2. misc-audio
  3. 182654-2720

Gotham Quadratic Diffusers

I have a dedicated audio room that doubles as a home theater. I have desired to put diffusers on the wall behind my speakers since I built the room but a large screen television has stood in the way and I have a lot of gear with cables below it taking up floor space making a floor installation difficult.When I saw the GIK Gotham quadratic diffusers, I thought I could have my cake and eat it too.

My initial plan was to use heavy gauge wire and hang them off the television but I was a little uncomfortable with the additional weight on the wall rack that was right at it’s weight limits with the heavy plasma tv attached to it. I looked at premade shelves but couldn’t find anything with the dimensions I needed. A trip to my local Lowe’s solved the problem. I purchased a pair of heavy duty shelf brackets and a painted 3 foot shelf. I also bought heavy duty metal dry wall anchors which don’t require drilling to install just a Phillips head screw driver. The openings for screws on the shelf brackets were a little wider than the drywall screws so I purchased some flat washers. Total cost was around $40. Installation was easy and the diffusers fit perfectly on the shelf.

Shortly after installation one of my Audiophile buddies visited for a couple of days. He knows how my system sounds as good as I do. After a couple hours of listening I asked for his impressions without telling him what I thought. He heard the same things as I did with the most noticeable being vocals and soundstage. Vocals especially the lead were more finely delineated and the soundstage got wider. With the vocals it sounds like you have moved two or three rows closer to the stage. I am very impressed with the results and plan to purchase another pair.

For anyone who may be interested in these diffusers GIK has a 10% discount through the 15th of this month. Outside of being a customer , I have absolutely no affiliation with this company.

128x128lwin
lwin's avatar
lwin OP
572 posts
 

Last week I added two more Quadratic Diffusers with disastrous results. All six of the shelf’s 40 pound rated dry wall anchors pulled out of the wall. Unfortunately ,my preamp was damaged. To prevent this from happening again , I added a third shelf bracket and using 9 six inch bolts secured them to the studs behind them. As an additional precaution to hold the diffusers securely in place, I used a combination of 75 pound rated picture wire , 4 carabiners and 5 six inch eyebolts. The piano wire is in a crossing pattern and the carabiners are attached to picture wire strung above the television attached to two eyebolts. The carabiners are so I can quickly take down the diffusers to watch the television. Yea it is a little bit of work to install and remove the diffusers but it is sonically worth it. I have posted a couple of pictures of my installation on my virtual systems page.

For those of you who are going to mount these directly to the wall I would not use the tiny screws included with the mounting bracket.

ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,494 posts
 

Iwin,

Do you think the diffusors would work well behind Planar speakers?

ozzy

lwin's avatar
lwin OP
572 posts
 

Hi Ozzy I am a trial and error guy when it comes to room acoustics. I have heard pros and cons about placing diffusers behind planars. GIK Acoustics could provide much better information. Personally ,once you get them dialed in and there are no sound gremlins, I would probably go with what you have in place.

I installed mine because the large tv behind the speakers was was worse than the flat wall because it was tilted slightly down affecting the stereo image as well as affecting sound quality. 

joenies's avatar
joenies
258 posts
 

Greetings 

Well I finally sucked it up and purchased 4 of the Quads. I really like how they look. They work a bit better than the Slot Diffuser/Absorption that were behind my speakers. I waited too many years to get this type of diffuser and I think that’s why I was a bit disappointed. 
I agree with @lwin about the mounting brackets that the Quads come with. They seem to small to hang them. I installed L brackets on the Quads and then secured them to the 6 inch shelf that runs along my walls. They will not fall? I think they weigh about 20 pounds each? I posted pictures on my virtual system.

Be careful if you hang them. They will cause damage if they fall as @lwin has described above.

Joe Nies

 

lwin's avatar
lwin OP
572 posts
 

Hi Joe hopefully the shipping was less than you expected. Give the diffusers some time as they don’t need a break in but your ears might take a little time to adjust to what they are doing. Are you going to paint them ?

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