The Art of Acoustic Diffusion | Ultimate Guide for Audiophiles!
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
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Sound Shed Playlist: • Sound Shed Series (Mas...
🔍Time Stamps
00:00 Start
01:01 Video Concept
01:50 Demo: The Human Voice
02:47 Demo: Reverb and Decay
03:32 Demo: Ported Speakers
05:51 Demo: Open Baffle Speakers
08:10 Segment 2: Measuring Diffusion
13:02 Final Thoughts
Mastering Audiophile Diffusion: Unlocking The Sound Stage!
Hey sound enthusiasts! Ron here, and I promise, this video won't eat up your whole day - thank goodness for that! Before we dive in, two quick notes: #1 Strap on those headphones to fully savor the 3D auditory experience from our Binaural dummy head recordings. And #2, a shoutout to our awesome sponsor, ATS Acoustics, for making this journey even more thrilling. Check out the links for diffusers and absorption panels - just tell 'em Ron sent you!
In our recent videos, we've transformed the sound shed from a construction zone to a controlled listening haven. Now, we've earned the privilege of delving into the world of diffusion! This video is split into two segments: First, we'll groove to sound demos, experiencing the impact of diffusion in our space. Then, we'll crunch some numbers, exploring measurements with diffusers in place.
Playing with diffusion is a blast, but I wish the recording could capture the spatial magic. Still, a couple of things jumped out at me in the sound demos. The diffusers surprisingly cleaned up the lower half of my voice, erasing that last bit of chestiness. The shaker demo was mind-blowing - the clarity and precision made it feel like I could pinpoint every grain in the container.
Now, onto the speaker demos! Vocals bloom in a delightful way, sounding more present and not stuck to the wall. The midband clarity gets a boost, and instruments find their 3D space. Surprisingly, the lower frequencies feel more focused. Here's a wild theory: did the diffusers reveal the hidden gems in the lower frequencies by clearing up the higher ones? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
So, that's a wrap on our diffusion adventure in the sound shed. It's been a blast, and your positive feedback keeps the inspiration flowing. Don't forget to drop a thumbs up - let's spread the word on the importance of room treatment for stellar sound. Stay tuned for our final episode next week - I've got a little surprise for you acoustic treatment-loving audiophiles. Until then, see you in the next video! 🎧🔊 #SoundMagic #AcousticJourney #DiffusionFun
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🔍Time Stamps
00:00 Start
01:01 Video Concept
01:50 Demo: The Human Voice
02:47 Demo: Reverb and Decay
03:32 Demo: Ported Speakers
05:51 Demo: Open Baffle Speakers
08:10 Segment 2: Measuring Diffusion
13:02 Final Thoughts
This little mini-series is a bit of a work of art itself. The science behind it is so cool.
Your point about the bass cleaning up with diffusion is valid for this reason - the bass frequencies also produce higher harmonics that are then affected by the diffusion. So while bass itself isn't directly affected by the diffusers, the harmonics the bass produces are, and that makes an audible difference.
I tried diffusion on my sidewalls in place of the free standing absorber panels and much prefer the absorbers than the diffusers. Nearly all of my back wall is diffusion and it basically made that back wall completely disappear, so that the room seems much bigger.
Again, an excellent video and thanks for taking the time to document it all.
John, thanks again for the feedback and thoughts, really appreciate it! I think I need to experiment with the diffusion in the room and try some of the methods you and others have suggested. This really is a journey for me and I want to humbly accept any advice from you guys! Thanks man!
Just my preference in my room that's quite a bit smaller than yours. They don't sound the same when you sit too close to them - the scattering hasn't fully bloomed, so I might like diffusion better in a bigger room. @@Newrecordday2013
This has got to be the most impressive research I’ve seen on this subject, can’t congratulate you enough on this.
Ah man! Thanks so much!
