Do TubeTraps require symmetry?


In an ideal world we'd all have dedicated listening rooms. Alas, I'd like to add some TubeTraps/Bass absorbers to my listening room, but due to room configuration, can only place them on one side of the room (front and back). Will this still work or will it effect the bass from only one speaker. I'm thinking that it will be OK because thhey eliminate standing waves/room resonances rather than directly absorbing incident low frequencies. Any thoughts?
metaphysics
You rae well advised to send a sketch of your room to the Manufacturer who will evaluate it.
Yes... To best answer your questions here are my experiences with tubetraps with dynamic speakers(no stats or horns as of yet). I have and use 10 tube traps total (6)-16" & (4)-9"... I also use 16 of their wall panels in my lopsided florida great room/dedicated listening room floorplan. It's lopsided as the right wall runs front to back full length of the room and peaks at 13ft' high and the left wall of the room is a half wall that separates the kitchen and it is only 8ft. high and 8 ft. long. It begins apprx. 7ft. from the rear of the house(backwall). Hence there is no corner behind the left speaker as this is a walkway into the kitchen. Bottom line is this room sounds horrible without treatments. The tubetraps themselves have a metal rivet on one side which indicates that it is the reflective side of the trap(180 degrees total). The rear 180 degrees(other half) of the trap has a stitching seam which is approximately opposite the rivet. This stitching side absorbs mid and high freq. energy and the rivet side reflects mid and high freq. energy. Tube traps are interesting looking and become quite the a conversation piece stacked up to the ceiling but really are amazing. I have used them for the past 3 years. Without a doubt they will TRUELY make or break your system. Three years ago some regular Joe(me) bought them and positioned them where ASC had indicated (room schematic was drawn to scale & provided to them). They sent it back to me and most of the tubes they listed as necessary were illustrated on the right side(full wall) of my room. Well I ordered them and positioned them in the illustrated locations and my system sounded like sh_t. Balance was horrible and very hollow sounding. I asked myself... Did I just waste a whole heck of a lot of money? Nope... ASC is a great company! However, they failed to mention the importance and profound effects of being a perfectionist when it comes to placement of their amazing devices. Perfect symmetry and proper rotation of reflection side yields big gains in perceived soundspace air distribution and tonal balance even in rooms like mine that are messed up real bad from the start. Keep in mind that the only experience I have with the traps is in my lopsided room which is 25ft deep. 16'8" wide and 13ft. high peaked ceiling at listening position. To start with they suggest speaker set up as the standard equilateral triangle arrangement with the speakers and the listening position all the same. I myself find that speaker distance from the side walls should be absolutely identical. Tube traps will and I repeat WILL give you the ability to play drastic games with the soundstage, imaging and frequency balance charactistics of your existing system. The natural tendency of my room is to pull the center of the soundstage slightly off center toward the left despite changes in speaker placement. My current placement of the 10 traps and 16 wall panels indeed correct this by what I feel is 75%. I feel if I used more traps I could improve my centering even further. Wall flexure, windows & doors, pictures, furniture, listening chair, etc. all negatively contribute and add their own interference when the music plays. One thing that ASC told me that I now truely believe is not some sales pitch to sell more tubes is that as you experiment with many positions and begin to correct them you will now uncover and hear other problems and interferences that you did not know were there because the were masked by others which were more prominent. Concerning the exact placement of the traps and the rotation of the reflective side: In my opinion, the tubetrap placement positions and problems areas of a room are almost limitless. Contrary to what I was told by ASC, they do need to be placed with the same painstaking and exacting precision as your loudspeakers. Triple check all the measurements with tape measures, T-squares, torpedo lasers or whatever is necessary. Ensure that the correct plumbness is achieved along the sides and not the tops. They do have slight variations in their roundness from top to bottom. The rotation of the traps is so critical. Rotate them for best approximate balance and then fine tune with miniscule rotations and be sure to be exact for each side. Keep checking plumbness each time you rotate. Trust me.. You will be at it a long time but do not give up. Once you get the placement correct on 2 of them then it seem as though you need to back to some others to micro adjust even further. When everything clicks and you get that first look into the vast soundspace you will probably freak out. I sure did. They can be used to wipe clear the soundstage of interference(haze and cloudiness) and add a dramatic sense of power and projection from the singers and music. Some will argue that 2 channel imaging and staging effects are not really that important but they are to me. For me it adds to the musical enjoyment whether it's an artifact or not. Hopefully, a system is doing a reasonable job of conveying music in the first place. Also, some may say that 2 channel reproduction should not have images located outside of the speakers. Don't believe it! In my lopsided room the Tubetraps allow images outside both speakers front and back of the stage with nearly the same power and density but a little less projection than those that occur in between speakers. Be ready to experiment. At first I was told where to put the tubes in my room and I did not like what I heard. Only after hearing the changes for themselves can one really appreciate these few words... Good Luck...
Tony has give lots of good information. You might want to check out the article "Optimizing ASC Tube Traps" at http://www.tubetrap.com/articles/iar89.htm - Dan