Beakman-Tar-jay' Diffusers An Unexpected Success!

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Beakman

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One test mule lamp shade received two sloppy coats of Minwax water-based polycrylic via spray can. Once the second coat was dry I put it into service with an untreated lampshade at the opposite speaker.
I used a new CD I hadn't heard yet for the audition, Spanish Harlem Orchestra's "United We Stand". I chose Latin jazz because it is heavy with percussion.

I listened to what I thought would be key areas of the various tracks, high frequency percussive notes such as cymbals and high-hats, rim taps on drums, cowbell, and the like which is found in this style music. I repeated sections of the tracks at three different volume levels, which I shall call "social" :cheers:, "private listening" :meditate:, and "show off" :stop:.

The result was both enlightening and welcome. The soundstage was changed very little, the various instuments affected only very slightly speaker-centric. All mid-highs, mids, and lows remained the same with or without the B-T diffusers.
The more notable difference, was with the aformentioned instruments. There is a definite improvement in the definition and resolution of the percussive elements. Strike and fade of the cymbals / high-hats were crystal clear and where there were many of these simultaniously played they were all very individually distinct, as to without the diffusers they were almost as just one wall of sound. Rim taps, cowbells, etc. also had the improved resolution with the diffusers, again noted by their clarity with strike and fade and individual definition.

Definitely a keeper here, and I'll be treating another two shades using the same polycrylic but brushed on instead of sprayed. The distance behind the speaker seems to be right for the moment, but I shall see where different positions affect things.
 

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Just curious, have you listened with the diffusor lamps alone (i.e. with your absorption panels removed)? I'm also still experimenting with speaker-wall distance, and various absorption/diffusion combinations with my "acoustic bookshelves."
 
Just curious, have you listened with the diffusor lamps alone (i.e. with your absorption panels removed)? I'm also still experimenting with speaker-wall distance, and various absorption/diffusion combinations with my "acoustic bookshelves."

The lamps are pretty much by themselves as it is. My absorption panels, as seen in the photo, are now up against and parallel to the right hand wall (the other seven footer would be to the far right if the picture were of the whole room), one dead center against the front wall under the TV. Not in the photo (to the left) is a 4x2 panel (long edge) on the floor, perpendicular and up against the front wall and one the same size catty-corner in the corner resting on sub # 2. There are no longer any absorption panels one the front wall behind the speakers, just shelves and such.
I'll try to pm you some photos to illustrate (too embarrassing for public display).
 
No attached pics on pm's, so here's what I mean:
 

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Wow, you really changed around your room! What prompted you to relocate the absorption panels?

I used to have silk trees directly behind my speakers (much like your lamps), and liked their effect, but they didn't fit the decor of the room, hence my upgrade to "acoustic bookshelves".
 
Wow, you really changed around your room! What prompted you to relocate the absorption panels?[/qoute]
First and foremost- bass control! One day I decided to bring the subwoofer back into the picture. Sure enough, I still had the problem of uneven frequency response in the room. I spent a couple of days moving things around and finally said to hell with trying to make things look symmetrical and magazine friendly and went outside the box. With what I had to work with, this is so far the best configuration. It works so well, using some tricks with the Behringer though, that I have another sub in the corner as well. The big(er) sub is x-overed at 40Hz, the lesser sub at 80, and the speakers are full spectrum.
I used to have silk trees directly behind my speakers (much like your lamps), and liked their effect, but they didn't fit the decor of the room, hence my upgrade to "acoustic bookshelves".
i was thinking about using something similar but thought it would be best to try something that would give a more predictable direction to the reflections without being a flat surface. They're really surprising still. I just checked out a familiar album, Sparklehorse's "Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain", which is a distort-o-static-reverb-fuzz-fest that can be a real nightmare in a bad room. The Tar-jay's cleaned that up pretty good too. Too bad they're so damn fugly.
 

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