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Wood acoustic diffusers have become a decorative item - loved the idea!

kiwifi

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I've done a ton of woodwork when I was younger and worked construction building houses and after looking at the labor intensive construction of those diffusers I can easily say the prices are good for what a person is getting. I like them!

27kg is the nature of the construction. It's freight intensive but it's the real deal.
Here are some that I made using 6mm MDF and a hot glue gun. Cheap, easy and not too heavy.
IMG_20221110_172724_905.jpg
 

kiwifi

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Looks cool... How do they work? Less lively room now?
I have quite a large room, it used to be a classroom, with windows the length of one wall, so alot of slap echo. Hanging handmade quilts a couple of inches off the walls helped tame the reverb, but once I reached 15% coverage I wanted to avoid making the room sound dead, so started adding diffusers. I still would like to suspend a few of these diffusers from the (high) ceiling, maybe with rockwool on top.

"How do they work?" Very well, but I have nothing but my ears to back that up!
 

theREALdotnet

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I built Arqen diffuser panels, similar to this one:

1668057256671.jpeg


They work very well, especially in depth-modulated arrangement. The site has plenty of information about performance, minimum listening distance etc.

Their primary purpose is shifting sound energy from first reflections to the diffuse tail, at the listening position. For me, they are step #2 in room treatment, right after floor-to-ceiling corner-straddling bass absorption.
 
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sarumbear

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Seeking practical rules of thumb...

Is it still generally advised to aim for live end - dead end?

I.e. Absorption at the speaker wall end of the room and diffusion at the listener end?
LEDE is just one way to treat a room. It shouldn't be used as a general advice.
 
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sarumbear

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Here are some that I made using 6mm MDF and a hot glue gun. Cheap, easy and not too heavy.
View attachment 242345
Next time try the diffuser formula posted on this thread and use different size pyramids. That will spread the FR of the dispersion effect.
 

Hipper

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All the diffusion I have seen so far are abysmally thin. little disappointing.

I'm thinking of building one out of Lego in our living room, my partner is a Lego geek and the 1 cm wide blocks allow for diffusion up to 20KHz, I hear up to 16KHz and he up to 14KHz so I might just save myself the time and do 2 cm wide blocks (up to 10KHz Diffusion).
Here we are. An artistic Lego diffuser:

https://forum.xcitefun.net/lego-my-yamato-t27436.html
 

kiwifi

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Next time try the diffuser formula posted on this thread and use different size pyramids. That will spread the FR of the dispersion effect.
What is the post # for that diffuser formula?
 

-Matt-

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Seeking practical rules of thumb...

Is it still generally advised to aim for live end - dead end?

I.e. Absorption at the speaker wall end of the room and diffusion at the listener end?

LEDE is just one way to treat a room. It shouldn't be used as a general advice.

I accept that room treatment generally has to be designed on a case-by-case basis. However, if you are in the know, then it would be more helpful to explain what measurements are needed, and how these should be interpreted to determine where absorption and/or diffusion should be best placed. What general objectives should one aim for, if not LEDE?
 
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sarumbear

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I accept that room treatment generally has to be designed on a case-by-case basis. However, if you are in the know, then it would be more helpful to explain what measurements are needed, and how these should be interpreted to determine where absorption and/or diffusion should be best placed. What general objectives should one aim for, if not LEDE?
LEDE is a method that works in studio control rooms. where the room geometry, speaker & listener placement is set by the equipment in the room, mainly the large mixing desk. In a residential living or even a dedicated music listening room the speaker & listener is placed different to a a control room and hence LEDE may not be the best solution. I copied below from a good textbook on room treatment for acoustics.

LEDE is the abbreviation of Live End Dead End and is a principle that is used for small recording studios. One side of the room, usually the front, is very absorptive whereas the back of the room is very diffusive. By this, the early reflections can be avoided. The diffusion helps the absorptive material to be more effective by creating a reverberant field. A reverberant field assures that the acoustic energy will interact with the absorbers.

Referring to the modes in a rectangular room, one needs to design a control room very carefully. To avoid a low-frequency null in the middle of the room for instance, the material should not be too reflective at low frequencies. The LEDE offers the opportunity to let the room appear to be acoustically longer. The absorption material should be very absorptive in low frequencies. This lowers the first-mode frequency and moves the first node away from the center of the control room. The mixer who is usually sitting in the middle will hence not experience the so called " bass suckout".

