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RE: Low plaster ceiling treatment

Posted by David Aiken (A) on December 28, 2009 at 12:27:56

In Reply to: Low plaster ceiling treatment posted by SoundMike on December 28, 2009 at 10:50:27:

You don't give room dimensions which would help a lot.

If you have a cavity above the visible ceiling, the simplest way to avoid reverberation in it is to add absorption in the space in order to prevent sound reflecting within it. Alternatively you could also consider replacing the visible low plaster ceiling with something like stretched fabric which is more acoustically transparent. That would give you the benefit of the higher ceiling height while avoiding the visual problem of the plumbing. You could wrap the plumbing in a foam sleeve to prevent reflections from it and add treatment for first ceiling reflection points on the actual ceiling if you wished, and both of those treatments would be concealed by the fabric ceiling.

If you've got a side reflection point that you want to treat on a door, you can always fix an absorbing panel to the door, and mount absorption on the opposite wall in any way you like.

If you've got a low ceiling covered with diffusion, and the back wall which is also covered with diffusion is fairly close to you, the reason for the "boxy sound", or at least part of the reason, may be audible problems which occur because you're too close to the diffusion. Diffusion needs space in which to develop and you get unwelcome audible effects if you're too close to it. The standard recommendation commonly seen suggests that 10' is a good minimum distance to have between the listener and the diffusion. You don't have that with the ceiling if it is low and it's also unlikely that you have it with the back wall if you have a small room. Diffusion works best in large spaces in which it has room to develop. In small spaces I think you're much better off with absorption if you need to treat reflection points.



David Aiken

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