Front Speaker Sound Traps
Is there any reason to place sound traps behind each front speaker, regardless of their placement in a particular room. I know placement of traps in corners may help with bass reflections, but only one of my fronts is near a corner. I started building 5 traps from scratch to experiment with....
Post edited by kevhed72 on
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I'd start at the two front corners, and then maybe behind the front speakers.
The prime bounces are the worse. The wife will kill you in your sleep long before
you get all the surfaces covered!:D"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." --Thomas Jefferson -
The entire setup is offset in a pretty large room, so the left front and left rear of the 5.1 setup are the only 2 speakers near a corner (the rights are near the middle of the room). I have 2 20 X 66" traps for the corners, and 2 30 X 50" traps for the back wall (primary bounce for the front), and 1 extra
30 X 50 for a different wall. If I end up with extra materials, I'll build 1 or 2 ceiling corner traps for kicks. Hopefully I'll finish this up this weekend and post some pics... -
Try that extra one as dead center in the front! It can do wonders if the room set up is right. Works to give the sound stage much greater depth! It allows just a bit wider speaker toe in and greater depth at the same time and can give you that really nice, wide, deep soundstage.
With speakers set up away from the wall as just about all should be, then the first reflection point on the side walls is probably the first to treat. If the rear wall is too close to listening, then rear may be next as important. If your room is wide enough, as mine is, then first reflections may not enter into the soundstage as much as the rest of the front after that rear bounce. For me, the center front was the first to treat. Then second was behind the speakers, just to the outside. But that's with dipoles. Then side wall close to that front corner.
For me, the center was most noticable, then that front sidewalls on a plane about equal to the speakers. Then the rear, as I'm kind of close to it.
By the way, you didn't comment on the way you're making the traps. If you can, remember to increase their effectiveness by standing them off from the wall a little.
I built a frame around Owens Corning 2" 705. Wrapped the 2X4' frames with fabric and stood them off from the wall abut two inches. They've worked very, very well and with 3 on the front wall, two on the side fronts and the one immediately behind, it's just about the right combo of live and dead.
To answer your question, my impression is that you want to treat first for the wall bounces that distort the soundstage and then the front treatment is to give it kind of a black background for the soundstage. Which by that is probably meaning helping to kill the left over sound from the walls of the speaker and the higher freq stuff that has bounced around and is coming from the front and confuses the soundstage. YMMV!
Good luck with your project! It can really work wonders!
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