Room treatments

@erik_squires re your show experience with ASC I wonder if this is a case of correlation rather than causation. As I understand it Art makes him a stuff available to those who want to use it at shows, and what I guess happens is that folks with "problems" look to ASC to solve them whereas in fact the real cause of the problems are in the choice of equipment e.g. speakers too big for room, poor orientation etc (e.g. Setting up to give the maximum sweet spot for demo rather than the best sound, amazing how few rooms are set up on long wall orientation for example)

as @randy-11 observes when a room is designed around ASC gear, as any acoustic treatment, it can work very well but it's no panacea

Tube traps are absorptive at low frequencies and mid (500-1k) and can be absorptive or reflective at high depending on how they are oriented. Full specs are here on the latest model http://www.acousticsciences.com/products/isothermal-tubetrap

in my experience they work really well in corners to deal with bass modes, and you can then tune HF to taste by orienting them. I'd steer clear of using them at first reflection points for fear of the effects you observed

sounds to me that the exhibitors in question had speakers way too big for the room and were trying to compensate

youre welcome to come visit me system any time to see how ASC products (traps, planks, soffit and wall damp) can work in my smallish room