I just installed my pair of Acoustic Solutions tube traps in my apartment today. Man what a difference. First of all, I'm a firm believer in acoustics. You can have the best stereo equipment in the world but if your room sucks your music will too. Honestly I would prefer a decidedly mid-fi system in an acoustically "perfect" room than a no-holds-barred extravaganza in a mediocre room.
They really are pretty cool and don't look half bad either (I live alone so I have no woman to please on a regular basis.) One side is absorptive, the other reflective, and they are ported on the top surface of the cylinder. I guess you can cut the fabric away from the port openings and place varying length cardboard tubes down in there to really tune the frequencies they effect (I'm not going that far as I do hope to one day woo some girl into hanging around more often.) They're also kind of squishy altogether so you can walk around the room with them supported between your outstreched palms and once they start slightly vibrating you know you've found your node.
I'm still experimenting with placement. Right now I have them about 8 inches to the outside and a foot forward of each speaker with the reflective side aimed directly at the listening position. I'm not really using them as bass management in this position. Instead I'm attempting to bring my image into more realistic proportion (ie, a singer's mouth shouldn't be 5 feet wide.)
So far I've noticed that the bass has improved in extension and clarity eventhough I didn't really try for that. This allowed to me pull the speakers farther from the back wall then I had them which greatly improved the depth of the soundstage as well as the dynamics to a certain extent. I have acheived focusing the image although there is still more work to be done here. I am probably going to bring the speakers a little closer to each other and then reposition the traps. Basically they're just a really good tool to have.
This is getting kind of long, so in short I am very happy with these traps and highly recommend any kind of acoustical treatment to anyone even if it's just putting a tall plant in the corners behind your speakers.
Of course, the headphone only folks can ignore this post alltogether and sleep well knowing you don't have to drop hundreds of dollars on some damn fabric covered cylinders.
They really are pretty cool and don't look half bad either (I live alone so I have no woman to please on a regular basis.) One side is absorptive, the other reflective, and they are ported on the top surface of the cylinder. I guess you can cut the fabric away from the port openings and place varying length cardboard tubes down in there to really tune the frequencies they effect (I'm not going that far as I do hope to one day woo some girl into hanging around more often.) They're also kind of squishy altogether so you can walk around the room with them supported between your outstreched palms and once they start slightly vibrating you know you've found your node.
I'm still experimenting with placement. Right now I have them about 8 inches to the outside and a foot forward of each speaker with the reflective side aimed directly at the listening position. I'm not really using them as bass management in this position. Instead I'm attempting to bring my image into more realistic proportion (ie, a singer's mouth shouldn't be 5 feet wide.)
So far I've noticed that the bass has improved in extension and clarity eventhough I didn't really try for that. This allowed to me pull the speakers farther from the back wall then I had them which greatly improved the depth of the soundstage as well as the dynamics to a certain extent. I have acheived focusing the image although there is still more work to be done here. I am probably going to bring the speakers a little closer to each other and then reposition the traps. Basically they're just a really good tool to have.
This is getting kind of long, so in short I am very happy with these traps and highly recommend any kind of acoustical treatment to anyone even if it's just putting a tall plant in the corners behind your speakers.
Of course, the headphone only folks can ignore this post alltogether and sleep well knowing you don't have to drop hundreds of dollars on some damn fabric covered cylinders.