I almost wasn't able to watch the complete video....when you were doing the shaker portion, I was sitting there, fully immersed in the video and sounds. really, really being impressed with the drastic changes from the beginning of the series. As you started the second round of the shaker, when you were behind the listening position, my wife had come over and tried to get my attention....yep, you guessed it, she was behind me and tapped me on my shoulder 😱 😱 😨 😰 😳 So, needless to say, I had to go change before I could finish the video. 😂 I can laugh about it now, but at the time, I thought I was going to die. Awesome series, needless to say. Very, very impressed with the effort and the results. Thanks for doing this. Enjoy the shed.
Cryin' bro, that's just the kind of thing my lady would do to me. 🤣😂
😅😅😂
Hilariously funny
The wife is actually the hardest acoustic interference to control.
@@darrenprentice7934 Maybe set her in the horizontal for best results.
Kind of difficult to get an accurate sense of change in sound when you have different clothes on in different takes. That Levi jacket is reflecting more sound than the flannel shirt. Can you please redo everything with the same clothes on?
Absolutely! Give me 5.
I like this guy.
😂
Agreed! The flannel shirt is giving us more absorption, which is biasing the test. 😂
"Absolutely! Give me 5." 🤣😂@@Newrecordday2013
I've been a professional audio engineer for over 20 years & I can honestly say this video series has been one of the best I've ever seen about a pragmatic approach to acoustically improving a room. Thanks so much! Very well done!
Great to hear!
Amazing series! My single biggest takeaway has to be how much better ported speakers sound in an untreated room. I could hardly listen to the open baffle ones before you treated the room. I’m confident I’ll use this series as soon my wife comes around on the idea of a “listening room”.
What a huge improvement it made! Congratz on another great demonstration!
Amazing work, Ron. Your dedication, sheer strength of character, belief and patience (by the dumpster-load) is something to behold. You should be so proud of yourself, buddy! Congratulations & massive respect. May your Sound Shed give you years and years of pleasure. All the very best to you & your family, Paul in Japan, (ex-Scotland).
Sure do appreciate that! Thank you!
What he said. To repeat myself from the previous videos, this is a master class in how to correlate objective measurements to subjective impressions, as well as to nail the lid on the coffin of the “You Tube sound clips can’t tell you anything” argument. Yours and Erin’s channel do an amazing job. The only “deficiency” is that the particular rig on which I’m viewing/listening (iPad and Senn HD440) can’t deliver a full 360 surround experience; so in addition to the wardrobe issue discussed above, maybe you could remaster in full 7.2.4 Atmos, so my HT rig can squeeze the full extent of juice from the fruit.😂
As to the last segment of your conclusions, as I notice there are three sections of side wall diffusers, how about trying combinations of horizontal and vertical orientation?
Shouldn't that be Ears....& Ears of Pleasure lol.
Absolutely the most magnificent and informative video on room acoustics and treatment available on the RUclips platform. Keep up the good work!
I might try being more random with diffuser placement…horizontal followed by vertical placement and or putting bare wall gaps or absorbers between diffusers…and not having the same exact configuration on the opposing wall. This is from Anthony Grimani’s diffusion confusion slide deck.
Thanks for making the comparison clips shorter so it's easier to hear the difference. The mid and upper bass were certainly improved.
You're spot on with the before and after comparisons! There definitely were bigger differences than I was initially expecting. The positioning and focus of the midrange really improved with the diffusers and it definitely helped to clean up the bass and mid-bass a bit. Really excited for the finale! 👏👏
Your series of videos on room acoustic treatment are by far the best I have ever seen or heard on the internet or anywhere. Your video/sound demonstrations are excellent and put into sound what is very difficult to articulate with just words and diagrams. I commend your time and ability to bring this across to those of us who are interested in room treatment, you have done a fantastic job.
I am particularly interested as I have been working on my own room treatment for over a year and have experienced exactly the same listening experience as yourself. In this last video you mention how the room acoustic treatment changes the sound particularly in the mid/top end and I can absolutely concur with you on this.. Many thanks for doing this work and putting it out as I believe room treatment is a profound neglected aspect of a hifi system set up and has more bearing on what you hear than changing almost any component in your system other than your loudspeakers.
