Most rooms don’t need acoustical treatment.

What a bass trap does is act like a shock absorber that dampens resonance. Any normal room the bass waves hit a wall, or ceiling, floor, bounce back, and then basically bounce back and forth until gradually the sound fades out. This takes a big fraction of a second or longer during which time the bass is reverberating in the room adding to the volume of bass you hear, and also the reflections make the sound of the original bass note less distinct and clear. What people call muddy or bloated bass. 

Bass traps are designed to absorb some of this pressure wave. So yes you hear less bass. But they affect mostly the later reflected resonant bass not  the initial bass coming off the speaker. So the bass you are left with is less but more clear. 

This is exactly the same as when you put a small panel on a wall that absorbs midrange or treble. You hear a little less mid and top end, but what you do hear is more clear and distinct. 

Makes sense, thanks,


bass traps seem relatively small. Is it just alittle goes a long way? Or an ample amount of bass traps will be more beneficial? How much is too much?

The lower the frequency the longer the wavelength and so therefore the larger the treatment must be. Low bass waves are 50 ft and more so bass traps are relatively large. I had one in my room, tried it all over the place, it is now hanging from the ceiling where it does a great job absorbing the high volume output from my Delta Unisaw. Yeah my shop has some old discarded acoustic panels too. Would call it a dedicated sawing room but that would be a groaner, it does have quite good acoustics though, for a shop. 

So in my room one was too much. There's more than one way of doing this. Townshend Podiums cleaned up my bass a huge amount, without any of the problems of the bass traps. I'm not the only one to notice this either. So watch out, a lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction that it must be the room. Sometimes they may even be right.

How many of those who set up audio in a cluttered room care about room treatment?
I think room treatment is for those who set up audio in a dedicated room with nothing but components and speakers in the listening room except maybe CD or Vinyl racks.

Are their many speakers built with bass traps? My Gershman Grand Avant Garde sits on top of bass trap. The bass is very tight and clean, and also deep. 

I've got my system set up in our master bedroom with a big queen bed on one side of the room and nightstands on both sides. No, the room is not cluttered at all, but it also doesn't look like a typical listening room with monoblock speakers on the floor and industrial looking audio racks. WAF as well as my own visual acceptance factor were major considerations in the audio furniture that I put into this room.

I added one 2" acoustic panel on the one 1st order reflection in the hexagonal shaped room which balanced out the sound reflection time from the left and right speakers. With that one panel, my room is one of the best sounding rooms I've heard anywhere. The other sound absorbing furniture in the room helps, but doesn't necessarily address specific acoustic problems.