Easy and inexpensive bass traps

[curt248]

I just added some corner bass traps from the foam factory. Whoa. If any of you don't have these yet, order them now.

They
made such a massive difference in sound quality that it isn't even
funny. These things make kick drums sound like I'm standing in front of
the drummer.

The sound is just so planted now. You'd never
know what your missing until you put these in your room. Since the bass
(and other frequencies) are being held at bay, everything else sounds
so much sweeter. When a singer goes throughout thier vocal range its so
silky smooth and effortless. My system is on an entirely different
level now.

These things took 5 minutes to throw up in the
corners and made more difference than anything else I've ever done to
the system with possibly the exception of going to the la scala speakers
over the cerwin vega's I was using previously.

This purchase should be a no brainer to everyone interested in making thier system sound better.

I got 8 of the foam corner bass traps from the foam factory for $100. http://www.thefoamfactory.com/acousticfoam/bassbroad.html

I'd
say that 8 is a good place to start. My corners are already filled up
almost half way up the wall with speakers so the 8 were perfect to
finish off the corners. If you have no speakers in the corners, I'd
probably buy 16 and be done with it. It's better to overdo it then take
some away if needed (sound is too dead or not lively enough).

I
don't know anyone at the foam factory or have any incentive to try to
sell these things. I'm just blown away by how effective they were.

I
started looking into something to correct my room after listening to a
set of la scalas I sold to someone in the buyers house. They sounded
like totally different speakers. I figured that it was probably the
tube amp he was using (I'm using solid state). He borrowed me his tube
amp (awesome guy) and I tried the tube amp with my la scalas. They
sounded horrible and nothing like they sounded at his place.

I
then tried out some 570 watt monoblocks from the same guy in my setup
and they sounded great. When I brought them back to his house, we
hooked them up to his la scalas. They sounded aweful. It was like they
weren't even the same type of speaker let alone the same speaker that
they actuallly were.

They only thing different in our setups was
the room. This was the only variable as we both were using the same
source (squeezebox touch), amp and speakers. Nothing else was different
but the room. If I didn't hear it myself, I wouldn't have believed it.

This might explain why someone raves about a speaker, amp or
whatever and someone else says it's junk and not to bother with it. Its
the room!

Go to this place to learn more about room treatments.
This owner is awesome and really knows his stuff.
http://www.realtraps.com/index.htm

[Quiet_Hollow]

If I didn't hear it myself, I wouldn't have believed it.

" I see! " said the blind man. [H]

I'd

say that 8 is a good place to start. My corners are already filled up

almost half way up the wall with speakers so the 8 were perfect to

finish off the corners. If you have no speakers in the corners, I'd

probably buy 16 and be done with it. It's better to overdo it then take

some away if needed (sound is too dead or not lively enough).

It's cool to hear that you've realized such an improvement, but....

I think you could've gotten by with a lot less if more consideration was given to your room and the dispersion characteristics of your speakers in the first place. Stuffing corner traps everywhere can be sort of counterintuitive when using horn speakers if you catch my drift. You've got to know what the problem is before you can determine the appropriate solution.

[stan krajewski]

It's true that you need to know what the problem is. But if the room is fighting the speakers, things can't sound right. And that's a fact. If rooms didn't matter, then why design a recording studio? Why not use any old space? This is not up for argument. The question becomes, how much money and time do I want to spend?

Almost without exception, the most neglected part of most sound systems is the room treatment.

I have to believe that speaker manufacturers like Acoustic Research, Advent, Klipsch and B&W (to name only a few), have had people with exceptional hearing "test" or listen to their products and be completely satisfied or even amazed with their performance. Why, because they have perfect listening enviorments!

We the people then go out and buy these speakers and an assortment of related and necessary equipment to feed them sound. After that, there is years of swapping speakers, amps, preamps, CD players, turntables and boutique wire in an attempt to squeeze out a little better performance. I wonder how many pieces of perfectly good pieces of equipment I sold becuse they were at war with the room.

Most of us, probably because of aesthetics or WAF, avoid treating the room. It's a tough pill to swallow.

I too am guilty as charged.

Well, thanks for the posting this thread and a special thanks for the link. It's high time that I practice what the hell I preach.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our equipment, but in our rooms....

[SWL]

I'm glad to hear your positive results from using the foam. I have had great results using engineered products from GIK and ATS Acoustics but the foam from Auralex did me little good. The stuff is so "dead" that it didn't benefit anything in my listening room. It was "taking away" more than it was contributing anything positive to the system.

[curt248]

I'd like to know more about your experiences with different room treatments.

This is my first forey into room treatments. It was perfect for me since it cost almost nothing especially as compared to any audio equipment I've purchased trying to Weeks out a bit more performance.

I'm sure there are ways to tweek the performance with different treatment materials and placement.

What did you find to be the benefits and detriments to the different materials and brands that you have tried?

I still have to treat my first reflection points.

Do you think velvet type blackout curtains would work well for the side wall reflection points?

Also I was thinking of using the same blackout curtains to treat the back wall to reduce comb filtering.

Im not sure what the sound absorbing abilities of blackout curtains are but since that type of material is often seen in movie theaters I'd think it would help.

[curt248]

I just made my own acoustic fiberglass panels. I put one in (2 feet X 4 feet X 2 inches) at one of the first reflection points and it made a huge difference for the better. It's hard to explain, but the instruments are more detailed. I suppose it's because it is less mudded by sound if it hits your ear at the same time.

It cost me around $250 for enough material to make 9 of these panels. They can be made for less easily. I used a more expensive speaker grill cloth material that cost $100 for 10 linear yards that are 63 inches wide. I used lathes from menards which cost $7 for 50. I bought 100 since not all of them are straight or useable etc. I also bought 3 six foot 2X4 pieces of wood at around $1.30 each and cut them to 2 inch sections for and stapled them together to made the corners. I bought polyester batting (material used for making quilts) and put that over the back side to keep the fiberglass particles contained. The batting cost ~$12 for enough for a king size bed. I purchased 2 of those. The fiberglass itself came in a pack of 9 for $80 from a specialty place that sold them in the area. They would sell less but I just went ahead and bought all 9.

I added a blackout curtain across the entire back wall to deal with comb filtering. It took 5 sections at around $16 each and a $30 curtain rod setup that could go up to 120 inches wide. I did this about a month ago. If you are near the back wall, (I'm about 2 to 3 feet away when listening) you have major comb filtering problems if the back wall is not treated. This smoothed out the sound quite a bit. Also the reduction of light added a great deal of ambiance to the room.

I now added 2 more panels and the bass is better controlled.

From what have been reading, 8 panels tend to be the best amount for both small rooms (need more per cubic foot because of increased problems with smaller rooms) and larger rooms. This is enough if you space the panels around 5 inches from the wall. More are needed if you space them less like 2 inches. The great thing is that if you use less space between the panel and the wall that you can just add more panels to get the same effect.

This room treatment stuff is unbelievably important. So far every addition I've done has made easily noticeable improvements to my room. These improvements are individually far more substantial than improvements by changing equipment for better stuff.

So far the projects have been fun and not too expensive.

[dale_s]

I'm reminded of a phrase that gets used around AK a lot.

... without pics, this thread is useless.

[]