Tubes vs. Panels?

02-10-08: Nsgarch
"Dave, please share your source for that information"

I don't recall where, or if, I read it at any one source. I have known it for a very long time? Any pro acoustical site that provides "a lot" of free acoustics reading material should have good info if you dig around...start at (Realtraps) and (Rives). Also, the Audioasylum (acoustics forum).

Nothing magnetic going on with sound trapping. It's a surface area thing. A larger target, will absorb more than a smaller target.

Dave

Dave, my understanding is that tube traps eliminate excess bass energy by 'trapping' it within a (half open - half solid) tube. The energy then dissapates as it resonates up and down the tube -- sort of an organ pipe in reverse. Panels do not work that way.

Nsgarch you said:
"my understanding is that tube traps eliminate excess bass energy by 'trapping' it within a (half open - half solid) tube."

I have made Tube traps out of Large 12" pipe insulation (made of rigid fiberglass, 6 ft tall sealed all seems and top and bottom openings.. Never put anything inside of them. Made four smaller ones too, but didn't really make much difference...

What do you mean by half solid, half open? one end left open, i understand that..but one half made solid? how do i make it solid? Fill it full of insulation?

Maybe this is why my traps don't seem to work, i didn't make em right?

Thanks
Mike

Mike I've sent you an email. There are many DIY tube trap sites you can find searching Google.

Don't know what Nsgarch replied, but his description makes perfect sense to me in light of Jon Risch's tube trap recipe. Half solid, half open means to me that if you look at the tube from one end then 1/2 the diameter is filled with material and the other half is open space. The idea is that the waves are "trapped" for a certain length of time and more slowly released back into the room. This would help bass bumps in certain frequency ranges. The diameter of the tubes determines how low of a frequency will be affected by the tube trap. I can't remember the exact numbers but I think that a trap of 16" diameter is good down to a couple hundred hertz. I've heard from Ethan Weiner that placement of bass traps may not be all that critical, they just need to be in the room. But I would encourage folks to investigate that since I may have taken his words out of context.

I have no idea if tube traps are better than panel traps for bass. I do know that GIK has a good reputation and loyal following. As does Real Traps.

I use a combination of 12 tube bass traps and 5 panels, all DIY. I've also recently added some second hand treatments from Eighth Nerve for corner treatments. I've found that any one treatment method alone does not do much. When several treatments are used together the results are much, much better.

One issue with all of this is that some traps and absorption devices may also affect frequency ranges that you may not necessarily want them to. I'm sure the pro's know how to get this pretty close in a room but the rest of us are left with plain old trial and error.