps, they did make a difference by tightening up the bass in this small room.

I am sure better treatments would make an improvement, but this was a (simple and cheap) start.
 
Bass Trapping and 1st reflection treatments will give you some of the best bang for your buck in terms of sound quality improvements. Two main companies come to mind if you are looking for help. Glenn and Bryan from GIK Acoustics, and Ethan from Real Traps. Both have websites, both visit forums, and both will give you help with your room acoustics if you are buying their products or not. They both deal in absorption and diffusion and can assist with what products to use where.

One of the best things to do is bass trap in the corners of your room. You will find most will agree that going from floor to ceiling is the best, but sometimes that is not possible due to finances or the WAF. So start where you can, and move forward from there
 
There is a lot of information on DIY treatments on the web. My advice is to follow the recipes closely because I did not, and when I bought manufactured products (from GIK) I realized how my home made stuff wasn't helping 'cause I cut corners.

I think a lot of guys who don't get educated treat the upper frequencies too much and bass not enough resulting in poor sound. My expericnce is that if you get the bass better it's easier to get the rest sounding good. IOW - Start with the bass.

The one corner I cut that paid off for me was to just call GIK, send them a sketch of my room, and buy 2 corner bass traps and 2 wall mount panels (244s). They were great (Bryan), and I've heard the same about Real Traps. The GIK stuff helped a lot.
 
A lot of good advice here, but based on some of the comments, I'm not so sure I need room treatments. My listening room has heavy padding and carpet and wood fixtures. If anything it isn't as "bright" as I would like. Bass is not at all boomy or muddy, but solid and both stand mounts and sub are well coupled to the hardwood floor underneath.
 
I am sure you have enough furniture in your room. Some dedicated audio room indeed need room treatement. But if i take your bedroom for exemple, you have plenty of furniture there to absorb low frequency respond and to not disturb the mids and high frequency.
 
MWalt said:
A lot of good advice here, but based on some of the comments, I'm not so sure I need room treatments. My listening room has heavy padding and carpet and wood fixtures. If anything it isn't as "bright" as I would like. Bass is not at all boomy or muddy, but solid and both stand mounts and sub are well coupled to the hardwood floor underneath.
Click to expand...

Your comments show you probably have all your bases covered.

You know, room treatment is a medicine, but any medicine is useless - even dangerous - if you aren't sick :D

But, since we are discussing, I've spent about 2 years visiting dedicated forums, trying measurement software, reading books and experimenting as I had a new toy - a dedicated listening room.

When it was just completed (concrete and brick walls, plastered with plastered concrete ceiling and wooden planks on a concrete floor, it sounded terrible when it was empty.

Flutter echo and bass boom was all it exhibited.

But as it was filled with stuff I was going to put in there anyway, things started to change. It still has a large peak at 31Hz (lowest room mode) but music content rarely has significant content down there to actually trigger that mode. And placing the couch with a bit of care, I was able to avoid the resonance across the length of the room.

There are some schools of thought that promote the use of absorbtion throughout small rooms. Obviously taking care to leave some reflection so as not to destroy mid/highs.

But there's another school of thought that tells you to leave the room as reflective as possible, so that sound can create envelopment.

And even if the room has some issues, the brain learns to compensate for that so after a little while the sound seems fine to the "trained" listener.

I did employ some room treatment mounting considerable sized corner traps to the two front corners, adjacent where the main speakers are located. I did this as they (KEF 105.1) did sound boomy, even at moderate levels. After mounting the (DYI) corner traps sound was tamed to the point I can raise the level to the point I enjoy a rather flat frequency response while low frequency energy seems to trigger the leather couch at times.

I could go a couple of steps further and build a couple of diffusers mounted on the ceiling between the listening position and the front loudspeakers but I don't really see the need to focus on treatment and not enjoy what I currently have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom