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Cathedral Sound Room Dampening Panels
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Why is it important to acoustically treat the room?
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Those of our readers who have known us for more than a few of our 17 years in the audio business may recall our extensive earlier work in room acoustics beginning with Michael Green's RoomTune concepts, continuing on to the ASC, Echobusters, and RoomLens, products, and then more recently the Shakti Hallographs. All good and effective, but no new acoustic tools for the last few years. In a sense this status quo makes it easier for those of us who are working on your room diagrams, applying the same tools, and making our best suggestions from the well-known universe of options. But our room-tuning universe is shaken...read on for more.
Why is it important to acoustically treat the room?
Everyone has been in good sounding rooms: rooms where it is comfortable to converse, or a music room or concert hall or theater where performances just sound better, more balanced, you can understand the lyrics, etc. And conversely we have all been in the restaurant where you can't hear someone speaking across the table, or the concert hall where you can't enjoy the performance because of the sonic congestion, or the music room where you are overwhelmed by the boomy bass, or disappointed by the lack of bass.
Fundamentally all rooms will acoustically "load" the same way. By this I mean that the large flat surfaces - the walls and ceiling - gather energy, and where they meet, especially at the corners near the ceiling, where there are no furnishings to disrupt the energy flows, acoustic energy will build and basically horn load back out into the room. This effect will be greater or lesser in rooms depending on the overall size and the mathematical relationships between the dimensions of length and width and ceiling height, and also the construction methods, but in our experience all rooms will benefit from acoustic treatment. The theory (well proven in practice) is that if you can "equalize" acoustic pressure in the corners, you have made a large step towards smoothing out room response. And in a better equalized room, like that better sounding concert hall, everything sounds better.
The first product to address this upper corner effect was the venerable "CornerTune," a triangular pillow from RoomTune with a reflective side and an absorbing side. At the time, maybe a dozen years ago, it was called (by many in the press, not to mention the dealers who understood the concept) the single most important thing, or the single highest value improvement, most audiophiles could do for their systems. This is an important point. In the context of high end audio and high performance video it is often the case that relatively modest expenditures on room acoustics can have a hugely disproportionate impact on the sound of the system. And an untreated room can seriously compromise even the best components.
We have continued to recommend this CornerTune type of product, or its variants, as a first step in most of our room acoustic plans. But just when we found ourselves thinking that this is as far as it ever would go, along comes a new product called Cathedral Sound Room Dampening Panels (for this article we will shorten to "Panels") that does a much better job by incorporating some New Old Technology.
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Who and what is it?
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Some smart engineers at an Oregon-based research and development firm, called Nucore Technologies Inc., specializing in product development for the audio industry, came up with the idea of applying the "Venturi effect" (long identified principles of air or fluid flow and the relationship to pressure changes, which is used in everything from carberators to airplane wings to swimming pool filters) to the challenge of room acoustics. What they found was not only that it worked, but that by "tuning" the acoustic device (the "Panel"), they could focus the effect on frequencies below 200hZ, ie. bass response.
Why is this a good thing?
Over our years in dealing with room acoustics we have found that many acoustic treatment devices can effect midrange and high frequencies, but very few are effective on bass response. And all of these that do work on deep bass are BIG because these frequencies have big waves. Both Echobusters and ASC make floor-standing bass traps that work on deep bass, but these are all at least 5ft (1.5m) tall, and expensive to purchase (and ship).
But until now this has been the only solution we have had for "standing waves," which can cause boomy bass in some areas in the listening room, and anemic bass response in other locations in the same room. And when you can control bass standing waves, not only is the low frequency "foundation" better controlled, the midrange and higher frequencies can also "breathe" more easily. Not only is bass more tuneful with greater impact, the midrange (and dialog) is more articulate and dynamic, and soundstage size and layering is significantly improved. (You will understand this concept if you have a well-integrated subwoofer in your system, or have upgraded the signal, and/or AC cables to your subwoofer. It is not so much what these improvements do for the bass, although this is certainly significant, as it is what they do for the midrange and high frequencies.)
