# Damping or bafflewall?



## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

Ok, I'm going to take my screen down and do some changes to my setup, and thought I might do some more acoustic work back there while i was at it. So, I've been considering a baffle wall. Seems like a great idea for the front stage, but it won't do much for the rest of the room, so to speak. 
The other option is to more or less fill any area that is not taken by speakers with some light insulation (approx. 5000rayls/m) from the actual wall and all the way to flush with the front baffles of the speakers. That is about 80cm or 2'6". I know we're talking about ALOT of damping here, but that's ok with me. Calculations tel me this huge basstrap will be pretty effective even down low. I have classic chunk-style traps in all wall-wall corners made of OC703-equivalent material (Rockwool, 25000rayls/m)

The bafflewall will do very little for me down low, and will potentially give me a little less SBIR. I get 6dB headroom that I don't need and potential construction issues with the actual baffle. I'm leaning toward the insulation experiment, myself. Easier, cheaper and potentially more benefit. I would assume packing around the speakers with insulation will help SBIR maybe even more effectively than a baffle wall?

I'm thinking something along the lines of this:


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## chrapladm (Jun 17, 2009)

I wish I could give you some information but I cant. Mr Bpape is the expert there.

But I must ask are those PHL subwoofers?

I am getting ready to order a few things from PHL and your subs caught my attention. Sorry for the off topic.


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

I think you'd be very surprised at what 2.5' of insulation will do in the bottom end.

Having the front wall dead is desirable in this type of setup. You'll definitely also help with any SBIR problems.

Bryan


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## atledreier (Mar 2, 2007)

I have no idea, that picture isn't my setup. It's from a norwegian forum where the user had excellent results with this setup. 
Maths seem to support it. Rockwool (OC705) is much too dense for this amount of damping, but the more porous stuff is better suited and will be pretty effective rather far down in frequency if the math is correct.

Edit: Sniped by Bryan! 8)

Thanks Bryan. So you think I'll benefit more from this setup than a baffle wall? I really don't need the headroom, I have loads of that as it is.


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## Mark Techer (Jan 17, 2008)

If you do a baffle wall (and I highly recommend it) you need to treat the surface with at least 25mm of convoluted foam to prevent HFs from reflecting off the back of the screen fabric.


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## patchesj (Jun 17, 2009)

I'm in a similar spot.. Trying to decide if I want to create a baffle wall covered in 2" OC705 or just add the 705 to my existing front wall already covered in 2" rockboard 60. Very interested in what you decide.


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## Mark Techer (Jan 17, 2008)

I did Procella Audio's course on the "THX Baffle Wall" and you don't need 2" of treatments because your not soaking up frequencies down below mid-bass.


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## Skylinestar (Oct 19, 2010)

Regarding that photo, is that a baffle wall? All I see is insulation placed around the speakers?

insulation around speakers = baffle wall?


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