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Room Treatment: Diffusion


SWL

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For years now, I've had bass traps in place as well as absorption at first and secondary reflection points. Some additional random absorption also.

 

So finally, I'm gonna experiment with some diffusion panels from GIK Acoustics. I ordered eight Grid Fusors (24"x24" each) and since they build them per order, I should be getting them in about a week or so.

 

Any advice? Tips? The internet is full of info but just want some feedback from my Klipsch bros.

 

Originally being an RF-7 owner I went a little heavy on the absorption to compensate. Then switched to KLF-30's. Probably could have lost some absorption but just kept everything the same. Now that I've completely upgraded my 30's, got new gear etc. it's time to liven up the room a bit. The speakers play so much smoother now, it's got me real curious to hear what diffusion will do to improve my listening room.

 

In particular, the diffusion scattering the sound making it bigger really has me intrigued. Maybe it'll backfire on me, I don't know.....but I'm gonna find out.

 

I read a lot about people with bass traps and treating their reflection points but don't see a whole lot about diffusion.

 

Looking forward to any and all input as well as giving my impressions in a couple of weeks.

 

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SWL, I can't remember if you have a dedicated HT with seats in row or a HT with couch, chair, furniture, etc.  If it is the later, there may be enough diffusion in the room.  In general, you only need to diffuse high frequencies to decrease brightness and improve clarity.  High frequencies fade rapidly compared to lower frequencies.  For my HT, I don't use diffuser due to all the furniture and other things in the room.  Before doing all this, it would be nice to do some Omni mic or REW measurements.  A lot of add a piece of gear or room TX with the trial and error method and always hear an improvement.  Acoustic science needs reliable data and interpretation.

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Go to "has anyone used hanging baffles" in the forum, and see post numbers 5, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21 -- or just look at the whole thing. 

 

I believe, but don't know for sure, that the diffusers you have on order do a great job diffusing in a right to left plane, and just a little in the up and down direction.  Of course, if you rotate some by 90 degrees, those will diffuse in a vertical direction, but, unless you buy extra ones, that reduces the number in the horizontal direction.  You might want to add a few hemispheric diffusers that work in both directions.  Or not.  If you have a high ceiling and thick rug, you might not need vertical diffusion.

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Go to "has anyone used hanging baffles" in the forum, and see post numbers 5, 6, 16, 17, 18, 21 -- or just look at the whole thing. 
 
I believe, but don't know for sure, that the diffusers you have on order do a great job diffusing in a right to left plane, and just a little in the up and down direction.  Of course, if you rotate some by 90 degrees, those will diffuse in a vertical direction, but, unless you buy extra ones, that reduces the number in the horizontal direction.  You might want to add a few hemispheric diffusers that work in both directions.  Or not.  If you have a high ceiling and thick rug, you might not need vertical diffusion.
These diffusers come 24"x24". What I had in mind was to try them horizontally, vertically and also stagger them. They will be in groups of two making a 24"x48" panel so to speak and they will be put in the locations I presently have my 24x48 broadband absorbers now. The reflection points and bass traps will stay the way they are now with absorption, it's only the room's additional broadband absorption panels that will be replaced with diffusion.

That's just to get started. Yeah, I seen some YouTube videos about calculating where to put them. I've got my work cut out for me on this one but should be fun and easy.....as far as installation goes.

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I believe, but don't know for sure, that the diffusers you have on order do a great job diffusing in a right to left plane, and just a little in the up and down direction. 


Most pics I've seen seem to indicate that. At least that's how they're mounted.



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Got the Grid Fusors painted today.....eight total. Got two of them hung so far. Paint is still a little wet on the right one. Tomorrow I'll figure out where to put the other six.b63c8d2f52705cd6df647e16d7514eb7.jpg

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My time this weekend was very limited to tweak with work and all but one thing that I learned was that in my relatively small listening room (19x13, speakers on the long wall) was that diffusion on the back wall (which is directly behind the listening position) was a no no. Absorption on the back wall was much more suitable.

Diffusion on the side walls worked fine. Nothing outstanding and nothing taken away. A minimal effect in scattering the frequencies above 600hz. Audible but more experimenting needs to be done because it when I turned the diffusers 90 degrees, it DID change the sound.

The real shocker for me was when I put the two diffusors on the front wall in between the speakers as shown in the previous pic I posted. This was profound in increasing clarity, air and detail. It was like I put another pair of speakers up front in between the mains but with only the mids and highs playing.

My next move is to add more diffusion on the front wall and see what happens.

My original plan to remove some of the broadband absorption and replace it with diffusion kinda went out the window. After more consideration I decided to leave all of it in place and kind of just 'fill in the blanks' with the diffusion panels.

So far, even if I stop where I'm at ( diffusion and absorption on the front and side walls.....absorption only on the back wall) this has been a success.

Next on the list will be to add more diffusion on the front wall as well as experiment with rotating the panels so that different combinations of scattering up-down vs left-right can be evaluated.

Interesting stuff......GOLD for the tweaker at heart no doubt but backed by numbers and facts. Pretty cool.



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19 minutes ago, SWL said:

 diffusion on the back wall (which is directly behind the listening position) was a no no. Absorption on the back wall was much more suitable.

The real shocker for me was when I put the two diffusors on the front wall in between the speakers as shown in the previous pic I posted. This was profound in increasing clarity, air and detail. It was like I put another pair of speakers up front in between the mains but with only the mids and highs playing.

Interesting stuff...
 

 

This has been my exact experience...

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This has been my exact experience...
Yeah, adding the diffusors on the front wall was a surprise in added clarity, bigger soundstage etc.....but when I put the diffusors on the back wall it took all that away.

Removed the diffusors from the back wall and it all came back. It's really got me anxious to check out additional diffusion on the front wall.

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Very interesting, I surmise the picture's shown (for the panel's behind the speakers) to be only that... that they exist as heavy texture on the wall, nevertheless, I am ordering some for my own personal sonic experience, not just because I've seen everyone's reviews, but I have this feeling, I'm missing something, something in audio reflections, refractions, absorption, diffusion, time and distance, heck.... when the wind blow's from the north, I can't even hear the freeway to the south-side..... when the house is empty, echo's permeate, I time thunder by counting 1,2,3,4 and so on, to see how far it is away, amd wait, I have false corners behind my klipschorns, I am also amazed at the theory of the very design, whether the angles in the inert structure are designed to resemble a path of arrow's from an initial spreadsheet, that said, I'm glad I have ear's, and a desire.... Thank you

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More experimenting.....

More diffusion on the front wall (live end) and virtually all absorption on the back wall (dead end).

Gonna check this out for a while. As of now, the only absorption left on the front wall is the 24"x24"x 2" thick ATS panels behind the speakers and the 24"x48"x 5" thick GIK broadband panel under the TV.

5811f0ece05b71a7438f15529743b8d1.jpg

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