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In Reply to: RE: Then please define a bass trap… posted by David Aiken on October 17, 2009 at 01:13:40
Comment: " Then please define a bass trap ...because at the moment it seems as if you're simply stating that a panel, no matter how effective or how placed, can never be a "bass trap" because it doesn't function as a pressure device.
Reply: I do make a distinction between simple fiberglass wall panels, and wall panels which use additional means of providing bass absorption, so I am not saying that all wall panel type device's are not bass traps.
I did sort of define what I think a bass trap is in my answer up above
( http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/messages/16/166034.html ):
In my opinion, a bass trap is a device that is specifically designed to absorb and dampen lower bass frequencies very effectively. It can either depend on a sheer mass of absorbing material, or it can leverage some other absorbing principal, as do the ASC type bass traps.
The typical wall panel is just not thick enough, nor is it large enough to absorb or dampen very much lower bass frequencies.
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However, you asked some very specific questions, and I will endeavor to answer them as best I can.
You mention three things that might define what a bass trap is:
1. Mechanism
2. Placement
3. Effectiveness
In my mind, I think of a bass trap as having all three aspects:
efficient use of pressure style absorption, placement to maximize that pressure absorption mechanism, and enough effectiveness in terms of bass frequency absorption AND bass frequency damping.
In order to explain these criteria, I will need to cover more thoroughly exactly what is a velocity absorber, and what is a pressure absorber.
That is going to take some time to explain, and I will need to take the time to coherently organize and write down these explanations. It will also involve delving into room modes, room boundary stiffness, and a host of other related issues. Trying to condense that down into a single post that is not heroic in length will require even more time and effort.
For the sake of folks who have been confused and even mislead into thinking a simple wall panel placed in the corner is a bass trap, I will try to do so some time in the next few days.
As a short preview to the other side of the coin explanation, yes it is possible to place a flat panel in the corner and get significant bass absorption, even to the point of being able to legitimately being called a "bass trap", but that is not what will happen when the typical "wall panel" consisting of 2 by 4 feet of a few inches of fiberglass is placed in a corner. To think that such a panel is equivalent to an ASC style pressure-principle bass trap is sadly mistaken.
Jon Risch
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