Re: a couch as bass absorber: What if the couch had cushions that were thick and dense enough and was placed close to the wall? Maybe you could replace the cushion filling with some more suitable material. How would you build the optimal bass-absorber-couch? Or a thick bass absorbing bed mattress for people like me who has a bed in my listening room.
Is there anywhere in the room where ANY furniture is less intrusive? In other words, will having all the storage and instruments near the front wall, behind the speakers have more or less impact than having them on the back wall for instance?
You pointed out the relationship between the length of a surface and its ability to reflect sound waves. How does the relationship change with curved surfaces?
Kia ora, Jesco. This is awesome stuff. Now I know why I can hear a lot of high frequencies in this room as well as echo. I have a small, cluttered office with a big skylight in the centre (required by the local council for ventilation). There is a window and a large tube-like structure hanging from the ceiling, so I'm wondering what materials to use to cover it and how best to place them. Ngā mihi, Kylee.
Hey jesco. Danke für die großartigen Videos! ich suche für meine Platten/Bücher einen geeigneten Platz im homestudio, ohne dass sie sich negativ auf meine akustische Raumgestaltung auswirken. Mein Plan ist ein raumhohes Regal (3m x 1m) an die Frontwand (direkt hinter den Bildschirm) zu stellen, es mit Steinwolle (ca 10cm) zu füllen und davor die Platten / Bücher zu stellen. Macht das Sinn? Mein Raum ist ansonsten gut eingerichtet und ich will mir keine neuen akustischen Probleme einfangen. Danke im Voraus
I have a question related to this rule of absorber/reflector depth vs wave length that puzzled me for a while - if the sound waves don't "see" "thin" objects (where how thin the thin is depends on the frequency), does standing wave and room mode calculation make any sense for lower frequencies in normal houses and apartment buildings? Most walls (and often ceilings/floors) are not thick enough to be an obstacle for the wave, no? And this makes empirical/experimemtal sense - outside of a club (or having annoying neighbors) all we hear is the lowest thumping bass, as those go through even multiple basement walls. But then, why use any standing wave and room mode calculation for anything below 80-100Hz? Can the modes form in such an environment?
I think you're mixing isolation and absorption principles here. Since we can't have any proper control over isolation, we may concentrate on absorption to have a better frequency response. Shortly, room analysis gives us a graph of how well the problems are spread across the spectrum, so you may avoid resonances, that are too close to each other by sometimes just shifting your listening position. And, afterwards, applying absorption to your liking. In summary, your neighbours will still hear your bass thumping, yet the bass becomes more clear and pronounced for you. Perhaps, you'd turn the volume down a bit in this case.
@@zerobject I understand the difference between treatment and soundproofing, but I'm fairly confident that those are connected. A standing wave occurs only when the wave can bounce back and forth and firm a static pattern (this is why absorbers are used - to make wave fade out instead of bouncing; or diffusers so it reflects with less energy and in random directions). When the thickness is not enough for the wave to bounce, a standing wave cannot form.
@@BartWronsk I guess, in concrete buildings these waves mostly bounce (otherwise there won't be all those problems you mention), with a bit of leaking. So, we focus on this bouncing aspect and have to ignore the leaking, as it's virtually impossible to treat unprofessionally. I used to visit some late Soviet modernist houses made of very thin concrete. It's not about the bass - you actually hear a neighbour sneezing. Luckily, these houses aren't widespread, so normally we have walls of a proper thickness. Since people no longer use brick massively (which has way better isolation properties), we deal with what we have. Living in a glass house is, surely, a different story.
@@BartWronsk You have confused me. Thickness is used to absorb low frequencies, if the material is not thick enough the sound will go though it hit the wall and bounce back through it and thus standing waves will be produced. So thicker absorption (plus air gap) will reduce/eliminate standing waves, thin absorber will not.
@@KaneDWilliams wall is not a magic "bouncing material". It obeys the same rules as absorbers or diffusers, depending on the material it's made from and its thickness.
So should we assume you have two identical sofas in your room? 😂 Joke aside, do you recommend to have the more symmetrical room possible to avoid pan shifts?
