1st reflection sound absorber position

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering where I should place my absorber panels for my SL3. I think the dispersion of electrostats is much narrower than normal box speakers, so would the mirror method work alright, or should be moving the panels closer to me?

Thanks,
Varun

Varun,

A little imformation is needed.How big is your room?How far off the back wall is your seating position? How far off the front wall are the stator panels of your SL 3'S? Do you have carpet or hardwood floor? What kind of panels ? -GIK , homemade and size of panels.

You are correct that stats don't interact as much with the walls. I have absorbtion panels at both the 1st and 2nd reflection points as well as on the wall 4 1/2 feet behind the listening position. I am considering GIK D1 diffusion panels behind the stats. Many members here swear by absobtion on the wall behind the stators.In my own case, I wouldn't want absorbtion both on the front and back wall as well, hence the idea of the D1 diffusser panels behind stats.http://www.gikacoustics.com/gik_d1_diffusor.html I have also read you need space between your seated position and diffussion which is why I didn't use it on the wall behind the seating position only being 4 1/2 feet away.

Hi Moon,
Thanks for the reply. I'm attaching my floorplan.

The dot in the middle is my seating position. The lines are the speakers. Flooring is carpet, with the exception of the kitchen, which is tile. I have placed mats all along the kitchen floor though.

I have GIK Tri-traps, floor to ceiling at the front corners. GIK 242 bass traps(denoted X) behind the speakers. GIK 244 monster bass trap(M) at the center of the front wall. The RPG Abffusors(Absorber-diffusor) are on the side walls at first reflection and are denoted R. The S is a sofa on the back wall. The B is a wooden bookshelf full of books/cds which serves as a diffusor.

The speakers are 6 feet apart, are exactly 48 inches from the back wall, and are 36.25 inches from the side walls. I sit ~ 9 feet 10 inches away from the speakers and about 9 feet 2 inches from the back wall. I'm probably about 14 feet from the front wall.

Here is my system:
http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10863

Edit: I have bass absorbers behind the speakers, but should I be worried about absorbing higher frequencies? I don't think the giks are good for anything > 1kHz

If your listening seat (sofa) is right against the wall, you definately need absorbtion panels right there.

The listening seat is the chair(dot) in the middle of the room. The sofa's just a piece of furniture.

Varun said:

The listening seat is the chair(dot) in the middle of the room. The sofa's just a piece of furniture.

Click to expand...

Sorry , didn't notice the seating position.Have a look at thiese threads for suggestionshttp://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10212

http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6141

http://www.martinloganowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6931

Varun said:

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering where I should place my absorber panels for my SL3. I think the dispersion of electrostats is much narrower than normal box speakers, so would the mirror method work alright, or should be moving the panels closer to me?

Thanks,
Varun

Click to expand...

Actually I believe it's pretty simple for basically it comes down to....'angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection'

Varun, looking at your setup, I'd say you are doing really well so far.

The 242's behind the speakers are a reasonable choice. They will absorb the critical mid-bass to midrange rear have, and attenuate the reflected highs.

The abfusors on the side walls are less than ideal, as what I'd recommend for those positions would be absorption to minimize side-to-side slap-echo and room-induced bass modes.

But they are better than bare walls, that's for sure.

So good job.

Thanks for the advice everyone.
@Jonathan: The salesman who sold me these really took advantage of my lack of knowledge. Those abfussors cost as much as the majority of the other traps combined. What would be a good absorber to mount at the first reflection point? I'm guessing I'd want something that absorbs high frequency more than the low freq sounds.

Also another question: Do the low frequency traps like the monster bass and 244's do a good job at absorbing high freq. sounds?

Thanks!

I should have mentioned, the GIK's are 244's and monster bass traps. Don't know why I said 242. Anyway, I just swapped the Abffusors with the 244's, and the sound stage has really opened up. I guess I'm losing a bit of bass trapping by doing this, but having diffusion behind the speakers helps quite a bit with all the other frequencies. Also SL3's a pretty bass-light. I don't know why I didn't try this before.

Varun said:

I should have mentioned, the GIK's are 244's and monster bass traps. Don't know why I said 242. Anyway, I just swapped the Abffusors with the 244's, and the sound stage has really opened up. I guess I'm losing a bit of bass trapping by doing this, but having diffusion behind the speakers helps quite a bit with all the other frequencies. Also SL3's a pretty bass-light. I don't know why I didn't try this before.

Click to expand...

I run abfusors behind my rear SL3's for the wide imaging it offers for the rears. In the rear, a wide, difuse and enveloping soundfield is a good thing.
But for Fronts, I tend to prefer pure absorption to enable direct sounds to dominate the soundfield.

Is the 244 constructed with 'limp mass absorbers' (basically, heavy plastic sheet between two 2" pieces of fiberglass)?

If so, you probably had some reflections from that with them behind the speakers.

This is why many of us recommend the RealTraps MiniTrap HF (HF = high frequency absorption model) for the behind-the-speaker application.

Likewise, they make good first-reflection absorbers.