Planar Speakers and Diffusors

audiokinesis

2,704 posts

03-28-2024 at 11:26am 

… making specific acoustic treatment recommendations is something that I’ve learned to leave to the pros because they can make a MUCH bigger improvement than I can. If you don’t have anyone in mind I recommend Jeff Hedback of Hedback Designed Acoustics, he’s a multi-award-winning studio designer who also does home audio, and he’s still affordable. He works remotely.

Duke

dipole speaker dealer for 25 years, multidirectional speaker manufacturer for 16 years

This seems like highly sage advice. The outfit to advise needs familiarity with this kind of speaker behavior. It’s a fairly new brand and it’s unclear what kind(s) of room(s) they’re tested for. Rear reflectors in hotel demos suggests concrete/other solid structures being the design’s preferred residence. I am well aware that in my own case, not using a treatment specialist but receiving input from several after the fact, I surely got lucky more than I got things right by actually knowing enough myself 😉

Real research is designing, trying, alternating, all preferably in the presence of proper controls. Preparatory stages necessitate digesting a lot of modeling and/ or mathematical white papers (admittedly interesting to me, but with equations often over my head). Real research can only very rarely if ever be had by reading product web pages or fora descriptions about things like diffusers. Specialists can be special assets in this area! So yeah, my long and somewhat abrasive way of saying I agree with @audiokinesis 

ozzy OP

7,170 posts

03-28-2024 at 12:15am 

mijostyn,benanders

Thank you for your comments they are welcome and interesting but seem to be off track from my original question.

…

Clarisys speakers play best with minimum room treatments. BTW, my ceilings and walls are all internally insulated and covered with double 5/8" drywall. The floor is concrete covered by carpet with no padding.

I am interested in diffusors because from what I have researched they are supposed to make the soundstage even larger. But I don’t know if that would be a plus, thus my initial post and question.

ozzy

Not off track - I think you misunderstood me @ozzy  - I suggested some form of diffuser (complex-surface reflector) over the tv. Others recommended blankets; I wouldn’t tend to agree with that in your case. That’s why I recommended something rigid but basic, like blinds, that could be poised non-permanently and adjusted experimentally. It seems very unlikely that you will get a satisfactory result from buying a prefabricated diffuser product without trying more basic approaches first (and/or taking input from a qualified acoustician on treatments for your specific setup). 

I also recommended UNtreating your floor just to see what effect it has - laying down some large panels of wood to make the vertical room boundaries more alike. Many people carpet the floor, but very few give parallel treatment to the ceiling. Perhaps this would have no effect, but conversely it could have considerable effect. And laying down some large thin wood panels on the floor would be much more temporary and cheap than… carpeting the ceiling! 😆

If wood panels on the floor reduce your enjoyment, that might tell you something about your fully exposed ceiling. Or not…

While you wait to find or connect with the relevant treatment specialist, there are many amateur mods you can do on the cheap, non-permanently, to help yourself learn what works best. Bear in mind, again, I agree that bass absorbers may not be effective solutions in your case especially if you want to increase soundstage. The issue with your walls/ceilings is that they already work more like low bass traps than not, in a sense, by letting lowest frequencies pass through. Concrete or steel-walled rooms would not have this “issue” and it might be an unavoidable shortcoming for your speakers if they need those manufacturer-recommended concrete boundaries for reinforcing frequencies between ~45 - 60/80/whatever Hz they cover, that’s not being calibrated for room boundary frequency-dependent permeability. All stuff that hopefully the specialist can discuss if you aren’t in a position to try higher-frequency (digital) bass management. Diffusers might make a difference in higher frequencies, but for lower bass the room boundaries or signal processing (lack thereof) might matter more when it comes to conveying soundstage per the recording/master of choice.

Ozzy, Duke and Mijostyn - thank you all for the discussions about planer speakers and optimizing the room acoustics to improve the System’s sound performance. I have started my own investigations on improving my own listening room, and you guys have definitely helped me look in what I think are some positive areas for this improvement. 
 

Thanks again.

Tom8999

Update:

If you guys check out my system page, you will see that behind the Clarisys speakers I do have installed some plastic diffusors that I purchased from Amazon. I think they cost $62 for a package of 12.

Anyway, today, based on this thread and comments I removed them. From what I now hear there is a more unified deep soundstage.

So, based on this, I no longer think diffusors behind the Clarisys speakers to be a positive thing.

ozzy

@ozzy 

Thanks for sharing your experience.  Next, you may want to try adding absorption panels behind the speakers.  Start with a few, and see what you think:  perhaps you will find the imaging more precise, and the sound less bright.  Whether that's a desirable characteristic for your system will have to be determined by yourself.  There are many places that sell sound absorption panels.  

I started off just placing absorption panels directly behind both speakers, and I appreciated the sonic improvement, so I placed absorption panels on the entire back wall (with bass traps in the corners).  It does make the sound quality less bright, but more detailed.  It might dull the sound too much for some systems.  

@drbond, by “back wall” are you speaking of the wall behind your speakers (in front of you as you listen)?