Home-Made Bass Traps, Sound Diffusers???

Hi John, i used to make some of "poor-man's acoustis treatment". First to tell you, instead jumping into the "project", analyse the problem. If, in fact it is the "problem". Look around, and use your furniture, rugs...pilows placed into the corners, bookshelf behind the music source...heavy curtains etc...! One of the simple and not so attractive was tower made of cardboard tube (like for blue print, posters etc), drill holes about every inch troughout the tube, stuff it "tightly" with "fiber-glass" and wrap it with 4" thick sponge (for packing, as you saw "pyramid" type)using clear sealant glue (other will burn foam) You can "stick" that on stripped lamp shade stand(look trough Thrift stores or salvation army). Other "absorber" that is placed on the wall behind listener is made: Make a rectangular frame from 2x2 or 3x2 depending on how much "absortion" is req. Cut "sheetrock" to size of the frame, to cover front and back. Nail back piece to the frame, front piece drill holes (just like Tower)every inch or less ( better) stuff the frame with Fiberglass and nail or screwe the front piece. And hang it on the wall like a picture. Diffuser are also easy to make. Decide on the size of the diffusor, cut 3/4 mdf buy about as many you need to cover the board, 8 footer 2x2 cut it into the small,square but different pieces, glue to the board into the pattern (if you can find photo of the proffesionaly made board) and so on. The best is to look into "Guide for high end audio..." by Robert Harley, you'll find some of the same as i told you about, also the correct placement Good Luck!

You might want to look at http://members.xoom.com/Jon_Risch/ or http://www.msu.edu/user/churches/master.htm if you still have problem. However, I think best way is to rearrange furniture and/or listening room as described in Eldragons e-mail. You may also get ideas from looking thru archives at Stereophile website. I have also seen many good ideas from manufaturers (like Soliloquy[spelling]and Audio Physic) and reviewers by locating favorite search engine and plugging in "speaker placement." Don't forget quote marks in boulean search.

Check out "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by Everett, and "Handbook for Sound Engineers: The New Audio Cyclopedia" by Ballou for lots of practical information on design and construction of bass traps and sound diffusers.

Check out http://decware.com/menu.htm. I am currently building bass absorbers and midrange diffusers following their plans.

Hello, I agree that you definitely need to take a look at the "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by Everett. I managed to build several: - round Bass traps (down to 40Hz) for about $30 each - Rectangular bass traps (box like) for any frequency I want also very cheap - Mid/Hi frequency panels for about $30 each and they all SOUND (I'd say remove the right resonances) fantastic. You can virtually design any sound type you like to adapt to your room. Hints: Bass Traps: MDF box with holes in the face pannel (formulas available in the above book), average of 3/16 hole on 1 inch thick pannel every 5 inches (in squares). Depending on internal volume (e.g. 2 cu ft) this will suck any bass you have at the tuned frequency (about 35Hz in this case). These devices are easy to hide (not like the tube traps). Don't forget to account for the WAF (wife acceptance factor). If you tell me which frequencies you want to smooth maybe I can be of further help. Anyway, to do this project there are 2 tools that you need to buy (if you don't have them): Radio Shack Sound Pressure Level meter + Stereophile CD (can be the #2) which has tracks of key frequencies that you can play to measure the room response (with the Radio Shack SPL meter). If you don't have both tools then you will just be guessing and I wouldn't spend a $. Good luck, Regards

Hello, I agree that you definitely need to take a look at the "Master Handbook of Acoustics" by Everett. I managed to build several: - round Bass traps (down to 40Hz) for about $30 each - Rectangular bass traps (box like) for any frequency I want also very cheap - Mid/Hi frequency panels for about $30 each and they all SOUND (I'd say remove the right resonances) fantastic. You can virtually design any sound type you like to adapt to your room. Hints: Bass Traps: MDF box with holes in the face pannel (formulas available in the above book), average of 3/16 hole on 1 inch thick pannel every 5 inches (in squares). Depending on internal volume (e.g. 2 cu ft) this will suck any bass you have at the tuned frequency (about 35Hz in this case). These devices are easy to hide (not like the tube traps). Don't forget to account for the WAF (wife acceptance factor). If you tell me which frequencies you want to smooth maybe I can be of further help. Anyway, to do this project there are 2 tools that you need to buy (if you don't have them): Radio Shack Sound Pressure Level meter + Stereophile CD (can be the #2) which has tracks of key frequencies that you can play to measure the room response (with the Radio Shack SPL meter). If you don't have both tools then you will just be guessing and I wouldn't spend a $. Good luck, Regards