Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Triple sub-woofer setup

YEah... But, that is NOT supply and demand... that is more psychology than true economic theory....


That is what i think anyhow......

Actually foam = bad...
The "best" stuff is generally considered to be Owens Corning OC703 and OC705 rigid insulation. There are other products with similar acoustical ratings. Some people go with mineral wool which isn't as stiff and needs more bracing. Either of these options will put you into the couple $100 bill range pretty quick.

You can save a little more with some superchunk traps like Randy (Mr Quack) did, but use the denim insulation. It will obviously need quite a bit of support.

To save even more, there are a couple of guys in the Acoustical Treatments thread at AVS that say that the cheap ol' pink fluffy insulation works well too, if the trap is designed right.

But foam is crap. The places that sell the foam pieces in different colors and such have been ripped apart with their own technical data and independent testing over at AVS.

I better figure out what I want to do in my theater pretty quick. Carpet just got installed today...

Are you going to be taking pictures of what you do? Are you going to DIY? I would like to see what you go with... I would like to take advantage of your research.

I'm too lazy to look for it, but Randy posted a really great DIY thread when he made his.

I am going DIY for sure. I've been researching the denim cotton insulation stuff quite a bit and I am going to be covering my whole front wall with it to reduce reflections, and I am really thinking that the material could make some good bass traps, but I would have to build a frame that fit into the corner with "shelves"
every foot so that the weight of the insulation isn't crushing the stuff on the bottom. The stuff I bought for the whole front wall was like $50 tops. It would take probably 2 more bundles like that for two front traps. A little pine 1x2s and some 1/4" plywood cut into triangles for the corners. Then I would stretch black acoustical fabric over it. For me it will end up behind my screen wall, so it doesn't need to look like much.

I spent about $100 for 12 pieces of 2x4 Owens Corning 703, found some black stretchy material and muslin cloth at Walmart cheap, wood at local home improvement store. Doesn't cost much to make them, pictures below.

I've read a good bit about designing a home studio, an application in which controlling reflections and standing waves is really critical. The articles I've seen on DIY projects to correct these issues have generally made it sound as though building a simple screen to reduce unwanted reflections in the mid-treble range is pretty easy and inexpensive.

OTOH, coming up with a trap to tame serious standing waves in the bass frequencies is another ballgame. A lot of it has to do with room dimensions. It also has to do with the density of the trap material. Simple pink insulation won't cut it, I believe.

However, I've never made a serious attempt at it myself, so this is all theoretical.

Yep, those above are just FRZ's (first reflection zone) panels. For corners you want bass traps, which is where bass likes to collect. After adding mine the before/after graph I did improved a lot. First graph no treatments, 2nd graph with FRZ's and bass traps. Keep in mind this was when my room was 30ft x 31ft. Also, this was back in the M60 and ep 300 days, before my current 3 sub setup. First the graphs.

First time I've seen that Randy, nice work. That bass trap is awesome!