Good and valid stuff! Keep it up, subscribed!
Open baffle with the diffusion …. WOW! Great sound!
Glad you like it!
Nice video Ron! Man the spatials M3s sounded great.
Incredible job Ron. Hope more people will appreciate your effort and dedication. Loved every single bit of the series and looking forward to new milestones! All the best
Appreciate that! Thank you!
thank you for this series it is brilliant
Great video cementing the fact that your system plays the room. It is a huge factor that many people don't think about on their way to spending more money on upgrades that in the end disappoint. I heard more changes in the bass like others in the comments have mentioned. I like the effect you are getting with the diffusion. Super jelly of the your room and wish I had a dedicated space. Keep up the good work!
👏👏👏👏👏Ron for president!
- Greetings from Tarragona (SPAIN/EU) -
Nice work 😎👍
I'm happy that I can hear this pretty well on my 2.1 system
I am a new subscriber and am really impressed with your "study" of sound in this and other videos. Please, keep up the good work.
Great stuff again Ron. Hope we get too see a compiled video of all the sound clips by themselves so people can quickly flick between the different treatment levels in the same video.
Exactly, when you start taming the mids you are cleaning up the harmonics which makes the fundamental frequencies more prevalent.
This is a superb presentation! Thanks for your effort!
You are very welcome!
This was a great series. Thanks Ron.
Glad you enjoyed it
Seeing and hearing the changes being made to your room in this video series has been quite educational! I think you may have inspired me to finish up the acoustic treatments in my room.
Awesomeness
What you are doing here with your project is amazing imo.
Hey thanks!
THANKS RON 👍😎💚💚💚
Thanks again for these fantastic videos!
Welcome!
I so agree with full Studio-treatment,8 months on mine❤amazing job
For my thoughts, the diffusion clears the reverb/echo which cleans the muddled sounds and separates the sound into more layers with more dimensionality.
Like when listening to the CSS speakers like the Taiko Drums track it sound muddled, no depth and very 2 dimensional. When diffused, the bass blossomed a bit with feeling more fine decay. Of course it helped cleaned the higher frequencies, but it also cleaned the lower frequencies as well.
good stuff; must have been a ton of work get that room completed; congratulations to you!
Awesome Ron.. learning a lot about your journey. Keep it up
Thanks, will do!
I really like how the open baffles sound in this set up! Good job R.
Thanks Jeremy!
This is seriously good video series on room acoustics. Thank you very much!
Glad you like them!
Great video. And yes I agree with you on the previewed bass response. When you "cleaned up" the mids and highs by lowering the decay times, you created a whole new overall balance just like a white balance on a camera and the bass is previewed as more in balance with the sum.
Hi Ron - Just watched the video a second time and in the spirit of helping you get even better sound quality, may I share some thoughts based on my experiences:
> wooden diffusers also provide absorption which isn't usually mentioned in a manufacturer's marketing materials. They can absorb bass frequencies' decay times. Reducing the bass decay times that are naturally longer than those of mids/highs helps improve the bass articulation as you experienced but not for the reason you mentioned in the video, in my opinion. Aim for a low bass decay time of about 2X that of the average midrange decay time.
> Your 40Hz peak and long decay time can be treated with several membrane bass traps tuned to 40Hz such as the GIK Scopus T40 trap. But they're only 2' x 2' in size so you'll need half a dozen of them. Reducing decay times at 40Hz (and having some effect on either side of 40Hz) will further clean up the bass especially on the kick or synthesized drum.
> A great metric to assess the quality of how the bass and midrange mesh together is to use their respective decay times in a ratio called "Bass Decay Ratio and Warmth." It's calculated as ( RT60(125hz) + RT60(250hz) ) / ( (RT60(500hz)+RT60(1khz) ) where the hertz numbers are the center of a one octave interval. The result should be between 1.1 and 1.45 with the former value sounding quite bass-lean and the latter sounding very "warm" with more bass emphasis.
