Bass traps - too many choices!!


Browsed the forum and read a lot regarding bass traps. But overwhelming and still not sure what to buy. Looked at the ASC site; and their tube traps are tuned to different frequencies. eBay sells foam wedges which are advertised as corner bass traps. Relatively inexpensive too. But are they effective? I've also heard about using sand-filled cardboard tubes (used for pouring concrete). Even heard that a large potted plant set in the corner can be an effective bass trap.
Can anyone simplify this? I already have Room Tunes in my corners. Speakers are on the diagonal as my listening room is kinda squarish. So I'm just looking to put a bass trap in the corner behind and between the two speakers. But I want to make sure that whatever I buy is effective. 

rockyboy

Showing 5 responses by bdp24

Sand?! Sand is pretty good at absorbing physical vibrations, but not acoustical ones. Honest! There are diagrams on the net of how to build a bass trap. Get yourself some chicken wire (not a solid cardboard tube---the sound has to be able to get inside) and roll it into a tube. Line the inside of that tube with fiberglass. Seal the top and bottom of the chicken-wire tube. That's the general idea; for more details do a Google search on how to build them.
Everybody claims their acoustical product is a bass trap; It ain’t true. Room tunes is just cloth-covered fiberglass, a joke at the prices Michael asks for them. I still have some. Owens Corning 703 Semi-Rigid panels are far better for eliminating slap echo on walls. For true bass traps, ASC is the real deal. Expensive though. I found 13 of them in a local paper twenty years ago for ten bucks each, including a pair of 16"!
rockyboy, if you email ASC a diagram or pics of your room, they will send you a proposed treatment of that room using their products, free of charge. Start there.
Just be aware that the efficiency of traps at absorbing bass frequencies is very low; it takes a lot of them, and the larger in diameter they are the lower in frequency are they effective to. I’m investigating the cost to build a room within a room (garage, actually). It might be cheaper to build one to Golden Ratio specs than to outfit a poorly-dimensioned one with traps!
That's a very interesting review, George. I wonder though why the trap needs to be priced at two grand.