Are my traps totally useless ?

Downsideup

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Nov 12, 2020
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France
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Preamp, Processor or Receiver
Mac + Metric Halo ULN-8
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Quad
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Metric Halo
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Mac
Front Speakers
Amphion One15
Hi there ! I'm confused:

I have used home made traps in the past, with noticeable differences, with and without.

I just scored 11 expensive ASC traps, absorbing and diffusing at the same time, supposed to be revolutionnary, but I failed to see the graphs getting better.

Can anyone check my mdat file ? any tips on what rt60 graph , waterfalls and so on ? I'm usually checking decay and the frequency curve ( which sometimes looks worse WITH the traps, labelled "avec" ).

thanks ! for now i read on the graph and hear that my money is not well spent on those ASC !
 

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you should measure one channel at a time.
 
Welcome to AV NIRVANA... It would be nice to have a little more information about the size of the room, speaker(s) placement, type of traps, trap placement, type of speaker(s), Stereo or Home Theatre... Maybe fill out the My AV System part of your profile...
 
Hi thanks for the replies!

15m2 room, ceiling treated AND 3m high, wooden floor with no concret ( all wood).

traps are ASC half rounds, 11 of them, spread on all 4 walls vertically.

Home studio, with Amphion One15 speakers, Flexbasse stéréo sub is coming soon.

Proper measurement mic with Metric Halo ULN-8 hi end converters. fairly small listening triangle ( I recall around 150cm).


In this medium/smallish room, filling it with expensive ASC Tube Traps, I expected something. the mesurements are almost worse WITH the traps than without: and they are in the 4 corners and on 4 falls. ceiling is a giant wood structure holding natural wood behind clothe, a couple of HOFA 3D diffusers complet the treatment of the ceiling.


do you see any difference between the 2 measurements ? I'm not familiar with all aspects of it appart from Freq Resp and Decay.
 
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Hi thanks for the replies!

15m2 room, ceiling treated AND 3m high, wooden floor with no concret ( all wood).

traps are ASC half rounds, 11 of them, spread on all 4 walls vertically.

Home studio, with Amphion One15 speakers, Flexbasse stéréo sub is coming soon.

Proper measurement mic with Metric Halo ULN-8 hi end converters. fairly small listening triangle ( I recall around 150cm).


In this medium/smallish room, filling it with expensive ASC Tube Traps, I expected something. the mesurements are almost worse WITH the traps than without: and they are in the 4 corners and on 4 falls. ceiling is a giant wood structure holding natural wood behind clothe, a couple of HOFA 3D diffusers complet the treatment of the ceiling.


do you see any difference between the 2 measurements ? I'm not familiar with all aspects of it appart from Freq Resp and Decay.
Your measurements are for both the front channels together. You should measure them separately to see if they made a difference.
 
also, for such a short distance I doubt they would make much of a difference anyways. you might see a difference once you have the sub and thus the lower frequencies. However, I am by no means an expert. Others with more experience might have better suggestions. In any case, you should be measuring the L and R channels separately.
 
thanks pratul, I did and it's not much different.
 
Looks like some roll offs in the lows (<140Hz) and again in the highs (>5.25kHz)... The speakers seem to track each other pretty well... Did I miss where you said what you thought what was missing and why you thought ASC half rounds would help correct things? Does your room sound dead now? I am guessing the new traps may have been too much for the wide band mids and highs... Maybe pull half of those traps off the side walls...

I am not really a near field guy... Maybe @DanDan will jump in and give you some tips... Have you tried placing the speakers close to or at the front wall to get some base boost?
 
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  • Post hidden due to user being banned.
Thanks for the replies. I did contact ASC and placed them accordingly. not much choice anyway, they are half rounds: in a small room covering the walls and corners.

The room sounds good as is, one of the best I've had. I've tried all positioning of the listening position and kept the best one ( measured and listened), ASC traps, I've tried to place them in all sorts of way. I will not get the sub soon.

I just had an opportunity to get those traps from a friend, and in theory they'd clean up low end, diffract and absorb peaks and valleys in the mids etc. the design is crazy and when you put 11 in a room, you expect a bit of differences.

I've done my homework, last touch were those traps, but they bring NOTHING, which is mind boggling that "empty" measures the same.

the question is: do you see any meaningful difference BEFORE and AFTER on those measures -mdat file, that escape me?
 
From the measurements you posted the RT60 times are longer with the traps than without, but if the mic was not in exactly the same position for the two measurements the comparison may not be meaningful and you haven't posted the measurements of each speaker individually, which will also have an effect.
 
Thanks john, the mic is in the exact same position. only the traps came in on the second measurements. I'm hoping we can spot usefull or minor difference with or without traps, I did measure left and right, and will post the file later.
 
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John Mulcahy
greetings. Is it possible to know how to determine that the measurement is made for two speakers at the same time? I see only one impulse peak in Downsideup mdat.
 
actually I do have Empty Left, Empty Right, Empty both speakers. then I think I did both speakers WITH all traps.

Emtpy means "without traps".
same exact mic position.

Sorry it's all I've got ! we are still building, and I had a heating break down in winter so it was a no go zone! ( closed all doors and stay by the wood-stove!).
 

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The original "sans asc" measurement seems a bit of an outlier. It was made just 2 minutes before the "avec 11 asc" measurement, was it really made with all the traps removed from the room? The 3 "empty" measurements show significantly longer RT60 times, which is what one would expect.
 
Spectrogram energy levels look much improved...
 
The original "sans asc" measurement seems a bit of an outlier. It was made just 2 minutes before the "avec 11 asc" measurement, was it really made with all the traps removed from the room? The 3 "empty" measurements show significantly longer RT60 times, which is what one would expect.


I had the traps in the hall. I simply got up, took them one by one and put them on the floor ( half round towers) takes around 10sec per trap.
 
Yes. I found.

There is one peak on the impulse graph. Is that because the microphone was exactly between the speakers?

yes. in the listening position.
 
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