Hello TEP,
Good info, thanks.
1. Broadband bass trapping always concerns me and makes me hesitant to even try it in my room. As I’ve stated, I use an Audio Kinesis DEBRA 4-sub distributed bass array that performs incredibly well in my room.
I honestly cannot think of any aspect of the bass performance in my system/room that needs improvement.
Because of this, I’m very reluctant to introduce any room treatments, even ones as conventional and traditional as bass traps, that might negatively effect the current very high quality bass performance I’ve been enjoying in my system and room. I decided not to purchase any of the GIK corner bass traps and purely bass trapping panels suggested in their analysis of my room.
However, I am going to soon order and utilize some GIK Alpha Series Bass Trap Diffusor/Absorber panels of various sizes for my front and back 16’ walls. These are mainly intended for the purposes of increasing diffusion in my room but they also contain elements designed to absorb frequencies from the mid-bass to the mid-treble. I’m a bit concerned that even these could negatively effect the bass performance in my room.
2. Mid and high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the sidewalls and ceiling is something that makes perfect sense to me, making sure the direct sound from the speakers and the reflected sound don’t arrive at the listening position too closely together time wise. However, my right front Magnepan panel is positioned directly across from the beginning of a 5’ wide opening on the 23’ long right wall in my room that leads to the dining room beyond. And my left front Magnepan panel is positioned directly across from the beginning of a 6’ high x8’ long window section, completely covered by plantation blinds that are about an inch wide, along the 23’ long left wall in my room.
So, there’s no first refection point on my right wall and the first reflection point on my left wall is on a plantation blind covering a window, which is difficult to absorb. I’ve been leaving the 1" thick horizontal blinds open, when seriously listening to music, reasoning that the open blinds act as an acoustic diffusing panel in my room.
Of course, I can’t be certain early reflections are being sufficiently delayed through this method. I’m thinking I’ll have my wife hold up one of the 23"x48.5" Bass Trap Diffusor/Absorber panels at this point to determine whether that results in a soundstage improvement. But if it does, I doubt she’ll be willing to do this for hours at a time. Any ideas?
For the ceiling, I think I’ll follow your lead and get to that later. I also believe my Magnepan planar-magnetic speakers’ radiation pattern directs very little to no sound energy towards the ceiling.
3. I do have two 23’ long parallel walls but the left wall has a 6’ high x 8’ long window in the middle of it completely covered by wide plantation blinds and the right wall only has a few bare sections. Both you and the GIK analyst suggested diffusion or absorption may be beneficial on these walls so I’m going to experiment a bit with both on these surfaces.
Thanks for your help,
Tim
Good info, thanks.
1. Broadband bass trapping always concerns me and makes me hesitant to even try it in my room. As I’ve stated, I use an Audio Kinesis DEBRA 4-sub distributed bass array that performs incredibly well in my room.
I honestly cannot think of any aspect of the bass performance in my system/room that needs improvement.
Because of this, I’m very reluctant to introduce any room treatments, even ones as conventional and traditional as bass traps, that might negatively effect the current very high quality bass performance I’ve been enjoying in my system and room. I decided not to purchase any of the GIK corner bass traps and purely bass trapping panels suggested in their analysis of my room.
However, I am going to soon order and utilize some GIK Alpha Series Bass Trap Diffusor/Absorber panels of various sizes for my front and back 16’ walls. These are mainly intended for the purposes of increasing diffusion in my room but they also contain elements designed to absorb frequencies from the mid-bass to the mid-treble. I’m a bit concerned that even these could negatively effect the bass performance in my room.
2. Mid and high frequency absorption at the first reflection points on the sidewalls and ceiling is something that makes perfect sense to me, making sure the direct sound from the speakers and the reflected sound don’t arrive at the listening position too closely together time wise. However, my right front Magnepan panel is positioned directly across from the beginning of a 5’ wide opening on the 23’ long right wall in my room that leads to the dining room beyond. And my left front Magnepan panel is positioned directly across from the beginning of a 6’ high x8’ long window section, completely covered by plantation blinds that are about an inch wide, along the 23’ long left wall in my room.
So, there’s no first refection point on my right wall and the first reflection point on my left wall is on a plantation blind covering a window, which is difficult to absorb. I’ve been leaving the 1" thick horizontal blinds open, when seriously listening to music, reasoning that the open blinds act as an acoustic diffusing panel in my room.
Of course, I can’t be certain early reflections are being sufficiently delayed through this method. I’m thinking I’ll have my wife hold up one of the 23"x48.5" Bass Trap Diffusor/Absorber panels at this point to determine whether that results in a soundstage improvement. But if it does, I doubt she’ll be willing to do this for hours at a time. Any ideas?
For the ceiling, I think I’ll follow your lead and get to that later. I also believe my Magnepan planar-magnetic speakers’ radiation pattern directs very little to no sound energy towards the ceiling.
3. I do have two 23’ long parallel walls but the left wall has a 6’ high x 8’ long window in the middle of it completely covered by wide plantation blinds and the right wall only has a few bare sections. Both you and the GIK analyst suggested diffusion or absorption may be beneficial on these walls so I’m going to experiment a bit with both on these surfaces.
Thanks for your help,
Tim