Bass Trap Corner Help... room question

[sluttygear]

Hi audiophiles,

I need to build some superchunk/ bass traps for the corners of my control room and live room. I want to base my design off of this thread because I think it's really clean:


John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum • View topic - Broadband Absorber and Superchunks Build Picture Diary

Here's my issue: In my control room, the right front corner has a heating duct on the floor so i would have to raise the superchunk/bass trap a little to be fire safe.

My questions are:

1) should I raise the left front corner to match this?
2) would there be a significant loss in bass trapping ability by raising the superchunk a couple of inches?


Also, on another note, the right back corner, (behind listening position) is about 2 1/2" before it hits a door. What would I do to treat this corner? Just treat the door a lot? Definitely not wide enough of a corner for a bass trap....

[BriHar]

Check out my comments on the John Sayers' Forum. :-)

[Glenn Kuras]

1) should I raise the left front corner to match this?
2) would there be a significant loss in bass trapping ability by raising the superchunk a couple of inches?

You are going to be fine if it is only a few inches. I would go floor to ceiling in the one corner.

Also, on another note, the right back corner, (behind listening position) is about 2 1/2" before it hits a door. What would I do to treat this corner? Just treat the door a lot? Definitely not wide enough of a corner for a bass trap....

You can skip that corner or put a panel on the door and one on the wall.

[sluttygear]

Hi Glenn and BriHar,


thanks for the tips! This makes me feel comfortable. How about the top corners of the room? Any recommendations?

[kasmira]

Ever thought about soffit traps?

[sluttygear]

I have not, please explain them!

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by sluttygear

I have not, please explain them!

It would look something like this.



The can go in wall to wall corners and ceiling to wall corners around the room

[sluttygear]

Hi Glenn,

Thanks for the pic. I might use these for ceiling to wall around the room. As far as affordability, I don't know for me, I wish i could just go on your website and buy them all now!!!.Are there any threads or do you have any suggestions how to build soffits yourself??

[axisrecording]

I was thinking about putting soffit traps in myself. I have super chunks in my front corners and I have a few Helmholtz resonators tuned to the room modes that I made installed up in the ceiling to wall corners - do you think spanning 703 panels over the top of them would be useful too? or would that make the resonators less effective?

[kasmira]

Sluttygear, soffits are commonly 12" thick and 17" thick. Obviously 17" would likely be better in certain situations, but to the effect of how much greater vs. 12" thick I wouldn't know.

Insulation that is generally recommended comes in 24"x48" sheets most of the time. If you wanted 12" soffits, you could either build them like superchunks, but only in 12"x12" squares instead of triangular corner traps. So, if you had 2" thick insulation that comes in a batt of 24"x48", you can cut it into eight 12"x12" pieces, and at 2" thick, you can then stack the pieces to make a 16" tall 12"x12" soffit. Obviously you would need to do this with multiple pieces of insulation to get a full floor-to-ceiling soffit going on (or wall-wall, whatever your choice), but if you find reasonable prices on insulation, its not so bad..
17" would sound like an odd size originally until you realize..:
24"x48" batt cut in half
You now have two 24"x24" pieces
Cut those 2 in half diagonally
You now have four 24"x24"x~34" triangles (the hypotenuse is about 33.9, so we'll call it 34")
You then cut those 4 in half diagonally AGAIN
You now have eight triangles that are ~17"x17" with a hypotenuse of 24"
So, you put two triangles together on the 24" side, and you FINALLY HAVE
FOUR 17"x17" squares..
If your insulation is 2" thick, that means that ONE 24"x48" batt will give you an 8" tall soffit. Again, you would repeat enough to fill a floor to ceiling cavity or whatever have you.

So, making a 12" soffit will be HALF as expensive as making 17" soffits, if you chose to fill it completely with insulation like superchunks are built.

You can pretty much make the frame out of whatever you can work with easily. I've still been trying to figure out the best way to build a frame for soffits so they're light & easily mountable, but also easy to move around, and hopefully wouldn't be THAT much of a pain in the ass to cut down to a smaller size in case I move somewhere with a shorter ceiling height. I have yet to come to the best way to do this, but you bet your ass I'll be posting it on a thread here when I do!

[sluttygear]

Awesome,

thanks for the descriptions and the tips Alexander. This makes much more sense now. Yes, please post pics when you do this!

[Glenn Kuras]

Sluttygear, soffits are commonly 12" thick and 17" thick. Obviously 17" would likely be better in certain situations, but to the effect of how much greater vs. 12" thick I wouldn't know.

I honestly don't know either, but if I was going to go through the process of building them I would make them 17" as I know that works. For ourselves I had a choice of doing 12" and voted against it. Maybe it would have worked but it just seemed a bit small from all the other things I have tested in the lab.

Hi Glenn,

Thanks for the pic. I might use these for ceiling to wall around the room. As far as affordability, I don't know for me, I wish i could just go on your website and buy them all now!!!.Are there any threads or do you have any suggestions how to build soffits yourself??

I don't know of any threads but if you DIY them you may just what to build them into the corner.