> Do you have the ability to EQ your bass region either through parametric EQ within say JRiver/ROON or through more advanced FIR convolution filters that are generated offline but then played back with the music via JRiver/ROON etc.?
> You may wish to treat your ceiling. I might suggest 2D diffusion like Skyline diffusers made from hard styrafoam-like material so if it ever fell it wouldn't impale you!!
> when taking measurements do each channel separately and for the decay time make sure that you're at least 40dB louder than the noise floor reading so you could use a T30 or T40 metric. A true RT60 metric is for larger spaces than domestic sized rooms.
Hey, great series! I have a theory about your perceived improvements to bass clarity. Seeing as your diffusers only work down to around 320Hz, any clarity you're experiencing below that is likely a psychoacoustic phenomenon rather than a physical one, coming as a result of the type of test signal you're using.
For those who don't know, the human brain will perceive tones that are not physically present, called phantom tones, so long as those tones that are present are harmonically related to the phantom tones. For example, if you hear a signal containing 400Hz, 600Hz and 800Hz (etc) tones, your brain will perceive an additional tone at 200Hz, even though 200Hz is not physically present in what your ears are receiving physically.
So, I think that the improved clarity and reduced smearing above 320Hz, which is real, is tricking your brain into perceiving some improvement in clarity and reduction in smearing in the lower frequencies which is not real. It's effectively an auditory illusion, your brain is responding to improved response above 320Hz as a cue, and is making you hear the same improvement below as well.
Most bass elements in most commercial mixes will emphasise some harmonic information between 200 and 400Hz for precisely this reason, and this is also why well-mixed commercial music recordings have limited (not zero) utility as test signals. Remember that, in a sense, well-mixed recordings are illusory *on purpose*, creating an illusion of size, space, weight, clarity, etc is all part of what makes audio mixing an art form. They're obviously not totally useless for testing, and can certainly be informative on the more taste-driven and subjective side of acoustic treatment, but I think in this case you've stumbled upon a way in which they can be quite deceptive as test signals.
As an alternative, I'd suggest that short blasts of Pink noise, band-limited to a max of 300Hz (ie an entirely enharmonic signal, and thus, controlling for the 'phantom tone' as a variable) would probably confirm my theory. That test signal would likely sound no different to you regardless of those diffusers.
Interesting video, hope this helps.
Ron, I'm loving this series as I am currently doing some mods in my listening room with many REW measurements to verify what I'm hearing. I'd like to make a suggestion. When you show the before/after REW plots, would you please show them both on the same view, at least for frequency response? And for RT60, waterfalls and spectrograms, could you do a split screen showing before and after together? Thank you and keep up the great work!
The most obvious improvement for me was the diffusers seemed to tighten up the impact of the bass. Most but not all vocals seemed clearer too. I’ve been planning on getting a few of these for a while.
They only impact 325hz - 3khz so if you hear tighter bass it’s in your hear. Vocals make sense though.
You can't diffuse low frequency energy, whoever tells you that is lying
mega. still gonna airbnb the Shed
Ron, you've done an amazing job there! I love this series and appreciate all of your hard work and dedication! Did you ever end up doing anything to the ceiling above the listening position? (I followed PS Audio's advice on setting up a listening room years ago, and it seems to be one of the reflective surfaces in rooms that goes untreated. I found that by putting a few absorption panels over my listening position and a few in front, that it really helped to tighten up the sound.)
