I'm currently working with a local manufacturer to bring great value acoustic treatment products to Australia!
The range will include cost effective foam absorber panels:
Also foam bass traps.
We're also working on some premium bass traps based on a polester material wrapped in fabric with a rear membrane to enhance performance and an option for a membrane on the front to reflect midrange.
We also have decorative midrange absorption panels, which have a metal face. This yields selective absorption that is high in the midrange, with low absorption of high frequencies. This avoids making a room sound dead.
This image is a render and not a photo.
Hi Paul,
ReplyDeleteIn some blogs you posted back in April 2011 you noted that small foam absorbers are not that beneficial (unless used in large quantities). What benefits do these foam absorbers have over what you have previously tested? I think what would interest readers is some real world testing with these acoustic treatments as you have with other treatments in the past. I'm likely to be interested in the premium bass traps.
Would you also be supporting diffusers and reflectors?
Thanks
Paul
Hi Paul,
ReplyDeleteI knew someone would say this! In a meeting with the manufacturer last week I said "I've been telling people for years that foam traps don't do much, so I need to offer something better as well." What followed was a discussion about the premium bass traps. Those are coming and yes there will be some real world testing.
For fullrange absorption (excluding bass), high density foam is cost effective. This stuff is flocked, which is a process of applying colour in a way that doesn't interfere with the absorption. It's not like a coating - they showed us another method of applying colour and you could see when you press your fingers into it, the surface looks like it's going to break down. Flocking gives the foam a nice appearance, it's a good finish, hard to describe but it makes it look like it has a fabric covering.
The foam bass traps you see there are most likely to be what I call "bonus traps." In other words, they are the traps you want to use in addition to some larger corner premium traps. They may find a place as bulkhead traps around the ceiling for example. One way to do it is use two to make a square section bulkhead.
Diffusers - we did discuss 2D QRD diffusers ie skylines. Those are quite likely to come soon also.
There's just one more thing in the works. It has a black flocked foam panel with a plywood face with machined slots and holes in a decorative panel. Similar to the red panel above. It's a midrange absorber that will tend to leave the highs intact. This is the kind of product that every room needs to balance the room absorption that always tends to be biased towards the highs because they are easy to absorb. Think of these as "absorption balancers." You also need them because speakers will tend to beam the highs but spray the midrange all around the room. So this kind of panel balances both the speakers and the room together.
Thanks for the response, I thought other readers would be thinking the same as I did and so its good you could eloborate on the topic. I'll be waiting with interest.
ReplyDeletePaul