Tubes vs. Panels?


A few months ago I started a thread in another forum about room treatments, and another forum member (after viewing digital photos of the room, a bird's eye sketch, and asking lots of questions) sent me back a computer-generated printout showing the placement of four 16" diameter bass traps that stood four feet high, and three additional 13" bass traps that stood 42" high.

I can fit all of that stuff in my room, but I'd really rather not.

Then, yesterday, in a different discussion, someone else sent me a link to an outfit called GIK Acoustics, which offers free-standing panels among other things.

My question: given that the panels probably won't work as well as the specific thing the computer wanted me to make, does everyone think they'll still work *reasonably* well? I could buy them relatively inexpensively and not have to reconfigure the whole room.
dog_or_man
Dan (LOL) I sent Mike Jon Rische's site and another DIY site as well. Your interpretation BTW is incorrect (as far as all the info I've read anyway). "half open" in the context of tube traps , means that half of the exterior curved surface has to be wrapped or covered. And the other half of the surface, the fiberglas is exposed.

If you've ever seen an ASC tube trap, they are marked as to which half is which so the user can orient them as desired -- meaning that if you turn the open side toward the wall, they absorb mostly bass, but little HF. The tube interior should be left open to provide a resonant chamber which dissipates the bass energy (sort of like an organ pope in reverse ;-)
Ah, that's probably the reason for the suggestion to use some type of plastic sheeting around 1/2 the diameter. Supposedly, you can tune the amount of reflection by turning the tube trap. I did that on some of my traps but I have to admit I was not able to find much of a difference. Probably because I didn't use a sheeting that worked as well as some others.
I think that you guys are describing a Helmholtz resonator? If this is the case - Helmholtz resonators are tuned towards very specific frequencies. The application is completely different to a panel - a resonator only removes the frequency it is tuned to, whereas panels remove a wider band of frequencies. The frequency band and the level of attenuation depends on the thickness of the panel, the density of the material, and how far it is placed away from reflective surfaces.
Thanks Neil and Dan,
I did get your email :) Appreciated much:)
I did leave my tube traps fully covered:( I will remove half of the outside covering and also seal all my seams better too..
Take care
Mike