"As far as the sonic performance of the ASC TubeTraps goes, I won't equivocate—the full ASC TubeTrap treatment in my room made a bigger improvement in my system's sound than any component upgrade I've ever made. I noticed the improvement before I even fired up the stereo. Speaking voices possessed a natural timbre and effortlessness that I've not experienced in such a small space. Flutter echo was banished, but the resultant acoustic was not in any way overly dead or unnatural."
-John Acton
...More Real Music, Less Room Acoustics.....
TubeTraps, the original, archetypal bass trap, dating back to 1984, are set up in the corners of the room where they act like sonic shock absorbers. The bass trap part of the TubeTrap damps out excessive build-up of bass energy in the room and the built-in diffuser backscatters slap back, converting flutter echo into fine grained lateral ambience.
The TubeTrap reflective bass trap was developed through acoustical engineering principles and voiced by the consensus of golden ears. It was the first full bandwidth sound absorber/diffuser (abfuser) and has become synonymous with quality listening and performing spaces. TubeTraps quickly became the worldwide defining icon of high performance audio room acoustics, and remains so to this day.
TubeTraps are used to make music from the beginning to the end of the audio chain. In the recording studio TubeTraps are used to control the acoustics that surround the talent and mic and the creation of audio tracks. Later in the process TubeTraps work to create crystal clear mixing environments. Then TubeTraps are used to create the mastering rooms where the recording studio master tape is turned into a commercial album.
Then, TubeTraps are used to create reference listening rooms for the manufacturers of audio equipment, great demo rooms for the equipment dealers and fantastic playback rooms for the audiophile listener, rooms which help audio gear turn great recordings into great sounding music. TubeTrap bass traps are involved with music from creation to consumption. TubeTraps are very busy at work, from the making of music to the playback of music...or as we like to say.....from music to music.
Reviews
Winner of the The Absolute Sound's 2009 Editor's Choice Award
HomeTheaterReview.com's Review
Call 1-800-272-8823 for a free room consultation today!
THE TUBETRAP EXPLAINED
ROOM ACOUSTICS AND TUBETRAP BASS TRAPS
Modern loudspeakers and subwoofers in high performance audio playback settings produce dramatic amounts of bass energy. Professional recording studios have always used built-in bass traps to absorb this bass so that it does not build up and overpower the rest of the sound in the room. When high power audio is played in rooms constructed for residential or retail demonstration use, no accommodation has been made to handle the build-up of excess bass energy. And so the uncontrolled sound pressure builds up inside the room, which not only is unpleasant for the listener, but it additionally shakes the walls, floor and ceiling, windows and doors of the room.
These shaking surfaces act like giant uncontrolled loudspeakers that bother the neighbors and additionally ruin the quality of sound in the room. High power audio playback at home or in commercial spaces is no different than what goes on in recording studios. Bass traps mixed with treble range absorption and diffusion is the only way quality sound can be heard, regardless of how expensive the speakers and amps may be. The TubeTrap is a self-contained, broadband bass trap, a reactive acoustical circuit that is energized by and works off of sound pressure. It performs best when placed at locations in the room where the sound pressures are the highest, which is typically in the corners and against the walls of the room.
Because the TubeTrap only reacts to sound pressure it is sometimes referred to as a pressure-zone bass trap. Although the TubeTrap is a broadband sound trap, it can be modified by adding additional acoustic circuitry to give it an enhanced narrow band range of sound absorption in addition to its broadband bass trap properties. However, this is not to be confused with a "tuned bass trap" which is exclusively a narrow band bass trap and has no broad band properties.
For the most part the "tuning" of the TubeTrap is usually not done with internal circuitry but done by the room itself. When a room resonance is created, the sound pressures are always the highest in the corners of the room and in select locations along the walls. For tones that are not room modes, the energy in the room is diffuse which has a more uniform distribution of sound pressure throughout the room. Placing TubeTraps in the corners and at certain wall locations puts them in the high pressure zones of the room modes. The higher the pressure, the stronger the TubeTrap works. Properly placed TubeTraps in a room automatically ensures that loud, long lingering modes will be more highly damped than the more quickly decaying diffuse sounds in the room. This gives any room TubeTraps are used in a much more tonally balanced reverberant field.
Acoustic Circuitry The bass trap component of the TubeTrap is an acoustic circuit. It acts just like a series RC circuit in electronics, a high-pass filter. The R part is the acoustical resistor, the wall of the TubeTrap, whose DC flow resistance equals the acoustic impedance of an acoustic wave, 460 Rayl. This is similar to what happens when a video technician terminates the unused leg of a video cable system. A 75 ohm terminal resistor is used to cap off the open ends of a 75 ohm coax cable transmission line. The C part of the acoustic circuit is an acoustical capacitor, the air cavity inside the TubeTrap. The larger the volume, the lower the roll off frequency in the response curve.
Covering half of the surface curved surface of the TubeTrap, end to end, is a perforated sheet of soft plastic, a limp mass. High frequency sound bounces off the surface of the reflecting sheet while low frequency sound passes right through the holes in the reflecting sheet. This is another acoustic circuit element, in effect it creates acoustic inertia, which is comparable to an electronic inductor, L. An inductor is a low pass filter.
