Reply To: Recommendations on corner traps

[timmymacParticipant]

John was great! I had initially built a few 6" panels for an RFZ type setup, but wasn't really happy with it. Once I got John involved he repurposed my panels for the ceiling cloud and spec'd out everything I needed to do for the walls. It was super helpful to have someone who knows what they are doing to help with the design. I read a lot of acoustics books and forum posts with the intention to just DIY the whole design, but there's a lot of misinformation and outdated material out there that makes it difficult to determine what's good and what's not so great (unless you have infinite time and money to try out a lot of different things..I didn't). Hiring John helped me cut through all that noise. My room is small, roughly 11.5ft x 16ft. So John was able to layout the panels to best work within my room. Different size rooms will require different treatment. Also my room isn't perfectly symmetrical so there are some compromises. But it's a bedroom, heh! Since it's a small room there's a lot of absorption and bass trapping, but it's not entirely dead. There's a certain percentage of reflective surfaces integrated into the design. It's very comfortable to hang out and work in.

I built all of the panels myself with plans from John. Basically the panels are stick frame with different combinations of OC703, pink stuff and with/without wood slats on the faces. I had a local lumber shop cut 8' by 1-1/2" sticks from plywood for me and then I cut them to length for making each floor to ceiling panel. If I had a table saw I would have done it myself, but well worth the extra cash to have them do it on a nice professional saw. I considered using 1"x2" pine but they tend to not be straight. I used pocket screws to join everything together which made things go quick. No glue was used since everything was wrapped in muslin and burlap which really held everything together nicely. I purchased the burlap from ATS which was very reasonably priced. Screw the Gilford of Maine stuff, it's nice by way expensive.

It took me about 6 months to complete, working on and off just on the weekends. I took my time and did it all by myself. If I hustled and had a helper, I could have probably done it in 2 weeks straight. I'm also a perfectionist so that doesn't help. 🙂 I also had to work under one constraint enforced by my wife which was that all the panels must be removable. If I ever do it again I think a permanent installation would go up quicker since I'd only have to upholster the front. Upholstering is the hardest part in my opinion. But trust me, you'll be a pro by the time you're done. And it's not so hard once you figure out not to stretch it too tight.

Also, John has been super responsive and helpful with answering all my questions, even a year later. He's a great resource and definitely worth considering.

Hope this helps and I'm more than happy to answer more questions on here or offline.