John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

While surffing around, I bumped into this attached picture
Where genelec 8260 seem to be installed in soffit without bafles. And this place was designed by well known local studio designer.

Is there any up/downsides in this sort of installation?
I would basically surround my speakers bass traps and not waste space..

anodivirta wrote: Is there any up/downsides in this sort of installation?

after googling these came up:
http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =2&t=19672
https://gearspace.com/board/studio-buil ... offit.html
https://gearspace.com/board/studio-buil ... ption.html
http://arqen.com/acoustics-101/speaker- ... erference/
tldr: it can be good or bad

Nortward quoting Genelec, must be good reading: wrote: "The fourth cure is to make the wall so absorptive that the reflected energy becomes negligible and hence does not cancel any of the direct sound. The thickness of a porous absorber has to be one quarter of the wavelength of the frequency to be absorbed to become effective. This is the same distance that determines the frequency of the cancellation dip and therefore the absorber has to be very thick. Usually, the required absorbing thickness is so high that such solution is practically not implemented."

so maybe this is something I can try later on.

I quess next question that I'm strugling with is optimal thickness for my front wall (porous) absorber and distance of speakers from front wall (real wall, not the absorber "wall".)
By making thicker front wall(absorber) I can make it more effective on low fq BUT I then have to move my speakers away from front wall to not so optimal place.

sketching some ideas just to see how much space I would need,
if my whole front wall is porous absorber it doenst matter if it has angles or not?
I know its stupid to draw conclusions just on pictures of studio without knowing whats under the surfface,
but I've seen some pictures where front walls are angled and full of absorption.. I understand if you use slats etc but I dont get what other reasons there is?
(other than looks or maybe saving some materials etc)
and most LEDE/RFZ have reflective front wall?

generally speaking it's useful to have some hard surfaces rather than purely soft. but since you have inside-out walls (and assume you did similar to ceiling) then you can try things out and expand the treatments as / if needed. so when building out, some treatments should be angled to get the support for the audio level balance, and still reduce/eliminate reflections.

gullfo wrote:generally speaking it's useful to have some hard surfaces rather than purely soft. but since you have inside-out walls (and assume you did similar to ceiling) then you can try things out and expand the treatments as / if needed. so when building out, some treatments should be angled to get the support for the audio level balance, and still reduce/eliminate reflections.

Thanks, exellent points once again!
Actual my ceiling and front wall are normal and rest of the walls are inside-out.
If I want to think about angles:
Most topics about front wall angles talk about soffits, I guess those "rules" are good for my situation too? And some ray-tracing tools could be used in this case also?

Originally when I started planning this whole build, I thought that I would fill walls with oc703-ish insulation and bass traps front and back..but I now understand that one wouldnt want to make your room too dry.

did some "real life" tests and tried what would feel good (maximize space for porous absorber vs.speaker location and ergonomics)
and I'll think I will start by something like this and add/modify once I get something tested&measured.