[bmckenney]

I'm looking at Realtraps and GIK and maybe Readyacoustics for the floor/wall corners and I think I could go with any of their bass traps for this application.  Either a big panel secured on a wall, or maybe if I splurge something like the elite pillars from GIK.  However I have been advised by both RealTraps and GIK to put bass traps up on the ceiling/wall boundaries.  Realtraps suggests putting a big panel and straddling across the corner and attaching to the ceiling and wall.  This would not look good in my living room.  My room has a nice vaulted ceiling with open 12 inch tall beams and the ceiling is really a feature of the room.  And I could do the same with GIK panels too.  Also GIK has the tri corners which are probably better than panels, but they are still very large (2 feet across I believe) and they would be too much. 

I would like small, unobtrusive but effective bass traps for the ceiling.  Like a small GIK tri corner.  Or some quarter round traps (I think ASC makes some of these, but I think ASC is expensive).

I would like to buy all my traps from one company so I can get matching fabric, and finish if applicable, and general looks.  And I do not want to spend stoopid money.

Any suggestions?

Bryan

[bpape]

Unfortutunately, small, unobtrusive, and effective in the bass just don't go togther.  Bass just takes size, mass, and thickness.

Bryan

[bmckenney]

I'm assuming this could be looked at as a volume thing and it would be possible to create the same volume with 1/4 round traps and run them along a ceiling wall boundry on the front wall that would equal the same volume as two panels.  And I believe effective bass trapping is also about, or maybe even really about (I'm a newbie) surface area.  I haven't done the math, but I would think that the same area could be achieved with quarter rounds.  Or something triangular like your tri corners, but smaller.

I was hoping something like smaller tri's could be put on on the ceiling/wall, and if you put enough of them up there, they would be effective.

Bryan

[bpape]

Surface area is definitely a plus.  That said, thickness and depth give control deeper in to the bass.  Surface area doesn't make up for that.

Bryan

[bmckenney]

OK.  But what about just putting more of them up than you'd normally do if you went with the full sized traps?  Would that be effective? 

Bryan

[bpape]

Again, surface area is great but not a substitute for thickness.  You can overkill from 80Hz up all you want but if you ignore the deep bass, it's still not under control

Bryan

[oneinthepipe]

Bryan McK:

A listening room doesn't look right, IMO, without acoustic treatments.  Even a treated room looks rather bear to me if there aren't some treatments hanging from the ceiling.

[bmckenney]

Again, surface area is great but not a substitute for thickness.  You can overkill from 80Hz up all you want but if you ignore the deep bass, it's still not under control

Bryan

So if you address below 80 hz with panels or pillars near the floor, and put something smaller up top, isn't that better than just panels near the floor?

Bryan

[bmckenney]

Bryan McK:

A listening room doesn't look right, IMO, without acoustic treatments.  Even a treated room looks rather bear to me if there aren't some treatments hanging from the ceiling.

I should have married you.  Believe me, my would not think that at all.  In fact, I would not either.  Big panels straddling my ceiling would look really ugly and inappropriate.

Bryan

[zybar]

Unfortutunately, small, unobtrusive, and effective in the bass just don't go togther.  Bass just takes size, mass, and thickness.

Bryan

Oh so right...I hate it when you can't cheat the laws of physics.

George

[bpape]

Again, surface area is great but not a substitute for thickness.  You can overkill from 80Hz up all you want but if you ignore the deep bass, it's still not under control

Bryan

So if you address below 80 hz with panels or pillars near the floor, and put something smaller up top, isn't that better than just panels near the floor?

Bryan

Probably, but not necessarily the right solution.  What if you have deep bass issues caused by cancellations off the rear wall?  What if you have modal issues based on the height of the room which requires something over your head?

In general, we want a balance.  We don't want to overdeaden the room in general or any part of the spectrum unevenly.

Bryan

[Ethan Winer]

I would like small, unobtrusive but effective bass traps for the ceiling.

As Bryan Pape said, those adjectives do not go together. Our Tri-Corner traps are the least intrusive type I'm aware of. They're not as small as those fabric "bikini corner" things you may have seen, but they work a lot better. When Kal Rubinson reviewed our Tri-Corner traps for Stereophile, he noted that only two of them made a very real improvement.

--Ethan

[vinylphilemag]

They're not as small as those fabric "bikini corner" things you may have seen, but they work a lot better.
--Ethan

A friend of mine gave me a pair of those "bikini corners", and I have to say that in my room they were essentially useless.  As they were in his; he sent them to me because he replaced them with some of Ethan's Mini Traps.  Me?  I'll be buying a bunch of Real Traps as soon as funds permit!

[KeithR]

the most unobtrusive thing for a corner trap---is to build it floor to ceiling from my research on the subject. 

[Glenn Kuras]

the most unobtrusive thing for a corner trap---is to build it floor to ceiling from my research on the subject.

That is one way to do it but make them 17x17 with 24" face. But your back to our Tri Trap which is that size.