To answer my own question, I went back and just realized you had an entire section on the clouds you installed on the ceiling. Somehow, I completely missed that in the last video! Excellent job!!!! :)
Really appreciate the incredible effort and work that has gone into creating this series, such a valuable contribution and resource for the listening community! I’d be interested to know why you chose to put diffusion so far forward on the side walls. I’ve personally experienced that keeping absorption on the first reflection points helps far more than diffusion. By limiting that first reflection (and keeping the bulk of the diffusion behind that point) you’ll still get loads of live character to the room but really transform imaging and tonality. Certainly with mix rooms, the more widely adopted approach is to go for dead end at the front and live end at the back of the room, although for a dedicated listening room, going fully dead at the front can sound very unnatural. Having said that, the transformation in the space has been great! This has been an incredible series that practically and accurately shows just how treatment types can transform a space, so clearly demonstrated, thanks again Ron!
very nice !
Nice demonstration video. I listened with my AirPod pros and the differences were very apparent. To me the open baffle speakers were least impacted by the presence of the diffusors. Impulse response measurements might have been interesting too. Thanks for posting!
Really impressive video Ron. This is so helpful. Without placing too much weight on what I can hear even with good headphones I have some concern that the room has become a little dead. The diffusers definitely tightened up the lower frequencies and the shaker sample was cool. However, the voices sounded less lifelike to me and seemed anchored to the speakers. But obviously you heard different in the room.
I can hear the improvements even on my iPad.
That’s great!
hi ron amazing job! I think it is important to understand in relation to your question about the diffusers that the qrd 7 diffuser also absorbs!!! Frequencies with varying amplitude but not negligible in a wide range (say 300hz-4000hz+-) Regardless of the psychoacoustic aspect😁
It's very interesting to hear you talk about improvements in bass. I would guess that cleaning up the overtones of the bass could improve it quite a bit. Like putting a better tweeter in a DIY speaker has given me improvements in bass by rendering the leading edge, of for example a kickdrum, more accurately!
Thanks!
Welcome! Thank you!
The Demo of Revarb and Decay is like ASMR to me XD
I'm only 2:30 into the video but my impression is that adding the diffusion panels made it easier to pinpoint the source of your voice in space
Phenomenal!
Thank you!
I absolutely use diffusion to control/sculpt the soundstage in my 2 rooms. I don't use quadratic diffusers like you have, can't afford them and the small room is too small for them, so I have been making my own and have a few styles, all based on the quadratic diffusser maths, and I know how they behave enough to tune things down to small details. It is very much, in my experience, a real thing to affect the bass, I reckon a fair bit of it is cleaning up the overtones/higher frequency componnets of the bass. In acoustics, everything matters, everything counts... so play wisely.
Thanks for these videos… I am trying my best to improve the acoustics in my own room… very challenging as it is a living room and weirdly shaped with no real corners (there are doors or closets in every corner)… but I have enjoyed your videos and will try to incorporate some of what I have learned into my own space…
Thank you for your videos. Great work! You and the shaker walking around the mike reminded me of a witch doctor 😂
WOW!, Just WOW!. What a difference. I never liked the ported speakers in that room, but even they sound much better. The OB's however. PHENOMINAL!!!. You've spoiled me for anything else now lol. Those graphs, OMG, everything you've done makes perfect sense now. The diffusers deffo helped the upper bass, and from there up you are relatively flat. The sound stage seemed to me (IMHO) to drop from the upper front wall down to the middle and forward, you may disagree, but on my headphones the speakers seemed to disappear, I'd heard of this, but never actually HEARD it happen. You said something very interesting about the MIDS spoiling the higher Bass frequencies, and that makes perfect sense to me. Think about it, the higher notes are trying to move the same air at a high frequency, whilst the Bass drivers are trying to move that already highly excited air at a much lower frequency (Further). Think of a bartender shaking a cocktail maker up and down, whilst also moving it side to side, he's doing both at the same time, and so in our case, both movements of the medium, be it air or Martini get thoroughly mixed. Your room treatments allow you to stir the air in the room, rather than slamming it all into one another. Air molecules can't do two things at once well...James Bond would be proud. Really looking forward to the last video, and would love to hear the difference between vertical and horizontal diffusers if you ever get the time and inclination to post such an endeavor. thank you sooo much for this series, it's been a real ear opener 🤣
Your analysis was the same as mine when you walked behind the Dunn head without diffusion i didn't notice your footsteps but with diffusion i boticed the footsteps and also qere able to localise more that you had walkwd behind and i think your theory about cleaning up the highs allowed the bass to be heard more clearly was spot on . A very cool video a side note i dont know if it was my hearing but the left and right diffusion sounded more pronounced on the left channel than the right but is probably my hearing as the layout was symmetrical
"Dummy head" I missed the spelling mistake
The biggest change I could perceive was that not only is the sound smoother with the diffusion in place, the reverb tails on each piece of music played was far easier to hear. The reverb tails sounded dark without diffusion but with diffusion, the reverb tails were brighter (?) not really brighter. You can just hear them a lot easier.
