R&D Stories: Acoustic Diffusion Research

This article offers a valuable inside perspective about developing new diffuser solutions, and lessons learned while designing countless critical listening rooms around the world. A journey that lead to the creation of the PolyFlex diffuser, which will scatter either horizontally or vertically, depending on the orientation, and improve clarity in speech and spatial focus without making a room sound dead and/or small. The author was actively involved in multiple acoustics standards committees, including for testing procedures.

The August 2022 issue of audioXpress, Acoustics Focus, gives a unique overview of market trends in acoustical products, with great articles on Acoustic Diffusion, Distributed Subwoofers for Room Modes, and Reverberation Control and Measurement. Michel Nieuwenhuizen proposes an improved microphone preamp for condenser microphones, Aren van Waarde builds a minimalist preamp using only discrete transistors, and Ethan Winer shares circuits for VCA and VCF analog synthesizer modules.

For his audioXpress monthly column Sound Control, Richard Honeycutt explored new methods to calculate the edge effect of acoustical absorption and the research behind these methods. The research focuses on the recognized fact that rooms in which Reverberation Time (RT) is important, requiring the application of absorptive wall panels, seem to achieve better results when the absorptive material is applied only to parts of each wall. The physical reasons behind this apparent anomaly are often lumped into the category of "edge effect." This article was originally published in audioXpress, December 2017.