Someone has a bucnh for sale locally...wondering what our acoustics friends think of them.

I'm no acoustics expert, but I think they'd be worth it if the price is right. I recently just barely missed out on a bunch that somebody had posted for way cheap on Craigslist recently, and would have snapped 'em up if I had seen the ad in time (they disappeared in under half an hour).

Although the fiberglass material used in Tube Traps is similar to that used in the ubiquitous rigid fiberglass panel absorbers, it works in a different way - tube traps have to be properly 'sealed' around the edges in order to work, and work because the air pressure inside naturally wants to equalize itself (through the flow resistance of the fiberglass material) with the air pressure outside (which is being pressurized and depressurized as 'sound waves'). One of the disadvantages I've heard of is that (at least to 'golden ears hi-fi snob' types) they can have a 'sound', almost like 'port chuff' in ported speaker enclosures, due to the air 'breathing' in and out of them in some situations.

The big plusses in my book would be 1) easily portable to vary your 'room treatment' for tracking, mixing, and just experimenting 'on the fly'; 2) 'reflective side' and 'dull side' design, at least on most of them, adds to versatility; 3) still have a good reputation for actually being effective, and a good space-they-take-up to effectiveness ratio.

Plus, they're pretty painfully expensive new, so if somebody's selling some for a fair price, I'd say go for it. As long as you don't pay too much for 'em, you' could probably turn around and sell them without too much pain if they don't work out for you. They have arguably the best name recognition of any room treatment product I can think of - musicians and home stereo / hi-fi folks will have heard of them - so reselling them would probably be pretty easy.

Sold out from under me. While they were heavily discounted...still not "cheap". Know what I mean?

quote:

Originally posted by Popmann:
Sold out from under me. While they were heavily discounted...still not "cheap". Know what I mean?

Yes, quite pricey.

mud