Tube Traps -- Truth or Load of Crap?

[sthayashi]

Someone asked be about tube traps today, something I had never heard of. When I looked into it, my intuition says: "Load of crap." Mostly because I don't see HOW they're supposed to work and I haven't come across an adequate explaination of them yet.

So.... is there any truth to them? or is my intuition right today?

 

[bpape]

No pooper scooper required

They can work quite well. The difference with them vs. your 'normal' panel type traps or straddling a corner is that you can rotate them. Half of the exterior is reflective at high frequencies and half is not. You rotate them according to what you need and where they sit in the room.

 

[Rob Babcock]

It seems counterintuitive, but they really can work well. F. Alton Everest expains how they work in his landmark book, The Master Handbook of Acoustics.

 

[sjdgpt]

Yes they can and do work.

You can achieve similar accoutical performance with more WAF materials, but the the tubes are quick and easy to handle if you know what you are trying to achieve.

 

[warnerwh]

As a matter of fact they will make the bass sound louder. I'm not going into why but they are a necessity to do a room properly. No magic about it, pure physics. Without them you can and will have bass problems that you don't even know are there til you either measure your room's frequency response or add some acoustic treatment. Acoustics are the second most important component of your system. Everything else besides speakers and acoustics are off in the distance quite a ways.

 

[Brian JB]

Thought the same thing, but, after I installed acoustical treatments at first reflection points of main speakers & Bass Traps in the corners of a 27' x 17' room, I've changed my opinion. Now deep bass notes & sound are more distict, clear and coherent.