Bass Traps

I actually spoke to the fine gentleman at GIK who was very helpful.  Unfortunately shipping to Canada was very expensive as he pointed out not to mention the ugly TARIFFS.  There's a very respectable company with a demo PSI AUDIO AVAA C214 they'll consider sending out to me to demo in my room if we can work out the logistics.  

@fire_water I’d want you to reach out to Vespers. Maybe he’d be free enough to do a consultation as he is in Canada.

Reach out to him here - https://vespers.ca/contact/?v=6848ae6f8e78

and here are some of his panel works in a comprehensive video - https://youtu.be/w-G9W4S7Hrg?si=hVIgr7ZjCZ9jU66-

I followed his steps roughly with iterations to match my room specifically and it has been a revelation

tcutter wrote "@kr4 can I place the PSI AUDIO AVAA C214 directly behind the couch of my sitting area or on your experience is it better to keep it upfront.  I can probably only do 1 unit now and a 2nd one later

Not likely. 

fire_water wrote: @kr4 can I place the PSI AUDIO AVAA C214 directly behind the couch of my sitting area or on your experience is it better to keep it upfront.  I can probably only do 1 unit now and a 2nd one later

Probably not.  They need to be placed where there is the highest pressure due to room modes and these are generally at boundary intersections.

@kr4 

I was inquiring as to the advantages of adding the AVAA to a distributed bass array (DBA). When I reviewed Bob Katz' Stereophile article back in 2016 (https://www.stereophile.com/content/psi-audio-avaa-c20-electronic-bass-trap), it appeared that the improvements were on the order of 2 dB or less, which seemed small in comparison to my DBA's impact. Your article (https://www.stereophile.com/content/psi-audio-avaa-c214-active-bass-trap) seems to emphasize decay times and indicate the device(s) might still be of benefit. 

I recognize you reviewed a later design, but I get the impression the performance is virtually the same and it was primarily a cosmetic move, along with a control or two.

I have no first-hand experience with DBA or with the C20.  However, according to PSi, the C214 is more efficient (and well as better looking) than the C20 and one would have predicted a more pronounced effect than shown by Katz.  Nonetheless, my FR measurements with the C14s were consistent with Katz' and did not seem to correlate with the audible effects which were immediately apparent to me.  That motivated me to examine decay times.