Good job... What microphones and recorder do you use with the dummy head? Actually saw from your previous video that it's a Neumann KU 100, so it comes fully equipped.
Ron - you have done a fabulous job of bring people along for a ride through the acoustics treatment journey. Kudos.
May I suggest something regarding your QRD diffusers? Placing diffusion on sidewall 1st reflection points reduces the speech intelligibility and thus musical details. So, are you able to move the sidewall QRDs to your backwall behind your listening chair and alternate the QRD pattern to diffuse horizontally and vertically to create a 2D diffusion effect? (I use a 2D QRD on my back wall (or Skyline diffusers which are 2D too).) Talking of patterns, your top centre QRD on the front wall needs to be rotated 180degrees to match the one below it. You might wish to alternate to rotate every 2nd QRD by 180 degrees to help prevent lobing, or better yet look up "Barker Code" to prevent lobing.
With the sidewall QRD's on your back wall, you can experiment with bare reflective walls vs absorption vs angled reflection. To preserve the mids/highs decay time try using sheets of plywood to angle the reflection past your head (i.e. if you were facing the left sidewall you would pull the right edge of the board away from the wall thus creating an angle for the speaker's sound to hit it). If your decay time is too long for the mids/highs then try 6" thick absorption panels instead of bare or angled reflection. Hope this is helpful . . .
Great suggestion and since the diffusors on side walls are just sitting on the benches, its easy to move them around to experiment! Thanks Kevin!
@@Newrecordday2013 Ron, thanks for being open minded to experimentation. Let me clarify that the back wall should use 2D diffusion which could be implemented with ATS's 2' x 2' sized QRD panels so that you can alternate horizontal then vertical then horizonal placed diffusers along the back wall with the row above them rotated 90degrees.
You might suggest to your viewers that diffusers require a minimum sitting distance from them to allow the sound to coalesce before reaching their ears. A good rule of thumb is 1 foot sitting distance per 1 inch of well depth (e.g. 6" well depth = 6foot sitting distance).
Lastly, if you would like a more in-depth room analysis, I offer a service that provides about 35 different charts in the frequency response and decay time areas, of which many are not included in REW, and all I need is a REW file exported as a text file and emailed to me. Frequency response should be at 1/24th smoothing, and decay time should be in 1/3rd octave intervals. You'll receive a Report and explanation of all variables and suggestions for further improvement.
Cheers ....
It's a paradox how employing diffusers, a device meant to scatter sound, can actually improve focus and location of the sound source at the same time enhance subtleties in the music and improve tonal accuracies of the source. I can only imagine how much all this effort has improved the music enjoyment in person because trying to re-create your experience live through headphones, IMHO, is futile. This is why I still prefer listening to music through loudspeakers than with headphone, even if my headphone setup is the STAX ST-L700 driven by STAX SRM-006tS tube headphone amp. I am sold, my next project, room treatment baby!
Hey Ron, Love the Series, Great to step through bit by bit.
@12:20, The Bass response may be improved here just for having the Blank (front especially) wall covered in some way. A Blanket, tapestry etc will remove or at least slow down some reflections and improve base. perhaps and extra if unintentional bonus of the diffusion.
