John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I've seen John's side wall RFZ box plans many times. Now that I'm ready to build something I have a question:
It is shown finished with a 1by board on the small dimension when viewed from the top. In other words, it starts 8", goes down to 2" the 8" then 2" again..and that is capped off with an 8" end cap. Wouldn't you want to just make that the ending dimension of the narrowest point of the unit? It would seem to trap some sound in there having an 8 inch 1by board sticking out from the wall..
just to clarify

It's purely an aesthetic value

cheers
john

Also, if you have enough space to do it, it'd likely work better being twice as deep and only ONE ramp for the whole distance - too narrow a sections could lessen the "anti-flutter" effect (due to averaging over medium wavelengths), plus the single ramp should be easier to build - just my $.02... Steve

I hear you both. Thanks. I was thinking about one plane, one panel since I have only room for about a 5' box, probably 4' tall. Would 8" down to 2" over a 5' span give me an acceptible angle? Steve, I saw you advice for a side unit on the cheap faced with Celotex. A buddy built one with drop ceiling tile that looks pretty nice... probably similar to Celotex.

That would be enough angle to control flutter @ the mix position, but may or may not be enough to fix first reflections; this would depend on the geometric angles formed by each speaker center > surface of wall unit > your head - if placing a mirror anywhere on the wall unit's surface would let you see either speaker, then the angle isn't steep enough.

If that's the case, putting something absorbent in front of the slats could be done, even if just at the "mirror" points (not too small, you need to cover more than just the exact reflection point) -

Main point is, you can't "cookie cutter" ANY room - that's why I try to give principles and not just "do this" ... Steve

Thanks. I'll make sure I can't see the speaks from mix position.