Cheap Bass traps or none at all...?

[Vinor]

Hi,
Do I really need Auralex or other expensive manufacturer of triangular bass trap or I can use the cheaper $20/pc traps?
Will cheap triangular-shaped bass traps can do the job of absorbing very low frequencies (I do electronic music with tons of low frequencies) or is it the same as not having bass traps at all?

I don't want to buy these cheap traps and have them do nothing lol.

Please tell me from your experience:) thx.


Thx!

[3ee]

I don't really know but I'm also curious. IMO, if you wanna cut some costs, will probably be better if you mix a bit of DIY stuff as well. You just have to take some time and study some stuff out...

1st of all, afaik, it's physically impossible to handle very low frequencies with bass traps like that. (A 40Hz wave for example has the length of about 8.5 meters so theoretically you got to have a progressively thicker material as you go down the freq range)


... and I'm not saying you got to have a 8.5 meter thick material to successfully treat bass freq down to 40 Hz, it's more complicated... and I'm not an acoustician to know how to better explain, sorry.

+ You need something different in combination with the triangular traps + I won't even mention that the room must be conceived for audio in the 1st place. (with unparalleled walls and a minimum size and a good room aspect/ratio.

...and to try to answer your question about the quality... don't know for sure, but I guess that anything helps when it comes to similar bass traps like that... (I guess that it has something to do with density also) as long as you know what your doing, everything should be for the better.

Have a look here to play with the calculator:
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-wavelength.htm

[Mike20]

From near enough everywhere i have read auralex won't do much for bass traps, apparently they are well marketed crap, i haven't used them but i made my own, here is an example of what i done

http://postimage.org/image/9z61qjhqr/

Started off by just putting up 3 wooden frames, then i filled them full of rocksil (i don't know what country your in but rocksil rs45 is what i went for in the UK, its cheaper than rock wool and does the same job)

Then i put camara cara fabric over them and they turned out as bass traps (apparently thats the best fabric for the job is camara cara) theres a place called GIK that sell it but i found it half as cheap on this place : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/MAKING-WAVES-AUDIO-LTD

If your in the US you want to look at owens cornering 703 i think,

Here is a picture of one of mine finished : http://postimage.org/image/b77vie45t/

Depending on how thick you make the traps determins what insulation you need to use in side them, basically what i mean is the bigger the trap the less dense insulation you need to use, so i used insulation at a 45 m3 density, but say if you had much wider or thicker traps you could get away with less dense stuff, maybe even that pink fluffy loft insulation,

As you can see on my pic i also have panels on my left and right reflection points, i bought these but you can also make them, doing them yourself is SO much more effective and also it tends to work out cheaper, maybe £20 for fabric and £20 for insulation, the wood as you can see i used 3 basic pieces, a wood place would probably give you them for free if you ask them nice enough you only need cut offs,

edit : also worth noting that triangle traps are also just a design feature, if you go for a square design it is much more effective because you can fill it with a lot more, and also get away with the pink fluffy loft insulation stuff

Hope this has all made sense, my room sounds awesome

Mike

[3ee]

A bit off topic: here's a short video that explains modal ringing:


Since you seem in the process of treating your room (like I am), might be useful info to know.