No surprice the 1D QRD cleans up the bass response in the room, as unless they are made of concrete, have a significant low frequency absorption. And I think adding more mid/high frequency absorption in the front wall instead of diffusors would further improve spatial positioning on the soundstage.
(Great video by the way)
The improvement is noticeable, but though headphones it was a little harder for me to detect as compared to the previous treatments where the changes were huge. What was most obvious to me was a reduction in reverb of the higher frequencies and also better and more defined bass/midbass.
Fantastic job Ron! Some room correction DSP would clean everything else up perfectly.
Something SOTA like Accourate or Focus Fidelity. Not that miniDSP garbage.
Can we see a pic of the room in its entirety?
I Will listen to tho this multiple times, with better headphones, but casually listening from my AirPods Pro I share that everything with diffusers sounded more focused and snappy compared to without.
Ron, Love the series, Would you be able to recommend a good tutorial video for REW for the newbie’s in the group? Would you consider doing one?
Sure! This one is really good! ruclips.net/video/HYMQ6M-Z5rM/видео.htmlsi=czQkpaVXrGpUzYf3
Without diffusors, your voice produces many more side wall reflections from the front center vs. front left or right. The shaker (and music) produces clearer attack and decay with diffusors in place.
That’s how I hear it.
by the way ron if you have the before and after Diffusion it will be interesting to see the etc(energy-time curve) of the rew files🙏
I hope this sounds like a relevant question, but if you play a piece that is supposed to sound like it is recorded in an empty church, like say the piano piece from Bodyguard, does it sound right in that room? and does the placement of individual instruments on a masterful recording like "Kind of Blues' So What" or "Jazz from the pawn shop" still have that "Ambiance" the recording is rightly famous for, or is something still not quite right? I'd love to know when you get time.
Regards Dave C.
I was really surprised how much of difference you could hear in the lower register with the diffusion. I said it before and i will say it again cccrrrraazzy :)
Heck yeah!
I started following this series and think you're doing a great job going through the process and providing comparisons. Are people with low ceilings doomed? I mean loooow, like 6.5 ft since it's a tiny basement. If a carpet can work well on the floor and that's pretty thin, is it worth trying something thin for the ceiling (
My 12x 2ft x 2ft wooden diffusers work great for bass !
Also have 17 accustic absorption panels and it took me over a week for placement wrong ! I bought a sound cloud for ceiling and it sucked Ron maybe it was me 😆
Thanks Ron E Day
What was the cloud you bought?
Binaural dummy head is cool. I rigged one up many years ago and it works well.
I found the deepest base was droning or reverberating considerably more with the disfusors. I've been loving each room conditioner that you have added over all your videos but I do not like the diffuser effect.
Well if not convinced at lest one should come away with what a great speaker the M3 is... That said, maybe now all you folks out in RUclips land that have given me grief and uttered your abrasiveness abuse are eating those words. Thanks much for this as it has helped me to get folks to invest in their rooms much earlier and not be doing the typical gear swapping!!
How did you decide on how much diffusion to use? Looks like front, side, not sure on rear wall, if it was used?
I wonder if the added mass on the walls changed the room’s natural resonance/reverb. The diffusers themselves mathematically don’t touch anything down in the bass region, but a few hundred pounds on the walls can’t hurt to deaden things. Win win 😂
That’s a great observation and very interesting!
geat voice in things you realy dont need
The weight and bracing of the diffusers HAS changed the bass response in the room. Not through diffusion, but by changing the resonance of the walls… IMO. 🎉
That is still one very ambient-sounding room, even with the treatment. I couldn't imagine mixing or mastering with all the reverb flying around. Imagine trying to add a few dB of reverb to a vocal; it would be impossible. What are the criteria of a "listening room" for evaluating gear?
Quit busting my balls John! 😂
I can also blow smoke but it's not going to help you get there. @@Newrecordday2013
Haha! What’s the RT time in your studio and what do you think I should aim for? I kept hearing and reading 300ms was the magic number?
