John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hola-

Is anybody familiar with the diffusor plans on this site?

http://arqen.com/sound-diffusers/bluepr ... qen.com%2F

Or is there a better option for DIY plan?

Thanks

Or is there a better option for DIY plan?

First question to ask before even thinking about numeric-based diffusers is this: Is the room big enough to be able to use numeric-based diffusers successfully? You need a pretty big room to be able to do that. Most typical home studios are not big enough.

- Stuart -

Yes, further research has indicated that it's probably not appropriate for my space.

I'm wondering if one of these 'Space Array' or 'Space Coupler' deals that Auralex sells would be a good investment….

Or maybe these DST-R panels would be a good option…


http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DSTR

Definitely like the price on those.

Or maybe these DST-R panels would be a good option…

Those are also diffusers. How big is the room? Very likely it does not need diffusion, or at least not that type of diffusion. Most small rooms only need absorption.

- Stuart -

It's not large.

Cool, I just won't worry about it then.

I guess one thing I haven't really come across in my research is how large a room needs to be before diffusion starts to come into play….

Thanks again.

I guess one thing I haven't really come across in my research is how large a room needs to be before diffusion starts to come into play….

It's more about how big the room needs to be before you can use diffusion: Since numeric-sequence diffusers are tuned and based on patterns, they create "lobes" of energy in certain directions around them, where the level is higher or lower. They also alter the phase and timing of the scattered sound. It takes a certain distance before those artifacts "smooth out" sufficiently that they are no longer audible. That distance depends on how they are tuned, but the general rule is that you need at least ten feet between a numeric-based diffuser and the closest listening position. The distance is usually much larger, if the low-cut off point of the diffuser is tuned to mid-low frequencies, but 10 feet is the absolute minimum. So the room needs to be quite big in order to be able to get ten feet of direct line distance between the diffusers and the listening positions. For the typical sizes of average home studios, it just isn't possible to do that.

Of course, that doesn't stop people from doing it anyway! There are plenty of photos out there of small studios with numeric diffusers that are obviously causing issues, but that is basically due to ignorance: people don't know that the diffusers are doing more harm than good. They just do it because they see diffusers on the rear wall of large professional studios, so they think that their small home studio needs them too, and never check into the limitations of where and why they should be used....

- Stuart -