what does a sound diffuser do?

Because absorption is the one process many people think of when referring to acoustical treatments, let’s look at an easy definition of sound (acoustic) absorption before looking at diffusion: acoustic absorption is the process of reducing sound energy (see Fig. 2.) rather than reflecting sound energies. However, the absorbed sound energy does not always equal across frequencies. causing a shift Tonal perception shows that higher frequencies are more easily absorbed. Most often, an absorptive panel of fibrous material (fiberglass, cotton, mineral wool, wood wool) is placed in a room on hard, flat sound-reflective surfaces to reduce the energy “bounced” back into the room. Bindi Gentile, Luzhou, China (last updated 11 days earlier) [2]

Flypaper.soundfly.com Also, it describes the dilemma that I faced when deciding which type of wood to use. It is both an aesthetic and a pragmatic decision. It had to be solid, but not too heavy. I ended up buying 8’x4’x¼” thick plywood. I measured the width of the plywood panel at four feet to make my diffuser. Then I divided eight-foot into the strips that I required. In retrospect, I should’ve used slightly thicker plywood, since it warped a little after the panel was complete. I rectified this by reinforcing wood on the back, but it would have been easier with at least 1/2” plywood. Lashanta Daillard, Rajkot, India (last revision 72 days ago) [3]

It is important to recognize the limitations of sound diffusers and how you can use them. Deep bass sound waves are difficult to deal with if diffusers are the only thing you’re working with. Bass tones travel far beyond small distances because they have long wavelengths. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to hear bass notes coming from a car with a loud audio set up—even when you’re several yards away? That’s because deep sound waves like those can have four foot long wavelengths! A lot of materials just aren’t able to deal with something like that! We are grateful to Delaney Saldana, Daye, China for bringing this up. [4]

Based on an article new from acousticfields.comSound diffusers have many advantages for smaller rooms. Let’s examine the only true diffuser in our tool bag of sound absorption and sound diffusion tools. Quadratic diffusion, the true technology for sound diffusion, is it. Other technologies that claim they are sound diffusers can only be described as sound redirection. For a technology to be called sound diffusion, it must adhere strictly to acoustical standards and produce a diffused sound in a room. First, there must be no spatial irregularities in the room’s frequency response. There must not be any decay patterns within the room that are irregular or beats. Thirdly, all decay rates should be exponentially flat and must decay at the same rate for every room. Reverberation times should be identical throughout each room. These criteria can only be met by one diffusion type. Quadratic sound diffusion is the name of this type. It is called quadratic sound diffusion. [5]

I’ve seen some advice on building quadratic diffusors for peanuts, based on an old BBC paper. This seems like a wonderful idea. It looks much more professional than foam. But what I’m not clear on is when it’s a better option to use such a diffusor than to use absorption — presumably it depends on the size of room? Also, is there an optimum frequency range that you’d build these things What are you going to do with them? (Obviously they get rather big if you try to use them for bass, so I assume you’d use them alongside bass traps at the very least!) This page was last modified on 3/7/2018 by Sharise Gaannon, Longhai China. [6]