Blindjim, Re diffusing materiels for use behind your speakers.
Assuming we are talking about high frequencies, and assuming that your talking about diffusing sounds directly radiating from the speakers, plants (live or artificial) can work well. I've used big Boston Ferns, medium sized dense palms, and weeping figs quite effectively for electrostats and boxes. Personally, I don't care for the 'audio room' look so many prefer, and even without book cases I would (and do) place strategically located wall mounted shelves with typical domestic garbage, books, CD's, Lp's, lamps/tables etc.
As Psychicanimal suggests, if you're crafty at all, it would be fairly simple to replicate the Skylines. All you need is some 1 1/2" square pine boards, a small table saw (easier to do cuts) some wood glue and clamps, paint, and patience. A friend of mine has done this several times very effectively. Your really don't have to be very scientific about it to get excellent results but it helps if you have the dimensional variations used in the Skylines. You could also do it with foam of some type as that could act as an absorber for the higher frequencies and diffusor for the lower (not LOW) frequencies, but I think foam would be tough to work with.
If you talking about a whole, or major part, of a back wall, because of bouncing reflections from other wall surfaces, I wouldn't go the dispersion route.
I'm sure its occurred to you already, but, FWIW, the further you can bring your speakers out into the room the less you need to be concerned with the need to diffuse or deaden the sound radiating directly from the speakers, and unless it is a hard surface such as glass, in the typical room after you hit the 6ft mark its probably of little consequence because there is sufficient time differential between the inital signal and the reflected sound (doesn't necessarily apply to bipoles, panels, or electrostats). I've heard speakers set up in front of an untreated glass that sounded excellent, with only one caveat to bear in mind. The other three walls had differing wall surfaces and were not uniformly reflective which eliminated 2d and 3d relect points so there were no strong high frequencies bouncing about the room.
Interesting stuff. Have fun, but don't get too anal - it will be very frustrating if you do! :-)
Assuming we are talking about high frequencies, and assuming that your talking about diffusing sounds directly radiating from the speakers, plants (live or artificial) can work well. I've used big Boston Ferns, medium sized dense palms, and weeping figs quite effectively for electrostats and boxes. Personally, I don't care for the 'audio room' look so many prefer, and even without book cases I would (and do) place strategically located wall mounted shelves with typical domestic garbage, books, CD's, Lp's, lamps/tables etc.
As Psychicanimal suggests, if you're crafty at all, it would be fairly simple to replicate the Skylines. All you need is some 1 1/2" square pine boards, a small table saw (easier to do cuts) some wood glue and clamps, paint, and patience. A friend of mine has done this several times very effectively. Your really don't have to be very scientific about it to get excellent results but it helps if you have the dimensional variations used in the Skylines. You could also do it with foam of some type as that could act as an absorber for the higher frequencies and diffusor for the lower (not LOW) frequencies, but I think foam would be tough to work with.
If you talking about a whole, or major part, of a back wall, because of bouncing reflections from other wall surfaces, I wouldn't go the dispersion route.
I'm sure its occurred to you already, but, FWIW, the further you can bring your speakers out into the room the less you need to be concerned with the need to diffuse or deaden the sound radiating directly from the speakers, and unless it is a hard surface such as glass, in the typical room after you hit the 6ft mark its probably of little consequence because there is sufficient time differential between the inital signal and the reflected sound (doesn't necessarily apply to bipoles, panels, or electrostats). I've heard speakers set up in front of an untreated glass that sounded excellent, with only one caveat to bear in mind. The other three walls had differing wall surfaces and were not uniformly reflective which eliminated 2d and 3d relect points so there were no strong high frequencies bouncing about the room.
Interesting stuff. Have fun, but don't get too anal - it will be very frustrating if you do! :-)
