A/B Room Treatments

[tjcinnamon]

What's the best way to A/B test acoustic treatments? It's so difficult to listen to them even close to back to back. Would getting a binaural mic and recording songs playing work. It would still be subjective but perhaps would provide some value?

I think REW would help but I'm not sure how diffusers would present themselves in REW?

 

[ddude003]

I don't know how you could easily A/B diffusers... Maybe learn about them here at http://arqen.com/sound-diffusers/ and you might get a feel for what is being corrected by using a diffuser and what to look for via REW to visualize what might change between A/B...

 

[BenToronto]

Rare to see a photo of a home music room on audio websites that doesn't look atrocious for sound due to lack of absorbent.

REW can be a big help, starting with basic freq response. I have a clothes closet which holds my heavy winter motorcycle gear - clearly shows up on REW to reduce main room resonance with closet door open. But lots of other charts come along "for free" with each sweep. Such as reverb time and pulse (and train of that pulse).

 

[Sonnie]

REW >> Overlays >> ETC

Here is an example I did between a diffusion panel vs an absorption panel place behind my left ML15A. Those of us comparing the sound of each thought the absorption was better, although it was not easy making the determination because both sounded excellent.

 

[tjcinnamon]

REW >> Overlays >> ETC

Here is an example I did between a diffusion panel vs an absorption panel place behind my left ML15A. Those of us comparing the sound of each thought the absorption was better, although it was not easy making the determination because both sounded excellent.

View attachment 63517

it does look like absorption is visually better

The nice thing is that it's very clear the impact. I'm curious, via the ETC is it possible to see which is the offending frequency? For example, maybe the diffuser didn't go low enough? If it were (hypothetically) deeper that it would have had a similar result to the absorber within tolerance (which I have heard is -15dB for everything before 20ms). Maybe that ETC "hump" is (hypothetically) from 600Hz but the diffuser is rated at 1000Hz.

 

[tjcinnamon]

I don't know how you could easily A/B diffusers... Maybe learn about them here at http://arqen.com/sound-diffusers/ and you might get a feel for what is being corrected by using a diffuser and what to look for via REW to visualize what might change between A/B...

I wish I could download those plans. I get an error on the website. I recently joined a "makerspace". I have unlimited access to 3d printers, plasma cutters, and huge CNC machines (plus a tutor).

 

[Sonnie]

You could look at the frequency response comparing the two and possibly get some idea based on what frequencies the diffusion panel is designed to work with. I'm not sure if knowing the frequency range will make a difference. Some listeners like the more diffused sound, perhaps a little more lively, as some might describe it.

 

[ddude003]

I wish I could download those plans. I get an error on the website. I recently joined a "makerspace". I have unlimited access to 3d printers, plasma cutters, and huge CNC machines (plus a tutor).

Try this... http://arqen.com/wp-content/docs/diffusers/Diffuser-A1LF-Fab-Drawings-Arqen.pdf

 

[Sonnie]

That's the one I did here: https://www.avnirvana.com/threads/custom-diy-diffuser-panels.8367/

 

[ddude003]

And for completeness here is Tim's thesis on the subject... https://fdocuments.in/reader/full/acoustic-diffuser-optimization-arqen-copy

 

[AudiocRaver]

Sonnie's room just gets better and better.