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I think I need more bass traps, where to place them??

Hi guys, I already have bass traps in all four corners of my room but I still have some pretty bad room modes resulting in big peaks at 60/120hz and dips at 80/160hz.

I spent hours and days messing around with speaker placement and my current setup is the best I can do in terms of matching my target room response curve aside from these modes.

So my question is...I assume I need more bass traps?  If so, what is next logical position for them?  Sidewalls?  Front wall between the speakers or directly behind speakers?  Back wall?  If the answer is yes to all positions, then where should I start?  Due to financial restrictions I would like to treat one area at a time.

Thank you!
128x128tboooe
erik_squires
15,737 posts
 
Contact GIK acoustics for help, and you may need to place your speakers like they were 2 subs.  What I mean is, you may need to place 1 speaker, and then look for the best location for the second. Use a mic to find the locations that have the worst nulls and try to put the second speaker there. :)

Best,


Erik
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,451 posts
 
tboooe, the reason eq doesn't help with the dips is because they are "nulls", the rooms dimensions creating frequency cancellations that no amount of eq can correct for---an infinitely deep hole at null frequencies. The only way to deal with nulls is to move the speakers around, the find a location where the nulls are shallowest.
tboooe's avatar
tboooe OP
1,009 posts
 
Thank you guys for the reply.  

This weekend I did some experiments with some extra GIK panels I had.. I put a 244 panel on the ground next to the speaker, a 244 on a Softfit bass trap at the first reflection point, and the Softfit was laid horizontally on the ground against the side wall at the midpoint. The interesting thing is I got better results with just the two 244 panels (removing the SoftFit on the ground) except for a deep null at 160hz which the Softfit on the ground seemed to do a much better job improving it by over 11db! I am wondering if using Monster Traps on the side would be better instead of my 244s and the Softfit on the ground.  I guess only one way to find out and buy some!
erik_squires
15,737 posts
 
Remember the soffits can be hung up where the walls meet the ceilings as well. :)

Reflection points don't work all that much for < 100 Hz where the worst issues will occur.

Also, with enough bass traps, EQ can become effective with nulls. :)
tboooe's avatar
tboooe OP
1,009 posts
 
Thank you @erik_squires What I am realizing (at least in my room), is the floor to wall interaction has a bigger impact in terms of bass than the vertical room corners as is traditionally mentioned. I am thinking about getting the 12" x 48" Monster Bass Trap and laying that horizontally on the floor. Then placing my 244 panel on it so it is at the appropriate height to deal with the reflections.

Based on what I am hearing, I will definitely need to think about adding some traps at the ceiling/wall corners too. One small issue for me is that I have crown molding so I need to find a way around that.
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