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HOFA-Akustik Basstraps Natural measurements

ppataki

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Recently I have bought 4 pieces of Hofa Natural basstraps from Germany and I decided to post my measurements here in ASR so everybody could see what these things can do in a living room in a real-life situation.
I got two of the 1 meter models and two of the 0.5 meter models - both are the "natural" ones, meaning they are stuffed with sheep wool. Please note that I have not disassembled them though.
My living room dimensions are 3.6 x 7.2 x 2.6 meters (=67m3 volume) and the listening area looks like this with the Hofas stacked in the front corners:

1589358237078.png



I used REW to measure the room in the listening position using a pre-calibrated UMIK-1 microphone before and after the basstraps. Let's see those measurements!
note: I use Dirac Live 2.5 as a room correction solution but the aim of this post is to see how the basstraps perform so I have switched Dirac off completely for all the below measurements

1. Frequency response
I was using 1/6 oct. smoothing and 5dB resolution on the graph
Surprisingly you can see a dip between 100 and 200Hz on both channels - when I saw this I was thinking to send them back to Germany...but then I quickly changed my mind, you will see further below why

Left channel (red w/o basstraps, blue with basstraps)
1589360141729.png


Right channel (green w/o, orange with)
1589360187707.png



2. Impulse response
There is no real difference so I am not commenting this
1589360210064.png


3. Excess Group Delay
Here things started to change, the basstraps clearly decreased the peaks

W/O:
1589360260126.png


With:
1589360351150.png


4. Waterfall
Again, frequencies decay faster with the basstraps and not even only in the bass region!

W/O:
1589360423309.png


With:
1589360435202.png


5. RT60
This graph will show the real power of these traps, just watch:

Left channel w/o
1589360536441.png


Left channel with
1589360569043.png


More than 1 sec of reduction btw. 60 and 70Hz!

Right w/o
1589360613718.png


Right with
1589360623748.png


500ms reduction at 70Hz

Interestingly you can see a small improvement already starting from 1500Hz and increasing down to 40Hz; overall keeping RT60 below 500ms until 150Hz on both channels

When listening to music/movies I can definitely hear the bass being tighter and more precise - there is clearly a noticeable difference!

I am certainly keeping these Hofa basstraps - they are not going anywhere :)

I hope you find this useful and will help the ASR community
 

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DJBonoBobo

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any germ

DJBonoBobo

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Ok, it´s fine if you are satisfied, of course. I don´t want to convince you. But let me point out that the calculator´s results are depending on the space between speakers you enter. Maybe you entered 2 meters and got the speaker distance of 1,01 meter to front wall based on listening position. If you enter 2.3 meters for example you will get speaker positions closer to the front wall. So these results doen´t seem to mean anything regarding SBIR.
 

ironhorse128

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I just want to share my RT60 measurement that I got using DIY bass traps. I build in total 7 meters of these bass traps. Each is about 1m x 40cm x 40cm. I made them floor to ceiling.
Sadly I have no before measurements anymore.


RT60
rt_60_2020-05-13 22_03_29-REW V5,19.png


Raw Bass traps.


IMG_20200118_200758.jpg


With fabric:
IMG_20200513_221118.jpg
 

Puddingbuks

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Recently I have bought 4 pieces of Hofa Natural basstraps from Germany and I decided to post

When listening to music/movies I can definitely hear the bass being tighter and more precise - there is clearly a noticeable difference!

I am certainly keeping these Hofa basstraps - they are not going anywhere :)

I hope you find this useful and will help the ASR community
Still happy with these? Any other ASR users have experience with these bass traps?
 

fmessier6

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I am planning to buy a couple of these as well, but I have no idea on how to report measurements, if not anecdotally which isn't very scientific.

The first question is: do I buy two and stack them one on top of the other on each corner of my room, or 100 cm will be enough? I don't think so.
 
OP
P

ppataki

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I would recommend stacking them on top of each other to reach as close to the ceiling as possible
Then you can do a sweep measurement in REW before/after and take a look at the RT60 and T60M curves to see how much ringing was reduced (how many milisecs)
 

fmessier6

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Thanks. This is my room, at the moment. Ideally, should I put traps in all corners?

Studio.jpg
 

dasdoing

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Thanks. This is my room, at the moment. Ideally, should I put traps in all corners?

View attachment 174829

I just gave you an efficient option for your room that doesn't require tons of material.
if you go the traditional route, you will indeed need tons of material, since your room is so bare.

"Q: how much bass traps I need?
A: yes"

but since your goal seams to be producing, you need to create a reflection free zone, too.

on a sidenote. sitting so close to the backwall is not good. better face the frontwall
 

fmessier6

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I just gave you an efficient option for your room that doesn't require tons of material.

It's a little on the expensive side at the moment, but I appreciate the suggestion. Also, seeing this photo of Deadmau5 in the article was pure gold.

Deadmau5-Attackwall.jpg

on a sidenote. sitting so close to the backwall is not good. better face the frontwall

Thanks for the advice. The reason is mostly psychological, when I work I want to see the entrance of the room in front of me.
 

dasdoing

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It's a little on the expensive side at the moment

you don't need their products to copy the concept. you can use any kind of absorbers. you just wont get the "Time Delayed Backfill" afaicsi. you would just place them around the table.
it's a little counterintuitive. the reflection free zone it creates should be obvious. but absorbers don't have to be in the corners to affect bass either. on the contrary, the bigger the gap between absorbtion and walls the more effective. I have never tried a setup like this, tough. You might wanna have a closer read of their tecnical explanations documents

when I work I want to see the entrance of the room in front of me

I totaly understand that. it's a desire fundamented in our natural instincts. if you stay there, treat it as a first reflection point
 

Lilith

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Puddingbuks

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When I saw this picture of the hofa traps, I was no longer interested.

Rather get some rockwool or polyesterwool (more friendly material) and build traps yourself. You can even wrap them in some fabric and be finished.

Below are also my polyesterwool basstraps, 240x40x60cm which still need some fabric around them. Cost per basstrap is about 180 euros. Rockwool will be much cheaper but is rather unpleasant to work with.
 

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Puddingbuks

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These are only 30cm thick!

Which means only 71 liter in volume. If filled completely.

My basstraps are 576 liter each.
 
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