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Original Message

RE: Another First Reflection Trap (FRT) Adventure : Quasi-Ambiophonics

Posted by MG-bert on October 6, 2013 at 08:32:24:
@JBen (and OldGuy42):
"Old Guy 42 and I are jointly evaluating a few related tweaks that should lend themselves for some cheap and fun approaches. To be sure, the use of those circular pipe edges brings some advantages, which is part of what Old Guy 42 and I have been exploring. However, those who try them may wish to fine tune their respective results. For this, they may need to add hard edges to avoid top-end clarity and dynamic impact loses.
For example, my MMGs have had Armaflex butyl (2" tape) along the front of the frame and rounding it around the frame edges for years. Yet, I have not found a way to leave the outer edges exposed; always need to add a hard edge like the factory trim.
Yet, in your setup, it appears that the soft butyl pipe insulation edge doesn't do this? If so, it could be a function of your whole setup as a system, which would be very interesting!"
Short answer: yeah, it's a total system thing going on here.
Longer answer: I'm only using the pipe insulation in 2 places - where the FRT leans up against the speaker, and on the rear edge of the FRT closest to the front wall. In both cases, these do not have any direct effects on the primary sound. In fact, the FRT is positioned such that any sounds which might be affected by the pipe insulation between it and the MMG are delayed from reaching the listening position (LP) for a LONG time, acoustically speaking; ditto the rear FRT edge insulation. In fact, the only reason to use pipe insulation between the MMG and FRT is to dampen vibrations and keep the panel from buzzing along to those wonderful bass notes. ;-)
Just in case I wasn't clear about the point of this mod, it is to get the most out of Maggies (and possibly other planars) in a small, square room - the kind of room that wise Planar enthusiasts would insist they would not work in, for all kinds of technically sound reasons. Well, I'm an engineer, and I make a living tricking Mother Nature into doing things (while following Her rules) that give results which would not normally be possible. People cannot walk on air, but build a bridge and effectively you're doing that as you cross a river valley, for instance. Acoustical engineering is not my specialty, but I realized that the laws of reflection and incidence apply for higher frequency sounds - the ones most critical for localizing phenomena in space. Hence the FRT concept.
My trickery in this case is 2-fold: 1) use panels angled such the early reflections of mid-to-high frequencies from front and side walls are delayed to be greater than 10 milliseconds from the initial signal, and 2) to use the forward part of the FRT panel closest to the LP to address what Floyd Toole himself called "An Important One Toothed Comb - A Fundamental Flaw in Stereo". When I came up with that idea, tested it, AND FOUND IT WORKED, I was excited. Still am.
BTW, I'm with you that the forward edge of the FRT mist not have any Armaflex on it, partly for the reasons you cite.
BTW, in the credit-where-credit-is-due department, thank you JBen for introducing me via an earlier post to Armaflex. It really is versatile stuff.