Show me your Panels!

[Todd Anderson]

The hole saw work - gotta be true love. MDF will kill an expensive hole saw in no time . . lowers the ROI and is really messy
When I built some of my other clouds I used the same partially open sides framing as in my first post. Actually calculated the "added advantage" of more exposed area for broadband panels. seemed like a better ROI per sq. inch for the time opposed to endless drilling.
I used sheer curtain voile as a fiber wrap /trap before a cover warp, which is many cases is just another layer of the same. My ceiling front clouds , ( 3 of 3' x 4', 1 of 18" x 4') total 42 sg. ft are spaced across the 12' dimension with about 5-6 inches between the edges -more exposed area, and also hanging down from the ceiling about 5", so that's the same surface area again.
I have some build pics on a different computer.

The "re-directors" . Now that's an idea I'd like to hear more about.

Curious to see your build pics!

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Now THAT's something I'd like to see someone do DIY!

Hah really? In a theater? I could probably make one of those but I don't know what I would do with it. It appears to be a frame with a fabric or mesh material.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

That sounds like a LOT of insulation!!

Yes but it isn't arranged optimally for bass, it doesn't go floor to ceiling. I'd say it's maybe a 5 foot tall pile and then I don't have 8 feet of rockwool.

The bass traps I've built and will replace them with are 24" by 24" and will go floor to ceiling so Tha is a bit more optimal. One problem I'm still contending with is that bass decay isn't great below 100hz. It's not bad, but because it's a soundproof room the rate of decay decreases at an increasing amount as frequencies go down. The room is very tight and the walls very solid and dense. I never realized just how bad for bass that was until completely this room.

 

[asarose247]

IF!?!
I could find a justification to make this as a measurably significant proven improvement in a regular household HT (8' ceilings) environment . . . .

it would be so cool . . perfed metal in the 50% or so open variety is easy to find - -
maybe a tig welder from HF and a few mistakes later
it just looks like it is really for for something large scale- like a library
but I'm open to any "what ifs?" as the primary directive of DIY

"To go where no man has gone before"

right now I'm slightly elated about having solved my W10 wavetable synth problem wrt to enabling ASIO4All with REW. So far the preferences shows everything ready to go . . finally.

I'll post some pics of the front top clouds once I get my feet wet with this REW thing.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

IF!?!
I could find a justification to make this as a measurably significant proven improvement in a regular household HT (8' ceilings) environment . . . .

it would be so cool . . perfed metal in the 50% or so open variety is easy to find - -
maybe a tig welder from HF and a few mistakes later
it just looks like it is really for for something large scale- like a library
but I'm open to any "what ifs?" as the primary directive of DIY

"To go where no man has gone before"

right now I'm slightly elated about having solved my W10 wavetable synth problem wrt to enabling ASIO4All with REW. So far the preferences shows everything ready to go . . finally.

I'll post some pics of the front top clouds once I get my feet wet with this REW thing.

I anxiously await the mdat files.

As for the absorber sculpture, you are a braver man than I.

While those kinds of things are cool the absorption of mesh with an airgap isn't great. It's mostly used to reduce flutter echo in places where other means aren't suitable. It isn't acting as a re-director. It actually is largely just providing absorption and a little scattering at high frequencies. A theater space is too small to make use of such things. You are better off with traditional absorbers. Still I've seen some really cool acoustic treatments in theaters before. If I had the capacity, I would have built a ceiling trieatment myself with wooden slats and a bass absorber behind it.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I always liked this look.

 

[Prof.]

WOW!! That bottom pic is totally insane!! He's even got waves on the walls!!
I can't imagine the labour time to do all that!!

 

[tripplej]

I agree, wow. fantastic.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Yeah I had a crazy dream of doing this in my theater. I lack the skills or tools to do so. The quotes I got were unreal. The materials alone are pretty high. My plan was to use 1" Baltic birch plywood or similar Cut to create the waves like in the first one. Behind it all would be absorption. One of my acosutics friends even suggested using a kind of ternary patter for better diffussion.

So when you consider that each of those panels is made from one half to one full 4x8 sheet of plywood, and you have wall, ceiling, wall you realize you will end up using a good 100 sheets. At say $65 a sheet for good 1" ply you are looking at $6500 and a lot of labor. Add in overpriced modern hardware to hang it and a carpenter to do some of the work and it's a $10000 feature.

I looked into bentwood too and the minimum design charge was going to put it up around the same price installed.

 

[asarose247]

The notion of curvy randomness for HT , it'd be less work for me to burn the place down . .paperwork included . .LOL
(inset random curviness joke here)
However -
My nearfield sub, the 38 ft^3 Submaximus, well it had a frontal 24" square area that I didn't know how to finish and it was right behind me and reflected in the TV . . and it had to "look like something" but after 2 years, I still didn't know what
what to do with the reflections . . light and sound
First off, a frame filled with 3" Roxul, then a random piece of plastic lattice fitted just so.
Then a few mistakes, T&E, and I have some "V"'s of 1/2" ply alternated with a some lightly creased "arty" wavy-gravy paper I stumbled across at the , uh, art store. Some black spray paint, some good adhesive and a light sheer piece of curtain to help with keeping it (mostly) dust free after all that,

it's in place on a french cleat and set with felt pads in the event of any rattle.
Who would expect a NF 38 FT^3 FLH and 1500 w,. to "rattle" anything anyway ?
JS

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Looks good. heavy paper likely reflects high frequency is pretty well. It's a clever idea.

Since I'm also studying your measurement file, can you share your full amount of absorption. How much, how thick, and where? Pics of the panels in place would be great, especially for this thread.

