Diffusers for magnepan speakers

i didn,t like acoustic treatments hung behind my mmgs speakers but they are easy to move and experiment with. your room is the same shape as mine but i have pictures, books, cabinets, wall art/objects everywhere. a neat freak would have a nervous breakdown here, ha. i use 2 cathedral panels behind my listening seat and 2 more on the sidewalls at the pt of first relection. i do have tube traps and roomtunes in the corners of the room. i still don,t have things perfect but i doubt i ever will. good luck

Hotmailjbc,

When you say you have roomtunes in the corners of the room, are you referring to the Michael Green corner tunes -- that is, the triangle "pillows" that go in corners?

If so, what is your experience with them as far as how much of an improvement they make?

I have some absorption panels and diffusion, and they make a huge difference in my room. For example, if I were to take any of the treatments out of the room, it would be noticeable (for the worse). Do the corner tunes make much of a difference? Is it mainly in upper frequencies?

with this small rectangular room [12 x 16] i had serious standing waves and boomy acoustics with my magnepan mmgs and my older mbquart towers. i put the m green smaller corner tunes with the absorber side out and the slender pillows midway along the side walls with the diffusor side out as recommended by some people who use them. the result was much less boom. this was before i put the 2' x 2' cathedrals on the rear wall and side walls [ a friend gave them to me for christmas] and they helped too. i have not measured the room's acoustics but when i move around the waves of overpronounced bass is gone totally. and the plus is really nice definition and image. have you ever read his forum? lots of interesting things there about using 29 dollar cd players and spring devices to dampen electronics which i havn,t tried yet. my goal is to get my system as detailed and engaging as possible with the speakers vanishing. unfortunately a lot of the music i listen to is compressed rock but i do have a d krall live in paris cd here somewhere. ha

Some like acoustic panels BETWEEN the speakers, on the front wall.

Also, if like me, you have a bigscreen TV installed, you are automatically compromised.

Maplegrovemusic,
Nothing can kill the great sound of your speakers like the indirect reflections off the front wall, especially with di-bipole speakers, so you're heading in the right direction.

Regarding front wall treatment, why are you considering 2-dimensional diffusion (i.e. Skylines)than say absorption? Absorption should deepen the apparent soundstage depth but you'll need at least 4"-6" thickness of fiberglass treatment and another 6" air space for a total depth of 10"-12". It looks like you have that depth and more to spare, correct?

A less costly and faster to construct diffuser that can double as a bass trap is a hemi-cylindrical diffuser, or sometimes called a Polyfuser. Start by buying say a 24" or 36" diameter Sonotube used for concrete forming at construction sites. Cut it in half lengthwise, sand the exterior to remove the wax and then glue your choice of wooden veneer, stain and varnish and it'll look like an architectural column. It should extend from floor to ceiling. Fill the concave inside with OC701 or OC703 fiberglass and you have a combination diffuser / bass trap placed behind each speaker that diffuses sound horizontally in about a 120degree arc and absorb bass too. The more you pull it out from the wall the deeper the frequencies it'll absorb, so it's infinitely adjustable.

Skylines are great - you just have to see what extents I've gone in my dedicated room in making and using them. Ping me and I'll send you a write-up that I did on how to build a DIY Skyline complete with a long list of Prime numbers you'll need to find the wall space coverage you seek.

If there is enough interest from others, then I will copy the document here in this thread for all to read.