Slatted or solid 5/8 ply on front of hangers in sofit

[Dackers]

Hi, I’m reconfiguring my flushmount sofits ...I’ll be using John’s design with hangers below and rockwool packing above....my question is....that design calls for 5/8 ply in front of both the top and bottom section....are those panels solid or slatted?...and if slattted./...is there a design for the slats?

Thanks, Paul.

[Gregwor]

Welcome Paul! Please fully fill out your profile as per the forum rules!

Baffles are typically a very solid flat surface (no slats) as to make an "infinite baffle".

Greg

[Paulus87]

Hi, I’m reconfiguring my flushmount sofits ...I’ll be using John’s design with hangers below and rockwool packing above....my question is....that design calls for 5/8 ply in front of both the top and bottom section....are those panels solid or slatted?...and if slattted./...is there a design for the slats?

Thanks, Paul.

Just to add on to what Greg has said, if you're going to have treatment behind your baffles (such as hangers) then you need to have some openings in your baffles, IIRC John uses a 12" "port" which can be hidden behind fabric, on the bottom of the baffles. This is so that the LF doesn't simply just reflect off of the baffles and get's stuck inside.

Paul (Another one)

[Dackers]

many thanks Greg...that great...cheers.....and thanks for the nudge on profile...I’lll do that now!

[Dackers]

Thanks Paul!...yep...planning a 12”port at the bottom for that purpose!

[Paulus87]

Thanks Paul!...yep...planning a 12”port at the bottom for that purpose!

Excellent.

BTW, as I have no idea how knowledgable you are about the topic and I'm sorry if this comes across as patronising but if you are also planning to use near fields in front of your flush mount, then there will be a compromise since a semi-hard flush will cause comb filtering due to the reflections coming directly from the rear of the speakers off of the flush mount baffles.

If you're okay with that then continue.

If near field monitoring is a big priority to you (for example, a lot of pro mixers are 90% on their favourite near fields during mixing) then I would consider a soft flush instead, which has all the benefits of a hard flush (or semi hard flush) apart from the extra boost in LF headroom. It also has the added benefits of enabling you to have a lot more immediate bass trapping in your space and of course it highly reduces the comb filtering issues that arise when using near fields with a hard flush.

If you only have one set of monitors then the decision will be easier.

Paul

[Dackers]

thanks again Paul...very helpful and interesting....I’d say I’m reasonably knowledgeable but no acoustician.

I certainly do use nearfields...al lot...mains are for occasional volume cranking and for client review....maybe a little more than thast...but my nearfields are taking most of the load.

When you say softflush...are you referring to the area above the monitors?...that will be RW3 filled and then I have a choice of cloth over rockwool or cloth over ply...is that what you are referring to?

The area in between the monitors is cloth over rockwool

cheers,

Paul.

[Paulus87]

thanks again Paul...very helpful and interesting....I’d say I’m reasonably knowledgeable but no acoustician.

I certainly do use nearfields...al lot...mains are for occasional volume cranking and for client review....maybe a little more than thast...but my nearfields are taking most of the load.

When you say softflush...are you referring to the area above the monitors?...that will be RW3 filled and then I have a choice of cloth over rockwool or cloth over ply...is that what you are referring to?

The area in between the monitors is cloth over rockwool

cheers,

Paul.

A fully soft flush would be with no hard baffles (other than the speaker cabinets themselves).

Basically your speaker "soffits" would be a fabric covered frame, with massive bass traps (you could use hangers for this) behind the fabric, with your main monitors embedded.

You can leave it as fabric or you can cover with slats. The benefit of covering with slats is it not only looks cool, but the actual reason is because the slats give the listener "self noise" cues, so that the listener sub-consciously feels relaxed and not stressed by an unnatural acoustic environment with no apparent hard boundaries, but the openings in the slats allow the nasty low end reflections to be absorbed and attenuated thereby getting rid of comb filtering issues.

They are also much, much simpler to construct, you do not need to worry about decoupling the speakers, they do not alter your room dimensions (as a true hard flush front wall would) and they are easily transformed into a hard flush/semi-hard flush if ever you change your mind.

Anyway, something to consider.
Paul

[Dackers]

most definitely worthy of consideration.....I’m certainly not wedded to a hard flush.....in may ways prefer a soft flush....it was that sofit design of Johns that got me onto the 5/8 baffle......you don’t have any images of the slats piece do you? as I could see that working on the top section and leaving just cloth on the bottom section.

also...what depth / type of material do you use for the slats?

[Paulus87]

most definitely worthy of consideration.....I’m certainly not wedded to a hard flush.....in may ways prefer a soft flush....it was that sofit design of Johns that got me onto the 5/8 baffle......you don’t have any images of the slats piece do you? as I could see that working on the top section and leaving just cloth on the bottom section.

also...what depth / type of material do you use for the slats?

It's not overly important since it won't be a sealed device. You can do a 50/50 or 70/30 etc split between slats and absorption, whatever you prefer.

Check out some of John Brandt's designs, he uses soft flush slat walls with slats that are usually 50mm wide x 20mm thick with 20mm gaps between them. You could also do an MLS binary amplitude diffuser pattern.

Paul

[Dackers]

great...thanks Paul.....gonna check those out...and agree...aesthetically would be nicer than just a cloth wall