Cheap Bass traps

I can't take credit for this idea. Visited an audiophile recently to listen to his GR Research LS9's line arrays. (Awesome line array by the way) In the corners, he had rolls of these covered in burlap matching his room decor. While not as attractive as the high dollar real ones, he told me an acoustic engineer friend of his had recommend these as a cheap alternative.

Being the frugal one, (learned that from spending time on this forum ) went to Home Depot and bought 9 of these. (3 for each corner-4th corner is not doable because of entrance door) Helped dissipate strong room mode I was experiencing at 63Hz. In addition, seemed to clean up and tighten the bass. As a result, improved overall sound across the board on the cheap.

Nice thing about this, no need to remove plastic wrapping, according to acoustic engineer. Also, said it must be the unfaced kind. You can purchase, stack in your corners, try it out in your setting for a week or two and if you don't hear a difference, take back to Home Depot and get your money back.

Edit:
Here is the current pricing structure per roll:
$11.87
Owens Corning EcoTouch R-30 Unfaced 9-1/2 in. x 15 in. x 25 ft. Continuous Roll Insulation

very cool idea...
and the take it back part even better....

Glad to hear you like the GR arrays......I'm partial to GR myself owning the V-1s.....

When I built my corner traps they were the hardest to work with. Cutting sono tubes, piecing
together, fabric staples glue.....the 2'x4' panels were much easier. But I wouldnt have it any other way. These rolls look easy and thick.
Just one question......is the outer wrapper plastic?
There is some debate going on if the plastic (on a round surface) is acting like a
poly diffusor, or a actual bass trap or both.


The real cool thing would be if it acted as both a diff and bass trap.

If its helping at 63hz then it must be absorbing.....if there was a quilt thrown over between
measurements you might tell if its diffusing as well and what freq.

Very cool Don.

Glad to hear you like the GR arrays......I'm partial to GR myself owning the V-1s.....

When I built my corner traps they were the hardest to work with. Cutting sono tubes, piecing
together, fabric staples glue.....the 2'x4' panels were much easier. But I wouldnt have it any other way. These rolls look easy and thick.
Just one question......is the outer wrapper plastic?
There is some debate going on if the plastic (on a round surface) is acting like a
poly diffusor, or a actual bass trap or both.


The real cool thing would be if it acted as both a diff and bass trap.

If its helping at 63hz then it must be absorbing.....if there was a quilt thrown over between
measurements you might tell if its diffusing as well and what freq.

Very cool Don.

Perry,

The LS9's were very impressive line arrays, to say the least. Actually, one of the best line arrays I have ever heard. Competes with the Scaena, but with more bottom end. No need for sub with the 9's, unlike the Scaena's. Massive soundstage. Only drawback I could see, is they need a very large listening space and plenty of room to breathe. The audio room was probably at least 25' by 35'.

Regarding the insulation/bass traps, yes, the outer wrapping is a thin plastic. The gentleman that owned the LS9's, told me his friend who is the acoustic engineer, said no need to remove the plastic. Since I am old, slow and lazy, I have not covered mine yet with anything, but plan too. I may just throw a couple of matching blankets over mine. The burlap looked very nice cut and glued on for sure. However, getting back to the above.....old, slow and lazy part.....