3D Printed Sound Treatment


Is anyone using 3D printing to make sound treatment products? A buddy of mine has a 3D printer that can make objects 18”x18”x18”. I’m interested in making quadratic diffuser panels, especially because their intricate construction is rendered very simple with the use of 3D printing. (Google image search “quadratic diffuser panels” if you aren’t sure what they look like). Professionally made panels can go for hundreds of dollars. This seems like a cost effective approach to sound treatment. It’s got me wondering, though, if these panels need to be made of something sturdier than plastic. I could always back them with Dynamat or a block of wood if that would help.

What are your thoughts?
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They have to be pretty solid to work.  One possibility too is to use them to make a mold for resin casting.
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Interesting. So what do you think would be best with the 3D printed “block” quadratic diffuser:
1) “Solid” infill
2) Hatched infill 
2) Hollow infill with a dampener like dynamat on the back sides of the blocks
3) Solid infill with a flat back and attached to a block of wood or other substrate. 

I’m thinking of putting these diffuser panels in the center and behind the speakers because I’ve seem many a fancy setup do this (they must have a good reason 🙂) and because it gives you something interesting to look at while listening as opposed to a wall or flat absorbent sound panels. 
A bookshelf with unevenly aligned different sized books is a quadratic diffuser panel. A bunch of blocks of wood of different sizes and heights is a quadratic diffuser panel. In other words you don't need no 3D printer. All that's good for is making one out of plastic.

What matters is whatever you use, its not only diffusing. Its also radiating. Sound doesn't just hit it and bounce off. Sound makes it vibrate, in other words turns it into a speaker. Same as walls, ceiling, everything. 

So what you do, take your 18" square plastic panel, hold it out at arms length, and hit it. Whatever sound it makes, that is the same sound it will impart to your music.

If you're happy with the look, and the sound, then go for it. If not, plenty of perfectly good options to choose from.

None of them anywhere near as effective as a bunch of HFT. But oh well.