3D Printed Sound Treatment

"Sounds" like a great idea.

Time will be your only issue.  

A bookshelf with unevenly aligned different sized books is a quadratic diffuser panel. A bunch of blocks of wood of different sizes and heights is a quadratic diffuser panel. In other words you don't need no 3D printer. All that's good for is making one out of plastic.

What matters is whatever you use, its not only diffusing. Its also radiating. Sound doesn't just hit it and bounce off. Sound makes it vibrate, in other words turns it into a speaker. Same as walls, ceiling, everything. 

So what you do, take your 18" square plastic panel, hold it out at arms length, and hit it. Whatever sound it makes, that is the same sound it will impart to your music.

If you're happy with the look, and the sound, then go for it. If not, plenty of perfectly good options to choose from.

None of them anywhere near as effective as a bunch of HFT. But oh well.

Interesting. So what do you think would be best with the 3D printed “block” quadratic diffuser:
1) “Solid” infill
2) Hatched infill 
2) Hollow infill with a dampener like dynamat on the back sides of the blocks
3) Solid infill with a flat back and attached to a block of wood or other substrate. 

I’m thinking of putting these diffuser panels in the center and behind the speakers because I’ve seem many a fancy setup do this (they must have a good reason 🙂) and because it gives you something interesting to look at while listening as opposed to a wall or flat absorbent sound panels. 

They have to be pretty solid to work.  One possibility too is to use them to make a mold for resin casting.