I’m not sure if anyone is interested but here are the results of the soffits that I just built right behind my listening area. I decided to build them so they would be more acceptable to my wife since she was kind enough to let me put up Real Traps in my listening area.
The soffits are 13' long and 12” wide by 10” high with ¾” wood frame. I know that there may be better ways to do this but since this is my first (and only) time, I went for something that would be light. I initially tried to screw the top piece to the joists above the ceiling but even after I crawled up there to measure the distances, it turned out that the joists curved enough from the center where I measured to where they connect to the wall, that I missed them, so I ended up using molly bolts (old house). Molly bolts are a story in themselves which I won’t get into.
For the inside of the soffits, I went with four inches of 703 12”wide on the bottom and 6” high on the side. I had some R11 that I wanted to use up, so I filled the inside with that.
The whole thing is wrapped in poly batting and I put some plastic corner molding on the bottom for a smoother curve.
I have some cloth that needs to be put over the whole thing and then some quarter round molding and end caps will finish it up.
The big question, was it worth it? Here are some measurements using RplusD (sorry REW folks, I’m just use to this software).
Before
And after:
There appears to be some improvement but obviously not as much as I would have liked. It really does take a lot of surface area to reduce decay time at low frequencies. After I finish up the soffits, I’ll take a look at other wall/ceiling corners and see what I can sneak in for treatment. After that I may redo the listening area to cover more of the corners.
Special thanks to Bryan and others for answering many of my questions before I started on this project.
Bob
The soffits are 13' long and 12” wide by 10” high with ¾” wood frame. I know that there may be better ways to do this but since this is my first (and only) time, I went for something that would be light. I initially tried to screw the top piece to the joists above the ceiling but even after I crawled up there to measure the distances, it turned out that the joists curved enough from the center where I measured to where they connect to the wall, that I missed them, so I ended up using molly bolts (old house). Molly bolts are a story in themselves which I won’t get into.
For the inside of the soffits, I went with four inches of 703 12”wide on the bottom and 6” high on the side. I had some R11 that I wanted to use up, so I filled the inside with that.
The whole thing is wrapped in poly batting and I put some plastic corner molding on the bottom for a smoother curve.
I have some cloth that needs to be put over the whole thing and then some quarter round molding and end caps will finish it up.
The big question, was it worth it? Here are some measurements using RplusD (sorry REW folks, I’m just use to this software).
Before
And after:
There appears to be some improvement but obviously not as much as I would have liked. It really does take a lot of surface area to reduce decay time at low frequencies. After I finish up the soffits, I’ll take a look at other wall/ceiling corners and see what I can sneak in for treatment. After that I may redo the listening area to cover more of the corners.
Special thanks to Bryan and others for answering many of my questions before I started on this project.
Bob