But things have changed! Not only do these "Panels" do a great job below 200hZ, they measure only 11" x 16" x 2" (28 x 41x 5 cm), and weigh only 4 lbs.each! It's like hanging a small, framed picture.
And they only cost $90 each (sold in pairs for $179.95).
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Just how effective are they?
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For before and after plots prepared by Rives Audio and placement diagrams click here for technical information. The first thing we did was to pull down the CornerTunes in one of our listening rooms and substitute one "Panel" near each corner. Wow. The most obvious effect was on the high frequencies, which were much clearer and more open, with an improved natural-ness in the midrange. Of course cleaner, tighter bass was also apparent.
Very impressive!
Because this demonstration room is very live acoustically, and capable of significant bass response, the designers encouraged us to try a second panel in each corner. Hopeful for a small additional improvement we were surprised by another big step up.
So we proceeded to try more "Panels" at different points in the room, but found that the "Panels" only work when in the high pressure zones in the corners.
Why not handle room acoustics with digital signal processing equipment "DSP"?
Except for the Rives Audio product, which also focuses on bass frequencies, most DSP is not designed to work on low frequencies. And those that do, like the Rives, are both much more expensive than these "Panels," and also must be inserted in the signal path, where nothing is truly transparent. Finally it is much easier and "gentler" in a sonic sense to apply DSP to a room that already has been passively treated, than it is to use DSP like a sledgehammer to beat a totally un-equalized room into submission.
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More testing, more rooms, and here is what we can recommend for you:
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1. If you are already using an acoustic triangle of some sort in the ceiling corners, or other corner treatments, you will be thrilled with the improvement you will get with these "Panels."
2. If you aren't already addressing these upper corners, or using some other acoustic treatments for that matter, you should be very happy to learn that for a relatively modest cost, and in a decor-friendly way, you can improve everything about your music system. This is certainly the first step anyone should take in dealing with room acoustics. And if you are only going to do one thing with your room acoustics, this is it.
3. If you are using other acoustic treatments (ASC, Echobuster, RoomLens, Shakti Hallograph, etc.) or DSP solutions, good news! Because these "Panels" contain no foam or fiber damping material, they do not seem to interact in any sort of unfavorable way with other acoustic products. And because the primary effect of the "Panels" is on frequencies below 200hZ, they are working on the areas that most of the other acoustic products don't even touch. Even in an elaborately treated acoustic environment the "Panels" should be the considered the first step.
4. If you are a home theater buff who has avoided acoustic treatment because you couldn't clutter up the room, this is very good news because these "Panels" are small and mount near the ceiling. No problem. And home theaters tend to make big bass, and as a result particularly suffer from standing waves.
5. If your room is very live and/or generating high sound pressure levels, and especially lots of bass, then use two of the "Panels" in each upper corner rather than one. It is worth it.
Summary:
The Cathedral Sound Room Dampening Panels represent the most powerful approach to addressing problems associated with standing waves that we have found. These new panels measuring only 11" x 16" x 2" (28 x 41x 5 cm) easily wall mount and are actually more effective than the 4-6 ft. (1.2-1.8m) tall panels otherwise necessary to affect these bass frequencies. Selling at less than $90 per panel they are an easy to live with and affordable solution for audio and video-philes with boomy bass and a resulting loss of midrange and dialog intelligibility. Application to recording and performance spaces is also recommended.
Intro special: Through November 15 we will reduce the price on the Cathedral Sound Room Dampening Panels from $179.95 per pair to $155 per pair. Choose black or off-white. Freight is additional, but shipping weight is only 10 lbs per pair. (~4.5kg) per pair.
Click here for the main webpage, more information, and third party before and after room response waterfall plots.
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For additional information on these offers and frequent updates speak with your Cable Company consultant, or visit our websites: www.fatwyre.com and www.ultrasystem.com. For hundreds of specials on used and demo cables, visit www.usedcable.com.
Or call us Mon.- Fri. 10 -6; Sat. 11-5 Eastern time on 800-328-9973 (or 215-862-4870). Fax: 215-862-4871
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