The Terrible listening room discussion!

Most GIK Acoustics products, such as the Monster Bass Trap, Soffit Bass Trap, etc. all use the same absorbing material: rock wool.

They are not strictly speaking Bass Traps :wink:
They are rather Broad Band Traps.
A Bass Trap, as the name implies, targets the bass only.

The rock wool used by GIK products has a density of ~40Kg/m3 which corresponds roughly to a Flow Resistivity of 10’000 Pa.s/m2.

So if you have the thickness of the absorbing material you can enter that data into the calculator.

Porous Absorber Calculator

But… the calculator will not give you the required surface to cover :wink:

It gives you the theoretical absorption capacity. For example 20% absorption at 100 Hz for 10 cm thick rock wool.

But this does not mean that a 600mm x 600mm panel will absorb 20% of the 100Hz frequencies in your room :wink: You need more, much more!

Rule of thumb: regarding the lower end of the spectrum, the more energy you absorb the better. There is no such thing as to much bass traps!

0 - 1 is equivalent to 0% - 100%

If the goal is to target the lower end of the spectrum, GIK products are not the best choice. Far from it…

I would recommend something like Artnovion’s Sub Trap, or equivalent.

Well they arrived this configuration sounds best

2 x traps at 1st reflection point and 2 x traps placed behind speakers, these have built in scatter plates.

Happy with timing. Now onto the bass.

And mrs spb doesnt like the colour…dou😬

Soundstage narrowed but much more focused

Yes I got that.

That right speaker is pretty tight against the TV and wall. Just some thoughts (putting aside cost/furniture changes!):
1 Could you reduce the 3 cavity unit under the TV to two? It’s this unit that is forcing the speaker placement.
2 Re-site the record player and whatever is in that third to the left of the left speaker
3 Shift the TV more to the centre
4 As a consequence, give the right speaker a bit more room to breathe?

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It’s a good call! I can’t move my seat more to the left as there is a doorway into the next room. and it’s currently roughly equidistant to the speakers.obviously if I move the speakers to the left it will upset that. I did find moving them forward so the baffle is in front of the wall with the door on the RHS made a huge difference.
One day soon I will take the TV out all together and make some measurements. Throwing a douvet over it makes absolutely no difference to the measurements or to my ear, however packing behind it with cushions did and that led to the 2x traps behind the speakers!

You may find this interesting , instead of trying to treat one specific frequency range you may be better to spread the cost on overall treatment.

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With room treatment - typically frequencies below 100 Hz will affect the speed of bass but not necessarily the warmth of the bass feel. EDM for example will introduce harmonics to allow a deep bass line to be clearly audible as well as providing the support to the mix. A bass guitar will introduce harmonics/distortion through its pick up and amp to allow the bass to be clearly audible and tuneful. A double bass will introduce over tones/harmonics from its plucked or bowed string to allow the bass to be audibly musical. An orchestra will do similar things through instrumentation.

The key frequencies for perception of bass, warmth and energy are often from around 100 Hz to 300 Hz.

The above chart shows the response for absorption that should help remove bloat and help fasten the perception of low frequencies coupled with transients - ie the bass should sound faster - and feel to time better.

However in my experience - and certainly with my production experience - bass warmth, bloat etc is most determined between 100 and 300 Hz. These are sensitive in many rooms for the perception of “SQ” - and so you are looking for good absorption here to cancel any build up or reflections.

Below 100 Hz one can run into cancellation issues causing unevenness/lumpiness or leanness.
Some times it is better to deliberately HP these frequencies away or attenuate in a domestic environment if you want the perception of accurate reproduction - and if you want to enjoy these frequencies and the feel of these frequencies accurately - say from certain live recordings or specific productions then a pair of high quality planar headphones with suitable quality headphone amp can be the best/most practical option. [when you do this it can be quite surprising how much information at all frequencies you find you are missing or is masked from you by your domestic room/speaker coupling ]

S

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Porous Absorber Calculator

For those using the calculator, absorption levels are given for a fully treated room (the entire surface of the room is treated).

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