Re: a couch as bass absorber: What if the couch had cushions that were thick and dense enough and was placed close to the wall? Maybe you could replace the cushion filling with some more suitable material. How would you build the optimal bass-absorber-couch? Or a thick bass absorbing bed mattress for people like me who has a bed in my listening room.
Frequencies "seeing" objects is an eye opener when considering room acoustics. Thank you!
Is there anywhere in the room where ANY furniture is less intrusive? In other words, will having all the storage and instruments near the front wall, behind the speakers have more or less impact than having them on the back wall for instance?
You pointed out the relationship between the length of a surface and its ability to reflect sound waves. How does the relationship change with curved surfaces?
Kia ora, Jesco. This is awesome stuff. Now I know why I can hear a lot of high frequencies in this room as well as echo. I have a small, cluttered office with a big skylight in the centre (required by the local council for ventilation). There is a window and a large tube-like structure hanging from the ceiling, so I'm wondering what materials to use to cover it and how best to place them. Ngā mihi, Kylee.
Hey jesco. Danke für die großartigen Videos! ich suche für meine Platten/Bücher einen geeigneten Platz im homestudio, ohne dass sie sich negativ auf meine akustische Raumgestaltung auswirken. Mein Plan ist ein raumhohes Regal (3m x 1m) an die Frontwand (direkt hinter den Bildschirm) zu stellen, es mit Steinwolle (ca 10cm) zu füllen und davor die Platten / Bücher zu stellen. Macht das Sinn? Mein Raum ist ansonsten gut eingerichtet und ich will mir keine neuen akustischen Probleme einfangen. Danke im Voraus
I have a question related to this rule of absorber/reflector depth vs wave length that puzzled me for a while - if the sound waves don't "see" "thin" objects (where how thin the thin is depends on the frequency), does standing wave and room mode calculation make any sense for lower frequencies in normal houses and apartment buildings?
Most walls (and often ceilings/floors) are not thick enough to be an obstacle for the wave, no?
And this makes empirical/experimemtal sense - outside of a club (or having annoying neighbors) all we hear is the lowest thumping bass, as those go through even multiple basement walls.
But then, why use any standing wave and room mode calculation for anything below 80-100Hz? Can the modes form in such an environment?
I think you're mixing isolation and absorption principles here.
Since we can't have any proper control over isolation, we may concentrate on absorption to have a better frequency response. Shortly, room analysis gives us a graph of how well the problems are spread across the spectrum, so you may avoid resonances, that are too close to each other by sometimes just shifting your listening position. And, afterwards, applying absorption to your liking. In summary, your neighbours will still hear your bass thumping, yet the bass becomes more clear and pronounced for you. Perhaps, you'd turn the volume down a bit in this case.
@@zerobject I understand the difference between treatment and soundproofing, but I'm fairly confident that those are connected.
A standing wave occurs only when the wave can bounce back and forth and firm a static pattern (this is why absorbers are used - to make wave fade out instead of bouncing; or diffusers so it reflects with less energy and in random directions).
When the thickness is not enough for the wave to bounce, a standing wave cannot form.
@@BartWronsk I guess, in concrete buildings these waves mostly bounce (otherwise there won't be all those problems you mention), with a bit of leaking. So, we focus on this bouncing aspect and have to ignore the leaking, as it's virtually impossible to treat unprofessionally.
I used to visit some late Soviet modernist houses made of very thin concrete. It's not about the bass - you actually hear a neighbour sneezing. Luckily, these houses aren't widespread, so normally we have walls of a proper thickness. Since people no longer use brick massively (which has way better isolation properties), we deal with what we have.
Living in a glass house is, surely, a different story.
@@BartWronsk You have confused me. Thickness is used to absorb low frequencies, if the material is not thick enough the sound will go though it hit the wall and bounce back through it and thus standing waves will be produced. So thicker absorption (plus air gap) will reduce/eliminate standing waves, thin absorber will not.
@@KaneDWilliams wall is not a magic "bouncing material". It obeys the same rules as absorbers or diffusers, depending on the material it's made from and its thickness.
So should we assume you have two identical sofas in your room? 😂
Joke aside, do you recommend to have the more symmetrical room possible to avoid pan shifts?