Can I cover slats with acoustically transparent fabric?

I'm designing some slat absorbers, and I'd like to cover the fronts of them with a stretch fabric system. The stretch fabric would be placed 1"-2" in front of the slats (i.e. not touching them). Will cause any problems with the proper functioning/absorption of the slat absorbers? I wouldn't have thout that it would, except that I just read a BBC Research Paper where they were experimenting with a Helmholtz absorber, and when they place fabric over the wholes, it dramatically reduced the absorption coefficient. Here's a link to that paper: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1992-10.pdf The pertinent info is on page 7, section 7.2.4 Effect of coverings Here's what I'm building:Here's with the covers:These go in the corners. Simply mineral wool from floor to ceilingHere's a top view of the whole system:

Yes, you can cover your slats with fabric But remember: The fabric will act like a dampening material in the resonator neck, so you will broaden the Q of the resonator while reducing the peak absorption. But from your graphs i think, you will try to get a broadband absorption anyway, so don`t care about the fabric so much. cheers Mika :D