 

[asarose247]

right now the focus in my mancave.
we've seen the "flaming' panels. I have 3 more in the room.
(that small panel is in the living room. that's a whole epic undertaking)

so back to it . .

 

[Matthew J Poes]

https://meyersound.com/news/private-cinema/
There is also this.

I love this look. Dolby did the same thing in the AMC Dolby Cinema concept. I'd love this but have no idea how it's executed. It's fabric over a frame but how is the fabric held in place, what is the frame made of, etc. It also looks like so much work I can't imagine doing it.

Or for a treatment I could actually manage

 

[asarose247]

For my minor experience, getting the fabric to hold to the frame / surface/ other fabric , invisibly, >spray adhesive . what holds the frames /surfaces together? good engineering.
who designs stuff like that pic? guys like you . . . possibility thinkers

 

[Matthew J Poes]

My guess is that its a kind of fabric track.

One thing that bothers the acoustic purist in me about any of these fabric systems is that fabric absorbs, even shear fabric. The farther it is from the wall the lower in frequency it absorbs. While its absorption isn't really a problem for the most part, they are hiding diffusers behind it, which shouldn't involve any absorption (if its a purist diffuser). So I'm not bothered like I don't approve, but more, I know these guys (Dolby and Meyer Sound) are very smart guys, they know this, why doesn't it bother them?

 

[Prof.]

Yeah I had a crazy dream of doing this in my theater. I lack the skills or tools to do so. The quotes I got were unreal. The materials alone are pretty high. My plan was to use 1" Baltic birch plywood or similar Cut to create the waves like in the first one. Behind it all would be absorption. One of my acosutics friends even suggested using a kind of ternary patter for better diffussion.

So when you consider that each of those panels is made from one half to one full 4x8 sheet of plywood, and you have wall, ceiling, wall you realize you will end up using a good 100 sheets. At say $65 a sheet for good 1" ply you are looking at $6500 and a lot of labor. Add in overpriced modern hardware to hang it and a carpenter to do some of the work and it's a $10000 feature.

I looked into bentwood too and the minimum design charge was going to put it up around the same price installed.

Yeah..and after all that, how much better is it really going to be over a couple of acoustic panels hanging on the walls!!

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Yeah..and after all that, how much better is it really going to be over a couple of acoustic panels hanging on the walls!!

well I wanted it to give a cool look to the room. integrate the acoustics into the design. it wouldn't sound better than an equal amount of treatment.

 

[Talley]

I'll have to get an updated photo but pretty much raw... I need to paint these. Sounds good and cheap to make. Used an inverse QRD design.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I'll have to get an updated photo but pretty much raw... I need to paint these. Sounds good and cheap to make. Used an inverse QRD design.

Merry Christmas Talley, those look great. Thanks for sharing.

 

[NBPK402]

I’m attaching photos of my acoustic treatments. There is a plastic film membrane on that large square treatment with the blue jeans insulation. Also a similar treatment in the lining of the bass trap was done. Those pictures were during dry fitting. Sorry I need to learn to document my builds better, I was covered in saw dust, glue, and Rockwool so pictures were last on my mind.

Bass trap is wrapped in Black fine burlap. I paid just a dollar a yard or so.


The navy blue panels look really pretty in person and were made with 4” 1x4 select pine frames. I encreases the depth by adding slats across the back for mounting. With mount the panel is effectively 5” deep. It’s wrap in 7oz breathable canvas which is great for acoustic panels, since it stretches.

By the way I think that thick heavy canvass would be great for making a range limited acoustic panel with enhanced LF absorption.

Question... are your bass traps basically a square box of Roxul with the center empty or did you make it all Roxul?

 

[NBPK402]

I need to see if I can find any more of my pics from my old theater. I covered the whole front wall with 3" of Roxul, and then covered that with black muslim cloth. This was behind my basically wall to wall AT screen so it was never seen. I also had 1st reflection panels (3 per side), and I had 6 first reflection panels on the ceiling too (same as the sides). I built bass traps for the rear corners with stacked Roxul r60 triangles in the corners, and 9" deep of r60 on the whole rear wall. I also made empty panels, so the room was completely covered in GOM fabric. The front stage had a Danley DTS10 sub under it, and had fiberglass stuffed all around it (same as the rear platform with the 2nd DTS10) I found one pic... This is pic is when I had Klipsch Hips for my surrounds and they were not all covered yet. I ended up replacing them with JBLs.

I sure miss that home theater.

 

[phillihp23]

My panels are BIY (buy it yourself)

 

[Kakkadu]

Lol!..love the name..
They are actually parabolic diffusers..I made them myself using 3mm MDF..Very simple to make..you just have to get the right curvature and then fit it into a frame..
There is no insulation stuffed into them, just the fibreglass panels behind..
What I noticed when I first used them was that the sound had widened dramatically across the sound stage..and in my new theatre you would swear that the sound was coming from outside!

Strictly speaking a curved surface is not a true diffuser like a quadratic residue diffuser is.

 

[Kakkadu]

WOW!! That bottom pic is totally insane!! He's even got waves on the walls!!
I can't imagine the labour time to do all that!!

It looks really cool but acoustically it's non uniform and not true diffuse. Which is a bit of a shame. You need uniformity for a proper stereo image... the majority of sound in your listening position comes from reflections unless you listen in near field.

 

[Jazzman53]

I made up some panels to cover the wall and window behind my listening position on the sofa. The first photo shows the frames mounted on the wall and the second photo is the finished panels on the same wall... the panels are filled with 6lb density rock wool. The third photo shows one of my corner bass traps, also filled with 6lb rock wool.