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In Reply to: RE: Bass trapping behind walls? posted by Bayside Bomber on June 08, 2008 at 15:00:09
Expose them. If there are a lot of them and they're running both lengthwise and crosswise, you've got the equivalent of a number of DIY Argent Room Lenses in the ceiling to provide diffusion. You won't get the Helmholtz resonator effect of the Room Lens since the pipes aren't open but you do get diffusion from the combination of the wider angle scattering of reflections from the curved surfaces of the pipes and from the results of diffraction for sound passing through the gaps between the pipes, and that diffraction works for sound passing in both directions through the gaps.
Of course a lot will depend on the spacing and location of the pipes but if there are pipes in the area where the ceiling first reflection point lies, then exposing the pipes in that area may be beneficial and exposing them elsewhere may also help for later reflections.
What this suggestion amounts to is simply saying that there MAY be a useful benefit from exposing the pipes. There's no way to know without trying since you've got no control over how close they're placed to the surface above them, their diameter, their spacing, and where they run. You simply have to accept all of those factors as givens and try listening with and without a normal ceiling surface to see whether having the pipes exposed does provide a benefit.
If you're thinking of doing something with the ceiling and you're going to expose the pipes at some stage, simply try listening after you expose them. Give it a few days to see what you think. If you like it, then think about whether you want to make things more attractive, perhaps by tacking speaker grill cloth or some other acoustically transparent fabric up as a ceiling surface. If you don't like it, then do what you previously intended to do with the ceiling. It's a 'suck it and see' suggestion that costs nothing to try if you're going to expose the ceiling cavity anyway. My suspicion is that it will do something but the pipes won't be laid out symmetrically and the asymmetry will probably do as much or more harm as any diffusion benefit you reap but you could be lucky.
No cost suggestions are always worth trying when it's feasible. Usually what you get is equivalent in value to what you paid or a bit less, but sometimes you do turn a profit.
David Aiken
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