Room Too Dead

@erik_squires

Well that’s exactly the opposite of what we would hope to achieve with liberal use of TubeTraps, and not a complaint I’ve heard before concerning TubeTraps. One note bass has been used a lot to describe bass where a particular room mode is dominating. Why a lot of TubeTraps would cause it rather than lessen it is something that requires some deep thought. Was that the 2019 California Audio Show? I was at that show and got to hear several rooms before and after we treated them with TubeTraps. Honestly, I was struggling to notice much of a significant difference. I was new at the time, unfamiliar with the listening spaces, and unfamiliar with the audio equipment, and tired. Most of the rooms we treated were large and I don’t think we were able to put enough treatment in them to get something highly noticeable to happen. The people that were running the rooms felt there was significant improvement, and chose the amount they wanted based somewhat on our own recommendations but also on their ears. Often they wanted even more but we only had so many to offer.

In my own experience, one note bass is mostly a speaker placement issue, but can also be addressed successfully with equalizing down peaks. I know some people are dead set against any kind of equalization, so if that’s out of the question, I think a distributed array of subs to break up the major modes is the only workable solution. Or, a very powerful and extensive array of bass absorbers.

Look up Dennis at Acoustic Fields. They have tons of videos on YouTube. You can buy their products or easily achieve the same effect DIY. You need to start with addressing the low end and some diffusers would help too. 

@mannytheseacow

Easily achieve the same effect DIY? I guess that depends on your definition of easy. Dennis recommends very extensive treatments of absorbers that use activated carbon. To do what he suggests is going to take a lot of effort and money. Less money but more effort if you DIY.

I got to hear a room he set up last year at the Pacific Audio Show. It sounded good, but there was not much bass because he said he didn’t bring enough subwoofer for the size of the room. He brought a semi-truck load worth of acoustics just to treat a portion of that one room. He basically built a room within a room, building four walls out of bass traps and diffusers. He also intentionally used a mid level Klipsch system with some basic electronics to prove the point that the acoustics could make even a lower end system sound great.  

On a similar note, at the 2019 California Audio Show we acoustically treated a conference room that had a basic Behringer PA system with an array of TubeTraps all around the room and flanking each speaker. The point of that room was to allow manufacturers to give presentations about their products. Between talks the system would play music. I had several people tell me that room was possibly the best sound at the show! I don't know if I would go that far myself, but it was very nice listening to movements from Swan Lake there.

In my own experience, one note bass is mostly a speaker placement issue, but can also be addressed successfully with equalizing down peaks. I know some people are dead set against any kind of equalization, so if that’s out of the question, I think a distributed array of subs to break up the major modes is the only workable solution. Or, a very powerful and extensive array of bass absorbers.

Assuming the bass absorbers are relatively broad band that's what I would have expected as well.  Sadly my impression was, room after room, all the speakers bass sounded the same, as if they were playing the same song.  🤣

Should point out that the Tube Trap experience I had was in multiple rooms of different sizes. It’s also possible the actual problem I had was with additional absorbers in the room.

Still, I was mightily unimpressed by all the ASC treatments that show. I don’t remember which show it was but I think Pass was also sponsoring the show, so there were a lot of rooms using Pass electronics that time. That’s another story. :D

Without measurement, and using my poor acoustic memory, one possible explanation was a broad suckout of lower midrange.