Making an Audio Desk out of a Fiberglass Batt....

[hduncan]

So hear me out before you tutt.

I have a laptop. Other than that, there is nothing on my small Target wooden desk other than my elbows. Heaven forbid you find a pencil or a guitarpick. So, there isnt a lot of weight on the table top.

I have treated the sidewalls for first reflections. I am about go do the ceiling and the floor is carpet so it doesn't need it. But the desk is universally known for comb filtering and reflections right?

So why not have a HF Trap as your table top? that's all I'm saying.

Now a few concerns come up:
1.) Laptop sinking into batt/panel/trap and fans not ventilating properly.
Fix: you can maybe get a metal plate to put under the laptop so it can keep the proper distance for venting, it might also help distribute the weight of the laptop over the fiberglass like those tennis-racquet-snowshoe things.
2.) Over time, my elbows might dent or smush the fiberglass.
Fix: I dont know.

What are your thoughts?

[JEGG]

1. More clutter! It will offer better diffusion.

2. When making a Jecklin disk, I discovered a very specific kind of self adhesive wool felt sold at "Hobby Lobby" (marketing?), and "Michaels" in the US. I've seen it other places, too. They also sell non adhesive felted wool-which is not the same, though it looks very similar. Through some tests, I discovered that this particular wool really doesn't reflect anything. One test is to just placing it directly behind one ear and listening for changes.

You needn't use the adhesive, of course. But this is really good stuff, and it's inexpensive. But all the stuff that looks very much the same isn't. So get the right stuff. (Wasn't this a title of a book by Gerry Ford?)

BTW, this material is very thin.

Of, of course, you could get some proper commercial material.

[tomdarude]

Regarding acoustics, that´s actually a great thing to have for your kind of set-up!

[hduncan]

My acoustic panel/desk idea or the felt top desk idea for the poster before you?

I like the felt idea, but it would be primarily focusing on the really high frequencies. The mids and low mids would still be bouncing off of the solid wood desk at me right? this is where a fiberglass top would be best?

[hduncan]

As far as acoustics goes.. if you have a thicker table top (say 4 inches thick of solid wood), you're going to reflect lower frequencies back at yourself than if you had a 1" table top thickness, right? because the lower frequencies will simply move through the table top?

if this is the case, couldnt I get a really strong, but super thin peice of steel or aluminum and then treat the top with specific treatment to absorb the frequencies that wouldnt be able to pass through the metal? that way it would be transparent to bass and other frequencies, and the frequencies that it is not transparent to, I can absorb with the lining on the top?

or is that not how it works..