An accompanying PDF:
Some of those rooms are exactly what you DON'T want as a listening room.
Very nice, handsome panels that don't cost a fortune. They will be near the top of my short list when I start looking to get my room tamed a bit.GIK acoustic treatment, not yet finished yet as I have 3 panels to mount on ceiling above desk for first reflections and flooring to go down.
Diffusion panels placed at these locations could reduce the level of specular reflections reaching the listening position significantly, though phase effects could potentially have detrimental effect, especially if the relative position with respect to the listener is too close. Bingo! My findings are, in the small to medium room size, add as much absorption as you can afford and add scatter plates to keep mid and hi-frequency alive. I think people see quadratic diffusers deployed on the back wall of the studio with the sofa in front of it and they think they can do the same thing in their room. These diffusers are not there for the customers but for the engineer who sits in the front part of the room and has at least 8 feet of distance from those diffusers.I'm not sure I ever felt like I came close to understanding this argument. Most conventional loudspeakers are primarily or increasingly forward-radiating above the modal region. Consequently, the most specular or mirror-like reflections are from the wall behind the listener, though earlier and less timbrally similar (depending on the radiation pattern of the loudspeaker) reflections are likely to occur from the floor, ceiling, and sidewall directions. Diffusion panels placed at these locations could reduce the level of specular reflections reaching the listening position significantly, though phase effects could potentially have detrimental effect, especially if the relative position with respect to the listener is too close. Reflections off the front wall are likely to be lower in frequency content or timbre, some of which may approach or potentially be lower than the frequency limit of diffusion suggested by the depth of the diffusion panels involved. Specular reflections off the wall reaching the mid-front wall may be low in level, depending on sidewall and rearwall treatments, anyway.
Even with dipolar speakers, these are typically toed in toward the listener, so mid-front wall treatments are less likely to be beneficial. Better to position the diffusion panels to address the rear wave of the dipole, according to Linkwitz. Probably the best case scenario for mid-front wall diffusion is for omnipolar speakers.
However, there is certainly the visual aspect, which likely has a significant effect.
Young-Ho
Bingo! My findings are, in the small to medium room size, add as much absorption as you can afford and add scatter plates to keep mid and hi-frequency alive. I think people see quadratic diffusers deployed on the back wall of the studio with the sofa in front of it and they think they can do the same thing in their room. These diffusers are not there for the customers but for the engineer who sits in the front part of the room and has at least 8 feet of distance from those diffusers.
Very nice, handsome panels that don't cost a fortune.
Diffusion panels placed at these locations could reduce the level of specular reflections reaching the listening position significantly, though phase effects could potentially have detrimental effect, especially if the relative position with respect to the listener is too close. Bingo! My findings are, in the small to medium room size, add as much absorption as you can afford and add scatter plates to keep mid and hi-frequency alive. I think people see quadratic diffusers deployed on the back wall of the studio with the sofa in front of it and they think they can do the same thing in their room. These diffusers are not there for the customers but for the engineer who sits in the front part of the room and has at least 8 feet of distance from those diffusers.
GIK acoustics just made a video about it.
Depends on the directivity of the speakers, distance to surfaces from ear, whether the specular reflections arrive early or late after the direct signal, bandwidth of the diffuser, and what acoustic principle/design you want to follow. Latter will depend on whether it's a 2 channel stereo setup or home a theater for several listeners besides taste.@Bjorn , can you comment on use of diffusers on the front wall between speakers, also at first reflection points other than the floor or the wall behind the listening position?
IMO that's good example of how to not treat a room. Just random placed absorption panels and some simple scattering units with no clear design idea. There is way too much mid and high frequency absorption and no proper diffusion. A room can be designed much better.I wouldn't mind possessing/acquiring/building something similar..