In general acoustic treatment of a room should aim for the following main items, in order of importance:
  1. Consistent level of reverberation time on most musical frequency range. I say musical because levelling the RT60 across the entire ten octave audible range is difficult and/or expensive. If you cover the mid eight octaves you will be good.
  2. An RT60 between 1.5 and 3. Go up to 3 if the room is music listening only. (Note 1 applies.)
  3. Avoiding room modes to affect the FR more than 5dB.
You may notice that I placed room mode treatment the least important. This is because a) item one above requires most room modes to be treated and b) contrary to many who believes FT anomalies within the first two octaves (where most residential rooms have them) found to be less detrimental to music listening then consistent level of reverberation. You may search the Net to find various papers on the subject. I agree with that general consensus in the acoustical science community but don't ask me why. It is a subjective matter. There is no right or wrong. However, the three items above are not a subjective matter. Only their priority is.
 

audamod

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This is an eye opening thread! I've created some of the sound diffusers posted in this thread. I've tried to make them considerably deep, solid and heavy, some breaking up reflections down to 900Hz. But other than talking directly with customers, I don't get many chances to actually hear criticism or suggestions from other audio enthusiasts.

I get it that there is a desire for cheaper, light weight molded or printed diffusers for higher frequencies. I'm working on some other sound dispersing and defracting pieces as well. I've also started offering diffusers as studio tables and speaker stands to incorporate them into functional decor, like this thread started out as.

But based on your experiences, how would you improve the current available sound diffuser offerings listed through this thread? I've always been a fan of 2D designs, but do you guys like 1D better for a lot of applications? Is cost the main concern? Or is diffusion generally overkill for many applications?

If anyone has critique or suggestions on what they'd like to see, I'd love to see how I can incorporate them.

Screen Shot 2021-07-10 at 2.46.44 PM.png
qrd-sound-diffuser-end-table-furniture-studio.png
acoustic-skyline-2d-diffuser-audiophile-speakers.png
Dolby-Atmos-Theather-Mixing-Suite-Skyline-Sound-Diffuser-Wall.png


All???




 

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pau

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Premium-Artificial-Living-Wall-2_875x1000.jpg
Premium-Artificial-Living-Wall_875x1000.jpg


Could artificial plant wall work as diffuser (5-15cm deep) or does it have to follow a strict boxy shape to be effective? These could make pretty nice backwall.
 

audamod

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Premium-Artificial-Living-Wall-2_875x1000.jpg
Premium-Artificial-Living-Wall_875x1000.jpg


Could artificial plant wall work as diffuser (5-15cm deep) or does it have to follow a strict boxy shape to be effective? These could make pretty nice backwall.

I think these would act more like an absorber than an actual diffuser. It could improve the acoustics over a standard flat, hard surface, but by itself it's probably not ideal end game. You could create the planters on the wall in a shape similar to a large diffuser and add some depth and mass that may work to you diffuser advantage.
 

anotherhobby

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Premium-Artificial-Living-Wall-2_875x1000.jpg
Premium-Artificial-Living-Wall_875x1000.jpg


Could artificial plant wall work as diffuser (5-15cm deep) or does it have to follow a strict boxy shape to be effective? These could make pretty nice backwall.
If you covered your entire back wall with that, I think it would definitely make a noticeable acoustic impact. What that impact is would be anybody's guess, but it's going to probably better than flat hard sheet rock. I'd personally prefer to spend my money on things that are a bit more known and proven, but even things like a book case full of books at uneven depths with trinkets and stuff helps break up sound. Most anything is better than flat hard walls or lots of glass in small rooms.
 

kemmler3D

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This is an eye opening thread! I've created some of the sound diffusers posted in this thread. I've tried to make them considerably deep, solid and heavy, some breaking up reflections down to 900Hz. But other than talking directly with customers, I don't get many chances to actually hear criticism or suggestions from other audio enthusiasts.

I get it that there is a desire for cheaper, light weight molded or printed diffusers for higher frequencies. I'm working on some other sound dispersing and defracting pieces as well. I've also started offering diffusers as studio tables and speaker stands to incorporate them into functional decor, like this thread started out as.

But based on your experiences, how would you improve the current available sound diffuser offerings listed through this thread? I've always been a fan of 2D designs, but do you guys like 1D better for a lot of applications? Is cost the main concern? Or is diffusion generally overkill for many applications?

If anyone has critique or suggestions on what they'd like to see, I'd love to see how I can incorporate them.

View attachment 242654View attachment 242653View attachment 242655View attachment 242656
So, for people with small rooms, IMO the biggest problem with diffusers is the depth. I can't spare 8" on my back wall, for example.

Folded diffusers could solve this, if you can figure out how to print a 800hz diffuser that only projects from the wall a couple inches, you may have a winner on your hands.
 

kiwifi

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If it was the diffuser formula I linked to it was post #21. :)
Thanks for that! I am not sure that the calculator will entirely apply given that I am not using solid blocks but open triangles. However, based on the depth/height of the triangles, it did provide a lower effective cutoff frequency of 1274Hz for my design, which is better than egg boxes glued to the wall!
 
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sarumbear

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