carpeted bass traps and styrofoam diffusers??

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 9:22 am

so here's my crazy idea:
insted of wrapping fibreboard in fabric what if i wrapped it in carpet? i was thinking that this might help absorbing some higher frequencies. alot of carpet has that hard bottom part to it, would this perhaps work like the wood front panel on Ethan's diy traps? any one ever tried this?
also is there any problem with the idea of making diffusors out of styrofoam? probably in a skyline type of arrangement.
thanks in adv.
-matt

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 11:59 am

With my limited knowledge of acoustic treatment design, I would say there's a couple minor flaws there.

1 - the fabric involved in wrapping diffusors is not to absorb frequency, it's to be transparent. By absorbing frequency with carpet (which you can only really effectively do on frequecies shorter than say 15kHz), you make a mid-band diffuser, high-band absorber and low frequency (I don't know, possibly resonator if the cavity is open, absorber if the cavity is stuffed with something like Roxul).

You would be better off still using the fabric and back-filling any cavity that you might have. Hence a low-band absorber, high and mid-band diffusor. It's likely to sound WAY more natural.

2 - Yes, you can make diffusors out of styrofoam. However, be sure to use extremely high-density foam. Normal packaging foam is too open. It's likely to resonate and/or fall apart easily.

J.

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:13 pm

Matty,

> what if i wrapped it in carpet? <

For an absorber that's probably okay.

> i was thinking that this might help absorbing some higher frequencies. <

Well, rigid fiberglass already absorbs mids and highs better than carpet, so in that case you'll do better with light, porous fabric instead of carpet.

> is there any problem with the idea of making diffusors out of styrofoam? <

RPG makes some of their skyline diffusors from styrofoam. That's not as good as wood or MDF or other rigid materials. But using styrofoam is probably easier and less expensive.

--Ethan

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