Placing Acoustic Panels On Walls With Gaps

Bass traps are in my future but starting with panels for now to address echo and first reflections.

Placing acoustic panels on walls with gaps.

My idea for mounting rigid acoustic panels with a variable air gap is pretty low tech. As a rule these are mounted at ear and or speaker height and positioned along the wall to capture the early reflections from the loudspeakers. If this is centered on an 8ft wall for instance you now have the center 4ft of the wall covered. This particular design is perhaps unique to the panels i was using realtraps microtraps but the general principles should apply to any rigid acoustic panel.

In summary i hope today s discussion helps solve the problem you are having. Mounting the acoustic panels away from the wall allows for airflow on both sides of the panel and increases the amount of absorption since we are allowing airflow on both sides to occur. Poor acoustic panel layout. It acts as a spacing block that both holds the panel away from the wall and creates a variable air gap.

It s a fat wooden shim. Diffusers would also be mounted on the rear wall. The minimum perimeter occurs if all 4 panels are placed so that their long sides are touching with only 48 of perimeter. Working out where to place acoustic panels in your home theater listening rooms or professional recording studio is always an issue.

Acoustically the solid back against the wall is about the same as the panel with no back against the wall. To avoid this problem mount your acoustic panels flat on the walls and be sure to spread them evenly throughout the entire room. In my research i had found that adding an air gap or standing the panels off the wall some will improve absorption and i believe it helps in the bass frequencies most. That is to say.

The variable air gap mounting solution. For control of speakers you ll likely want to put panels centered on the wall but if they re rectangular they should be mounted vertically. Where the back can be undesirable is if you are trying to absorb bass and you want an air gap behind the panel. By spreading them out with 4 gaps in between the panels the perimeter of the entire set of panels increases to 72 and the efficiency of the layout increases by 50.

Either way the sound enters the front of the panel is reflected by the back and or wall and exits through the front again. Assuming the rear wall is treated diffusers on the front wall are not essential but they make the room sound more spacious and enveloping making it an inviting space for spontaneous musical activities like practicing or recording. These are easily controlled by strategically placing broadway acoustic panels along the side walls to absorb these troublesome reflections. Deciding on which acoustical panel to purchase is enough of an issue to begin with now you have to find the correct place.

Possible alternative layout of acoustic panels.