Acoustic Panel Air Gap - Should you leave an air gap behind your acoustic treatment?
124,605
Published 2021-10-14
Get Free Advice:
www.gikacoustics.com/acoustic-advice/
Cloud Brackets:
www.gikacoustics.com/product/acoustic-panel-ceilin…
"Should you leave an air gap behind your acoustic treatment?
Leaving an air gap behind your acoustic treatment can help increase overall absorption and extend it’s effective range into low frequencies. This effect is extremely helpful when you’re trying to get as much bass trapping in a room as possible, so it’s often recommended to people that they mount their panels “floating” a few inches from the wall for the best performance.
In many cases, a better question is whether the performance gained from this spacing is worth the additional space taken up in the room. In most cases if there is such space, you’re better off using thicker panels in that same space, even if the air gap has to be a bit smaller.
These performance gains are actually more about the distance from the front face of the panel to the wall behind. This is why the benefits are so great for thinner panels. For a 6” thick panel, the front face is already 6” away even if the panel is flush mounted, ie, further away than a 2” absorber spaced 2” out from the wall. So it’s less critical for thicker panels.
Why do we space acoustics panels with an air gap?
Porous absorbers work by acting on sound velocity. Because of this, acousticians refer to this type of absorber as a velocity absorber. When sound strikes the panel the vibration from the air molecules are converted into a miniscule amount of heat.
But when a soundwave reflects off a wall or ceiling, at the reflection point, the velocity of the sound is zero, because it has to stop, change direction, and establish a new velocity in a different trajectory. When we move the front of the panel further from this zero-velocity point, we improve the performance of a velocity absorber.
In order to absorb lower frequencies for cleaner bass response the panel either needs to be thicker or spaced off the wall to cover more of the wavelength. The Bass frequencies are going to have longer wavelengths to cover with the high velocity area of the wave further from the boundaries of the room.
How Far Should I Mount my panels from the wall?
A good rule of thumb is that whatever your panel's thickness is, that’s a good distance to float the panel. Any further can help even more but we quickly reach a point of diminishing returns, that is, the small performance gain isn’t worth even more room space being taken up.
Depending on what issues you’re trying to solve or how much space is in your room, you might find that no air gap is the best option.
GIK’s 242, 244, and Monster Bass trap already have an air gap built into the panel. Having a built in air gap gives you more absorption potential per panel per dollar without the need for additional hardware or complicated mounting techniques.
For placing treatment on the ceiling, GIK offers our Ceiling Cloud Mounting Brackets that work with any of those GIK products that have a built in air gap and lowers them into the room an extra 4 inches. Floating your panels off the ceiling gives you the benefit of extra bass absorption without taking up any extra standing room.
For something like the Soffit, adding any air gap provides very little improvement because it’s already so thick, so in most cases it’s best to leave these right up against the wall.
If you’re still struggling to get your frequency response under control, visit the GIK website, for tons more tools, videos, and articles as well as our free acoustics advice form."
All Comments (21)
-
Great Video with very useful insight on acoustics concepts as always!
-
Awesome video. Thank you! I filled out the room treatment form 3 days ago and haven't heard back yet. Excited to read about your suggestions for my pretty terrible dimensions space at home.
-
I had a panel against an outside wall and had condensation / moisture issues within 2 weeks. I'll need to implement air gaps just to get warm air behind it, so i don't get the cold wall area behind the panel where all moisture condenses.
-
I’m layering alpha 6” in front of monster flex range with gaps. More traps is more gooder 🤪
-
The improvements in performance can be overstated related to low frequencies. Riverbank test data shows that 2” fiberglass panels offset by 1”& 2” do improve absorption and the NRC of the panels. However the absorption coefficients in the testing indicates the performance increase is not at 250hz, 125hz and below. This I believe is because the sides are not closed and the air gap sealed or incased allowing larger sound waves inherent in low frequencies to escape and not be absorbed (trapped) again. IMO.
-
Hi! My celling is 8 foot from the floor, and my main issue in my room right now is at 100 - 200hz . Is it ok to mount a 2" lets say 4" away from the celling? I know there is a compromise but that 100 - 200hz region is so anoying. thanks
-
What finish is on the Impression Corner traps?
-
I've been thinking about this. How would a few floor standing panels with maybe a 4 inch panel that you basically move around you where you record instead of covering the walls with it. Or how are they to use in rooms where the walls are covered with shelves and stuff, and you can't really mount things cause it would make the landlord annoyed, so instead, use floor standing panels that you move to where you need them. This is mostly for voice recording, to minimize reflection into the microphone when streaming or recording.
-
For small rooms, 4" thick panels should always be the minimum. Using 2" thick panels and a 2" air gap is more mounting work than it's worth.
-
Hey guys, what about when dealing with a high ceiling? Ive got a small 12x12 room but ceilings are very high (16ft) ive been pondering to just make a false ceiling at 10ft high.
-
Interesting they tried to recommend 1:1 spacing since Galaxy Audio used 2:1. I would love to know how they arrived at their conclusion. Especially since galaxy had a huge budget, but both used a bigger space, and didn’t fill the gap with material. This goes against two of Gik’s suggestions in the video.
-
I feel like you left a lot of questions unanswered. So thin panels should be as far of the wall as they are thick. But until what point is it a thin panel and when does it start to be so thick that no gap is necessary? And most of all: What happens in between? Atm I don't feel smarter than before watching this.
-
Is anyone going to mention best way to install hanging from ceiling leaving gap- using what method to install?
-
Particals? Very interesting as always.
-
I have 4 corner traps and when I float them a couple inches I get more sub bass, not less.
-
I just spent 7 K with gik and after watching this video I just stuff up them in a Stonehenge shape design in the middle of the room. That way their is a giant air gap to the wall in every direction. Sounds great so far.
-
Are your panels made from recycled plastics?
-
so air gap would only work if there is no board behind the trap right?
-
Hmm cool info. It’s a little bit of a bug and creepy crawly magnet in those air gaps though. 😆
-
my room is drop ceilings, cloud panels making me nervous.