Recording studio control rooms and mastering suites are typically smaller than yours, so a magic number isn't in play here. For detail mastering work where one is making 1/2 dB changes, you must avoid early reflection back to the listening position shorter than 19-22 msec and louder than the -15 dB compared to the direct signal. @@Newrecordday2013
I would rather use more absorption than diffusion. Absorption brings down reverberation much better. If these panels in the front were absorption, the difference would be much bigger.
Hi! Try a frequency test, from 1Hz to 20kHz, measure it and show us the results! 😋
just for fun, I would have played around placing half of the diffusers on the horizontal plane, and the other half on the vertical plane, alternating maybe.
Q: If you had three pieces of 40mm thick mahogany and wanted to make your own OB's, Because you'll never be ble to afford any like me) what drivers (brand/model) would YOU put in them? I'm thinking Dual Concentric top main (Highs Mid's) and 8" Bass. Any suggestions much appreciated.
Hey man, I’m thinking about decking out the ceiling of my listening room with diffusion instead of absorption. But I’ve never seen anyone else doing that. Do you think it makes sense?
Absolutely - lots of folks treat the ceiling with diffusion!
Brasil here 🇧🇷👍
My room is a big square 60 m2, but with some unparalleled walls and furniture, etc.
I have a R 600 pair and a R 700 pair of Polk Audio. You know them. A Cambridge CXA81 is the amplifier. I can’t notice differences in your testes. What is wrong with me? 🥹😁😵💫🎼😀
Big difference. Still sounds airy nut more focused.
🤛😎
Some ways it's better the lower frequencies but the top end is lost too much.
I wonder about separating the panels leave the middle open, have the top section right up to the ceiling and the bottom section right up down to the floor.And that'd be better for your air conditioning as well, take the cover off it have a channel down the centre and opened at the bottom slit, you can put some padding in there like fleece wool dampen the noise from the air conditioning if it's an issue that is. My oval sort it's too much on the higher frequencies this could be changed by the quadratic diffuser sections, make the smallest sections even smaller and the bigger sections bigger that should achieve a better result. There's definitely more energy in the frequencies somewhere around two to five hundred hertz I don't think that's down to the reduced energy from the higher frequencies at 11k and up it's lost its sparkle. Maybe putting some mirrors say 16-14" on either side, parallel to the tweeters just in front of the speakers might help it come back, worth a try,, I think that diffuser setup you've got would work great in a room full of glass or solid wall brick wall. Not a plasterboard construction with dampening material in the walls
I believe I can hear and understand what you mean about the top end. With the diffusers, the upper band has relaxed. However, the 3 dimensional stage im getting is gonna be the trade off. Perhaps just playing around with location is the key as you mentioned! Thanks for the comment!
Yeah I don't think it needs to be a trade off, playing around with it yes, try those mirrors,
When you did the test with the diffuser did you have the side diffusers as well I thought you only had the back diffuser to the end you talked about them? I like to hear some live music I think it's always a good better indication, try Friday night in San Francisco.
And it could make a difference on material sauce you're using, if it's vinyl or digital you were using digital. Get a bit of vinyl play I don't listen to digital lol @@Newrecordday2013
Good stuff! I bought plans for diffusers awhile ago, time to pull the trigger on the build and add to absorption. Thanks Ron.
Right on
Surprise? You will add a sofa? hehe. No, anyway. really interesting to hear, but I wish you could have a close-up of the diffusers as It was hard to see how they were actually constructed. They look like shelves for cd's from afar, but is it more to it? Looks like it might be easy to make at home too, but what are they?? They look like many shelves??
Who is the Male artist featured in this video?
It's much better with diffusion.
When you say "hear me out"
I hear "hear meow"
Thank you again Ron. I was listening on my iPad and earphones not even real good ones, however I was pleasantly surprised at the improvements I was able to hear with and without the various romm treatments. Great job 👍😎 Very helpful series