Wrapper

[bikinpunk]

A few weeks back I posted some test data using roxul on the pillars. The idea was to see what the effect on frequency response would be but moreso to see the impulse response and how the reflections off the pillars themselves would be attenuated. I had pretty good results so decided to actually give it a go in the car. Yesterday I sprayed glue on the pillars and on a few strips of 2" thick roxul and applied it to the pillars. In some areas I pulled apart the roxul so it wouldn't stand so thick and in other areas, namely around the tweeter, I left it full thickness. I wasn't sure what to expect, really, but I did know that it was going to be ugly. I was hoping for a more spacious stage overall. Early reflections are killers of staging, regardless of the methods you often see employed to combine early reflections with the FR it can't be done. I've spent some time reading Geddes' HT book and specifically Chapter 4 discussing psychoacoustics. I figured at the least I would have my own tests to draw conclusions from.

So, I popped the pillars in place and played some tunes. Right off the bat I noticed an increase in depth and width. Not subtle; pretty substantial. The stage width increased by about 2 inches on either side. The depth didn't necessarily "get deeper"; it did, however, become more dynamic with various recordings. There are no cues to the drivers in the pillars. If you didn't know they were there, you wouldn't know they were there. I know it's hard to quantify psychoacoustics so I did some testing, too, to see what was going on in the time domain and how that shook out to FR. Overall what I found was no noticeable decrease in response; rather reduced peaks due to constructive interference of the pillars themselves. There used to be a large bump with a wide Q around the 5khz mark. It's not there anymore. I intended to save the data but never got a chance before I let my netbook battery die ().

Like I said, it's ugly as sin but it's entirely functional. I'll probably just wrap it with grill cloth and carry on. I've never been one to brag on my fabrication skills and I'm too cheap to pay someone to do it for me. Plus, I'm never ever really finished so there's no point in me spending time to make it the best looking thing in the world.

Pictures for you to make fun of.