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Diffusion vs. Sound Absorption views

I have Spatial Audio M4 Triode Master open baffle speaker in my listening room.  I have sound treatment behind the top of the speakers with sound absorption panels hung on the wall and an Aurelex foam panel down to the floor. 

It was recently brought to my attention that sound diffusion panels behind the speakers might yield an improvement in SQ over the sound absorption panels.  The advice I got is that OB speakers benefit more from rear wall sound treatment with diffusion rather than absorption.  I put the issue to you learned folks for advice.  Thanks. 
whitestix

Showing 1 response by snapsc

snapsc
686 posts
 
Conventionally, diffusion improves perceived ambiance while absorption improves imaging.


I suspect that the answer is somewhat dependent on the distance from the rear of the OB loudspeaker to the rear wall.  Why, if the speaker is too close, then there is much more of a chance of the out of phase wave interfering with the sound coming off the front...so absorption should help.Here is a brief but interesting article:

http://www.gikacoustics.com/speaker-boundary-interference-response-sbir/


I think that you can "simulate" the effect of diffusion by moving the panels out from the wall another 2-3' (not that you are going to leave them that way) which will then give you a different combination of direct sound, reflected sound and absorbed sound.
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