John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi all,
I'm wondering if any of you could share your thoughts on what the effects would be on having varying widths in a 1D diffuser? The reason I ask is because I've got a ton of leftover strips of some beautiful wood from some millwork (cabinetry) installation which I thought I might put to some good DIY diffuser use, but they're all different widths. The range isn't that huge, maybe between 1 1/2" and 3" at the very extreme, with most around 2 to 2 1/2" wide, but I don't have a table saw and I was wondering if I could fashion something useable without renting one.

Attached is a rough sketchup of what I'm talking about. I hope it gets the idea across. It would obviously be covered completely on the top, bottom and back but I just drew it that way so you could see the cross section hopefully explaining my idea better than I am with words.

I imagine there has to be some (probably negative) effect on it's efficacy as a diffuser, but I can't wrap my head around what that might be. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

QRD's are normally based on regular intervals. Not sure if you could vary the intervals and still get the full effect. And that raises another question: Is your room big enough to benefit from a diffuser? QRDs create lobing patterns that need lots of space to even out again. Does your studio have enough space for that?

However, there might be a far better use for your strips of wood: Why not make a slot wall with them? They sound like they would be ideal for that.

- Stuart -

Thanks for your thoughts.

The room will be approximately about 18'x15' with a peaked roof ranging in height from 8'-10'. So, I don't know if that falls into the category where QRD's are still more problematic than helpful.

I guess I need to read up on slot walls more. I always thought of them as dealing with specific frequency issues instead of helping out with general frequency dispersion, but yes, these pieces sure would look pretty over a full wall.

Any chance you can change that? Normally you want the speakers firing down the log axis of the room, not across the short axis. Your room is only 10 feet wide, so I'm guessing that your listening position must be pretty close to the center of the room, about 5 feet from the front wall, correct? That's not a good position, for several reasons, but among them is the fact that your head is relay close to the rear wall, and therefore you are almost certainly getting first reflections off that wall well inside the 15/15 window, and even inside the 10/10 window.

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