These three acoustic circuit elements are connected in series which produces the effect of a bandpass sound absorber. The lower cutoff frequency is determined by the diameter of the TubeTrap, not its length. The upper cutoff frequency of the bandpass is determined by the hole pattern in the treble reflecting perforated sheet. Rotating the TubeTrap on axis changes the % of treble diffusion to absorption facing into the room between 0 and 100%. Rotating the TubeTrap is equivalent to adjusting the side scattered treble volume control. Tuned resonators can be installed inside TubeTraps to provide enhanced absorption at a particular frequency. Active TubeTrap bass traps are also available and they provide a very wide bandwidth of deep bass absorption.
Corner Bass Traps The TubeTrap is designed to absorb bass energy out of bass range sound pressure. The stronger the pressure the more energy is absorbed. Bass pressure is 4 to 8 times stronger in the corners of the room than out in the open parts of the room. TubeTraps are typically stacked floor-to-ceiling in columns in the corners of the audio room. Each corner acts like a giant megaphone in reverse, compressing incoming sound waves into the narrow volume at the root of each corner of the room. This corner compression of bass waves creates the perfect location for a pressure zone bass trap, the TubeTrap.
Not only do corners compress bass waves into pure pressure zones but standing waves and room modes also fully compress into the corners. Corner loaded pressure zone bass traps, TubeTraps, are extremely efficient at controlling bass throughout the whole of the room by extracting energy out of the corners of the room.
Sound is stored in the volume of the room and absorbed on the surfaces of the room. The bass range is best absorbed in the corners of the room. Small rooms have a fairly large percentage of their room volume tied up in the 8 corners of the room. Corner loaded bass traps, like TubeTraps, are perfectly suited to adding control to otherwise out of control build-up of bass energy in small but high power audio playback rooms.
Seasoned listeners, either professionals like recording engineers and studio musicians or enthusiasts like audiophiles and cinemaphiles all agree that for the most part listeners are not as much listening to their sound system being played in their room, but more correctly are listening to their room as it is being played by the loudspeakers. It is as if in audio playback, the room is the instrument and the loudspeaker is the musician who plays the instrument.
It is very true that most people cannot imagine such a situation because, until we learn better, our eyes deceive our hearing. Our ears always tell us the true story but our eyes clearly see the loudspeakers and the source of the sound is clearly (visually) the loudspeakers. Our sight overrides our ear's perception of the sound and convinces us that we are hearing the loudspeakers. And if we are quite close to the loudspeakers, this perception is absolutely true. But set back in the traditional audiophile listening position, we are too far away from the speaker to clearly hear them. It is the room filled with sound that we are actually listening to.
The efforts expended in adding acoustical treatment to the room are intended to quiet the overpowering reflective voice of the room so we can better acoustically listen to our high quality loudspeakers. A very odd thing happens as the room acoustic is quieted down, the loudspeakers actually disappear and the sonic impression of where the sound is coming from occurs on an invisible sonic stage that spreads the width of the room and even wraps around the listener. It is much deeper that the distance the speakers are located off the front wall. Not only is there a lateral expanse to the sound stage but a depth as well. In a great sounding room, even the best speaker falls silent, and becomes the sculpture of the ever changing sound stage. But, enough of what the end of the trail looks like for now, let's look into what the humble beginning of this same trail looks like.
The performance of rooms that have been treated with even just a few TubeTraps is always improved. But the description of the improved performance at first seems to defy logic, and it certainly defies one's initial expectations. From the audiophile's perspective a number of expected results are amply realized. Adding TubeTrap bass traps into the corners of the room does seem to smooth out the bass response. It removes bass boom. The bass becomes more dynamic, more lively, musical compared to its formerly sluggish nature. The bass extension down into the first octave is readily noticed, it picks up more bottom end. And this is what one expects to hear when the bass response in the room is better controlled.
However, another whole range of improvements are also accounted for, improvements in the treble range that are not particularly sensitive to the position of the inset treble diffusion panels. These improvements in the treble performance belong to the improvement in the bass performance. Because the bass sound levels cannot build up, the bass levels are more normalized to the rest of the musical spectrum. Formerly hidden details in the treble range are being revealed and the bass build-up becomes controlled. Along with this are the impression of increased musicality and imaging. Additionally, the listening space seems to take the character of a fantasy space, something much larger, more spacious but not more vacuous, than the small dimensions of the physical listening room.
And so we have learned that there is a lot of sound masking going on in loud listening rooms. As the room is quieted down, the sound masking effects are reduced and more subtle musical and imaging information becomes audible. Curiously, adding treble range sound panels and diffusers do not clear up these masking problems because these masking problems are caused by excessive bass buildup, and only bass traps can address this aspect of small room acoustics.
ASC has been and continues to be the sole manufacturer of TubeTraps since their inception in 1984. All models of the TubeTrap, other bass traps and a wide assortment of over 100 specialty audio acoustic products and devices can be purchased factory direct.
Every TubeTrap comes with a 30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you don't like it, send it back and we'll refund your money, no questions asked.
We manufacture a wide variety of TubeTraps and every one of them is hand made by craftsmen and women in our own 10,000 sqft workshop in Eugene, Oregon. Each product is air tight and fiber sealed and fits an exact acoustic and physical specification.
Our origional TubeTrap, back in 1985, was 9" diameter and 3' long. Our current standard TubeTrap product line includes 9”, 11”, 13”, 16” 20” and 24” diameter bass traps. They all utilize the same patented RC-Time Constant bass trap technology and treble range diffuser panel as our original model. The larger diameter units provide more sound absorbing power because of their larger surface area and a lower roll off frequency because of their increased internal volume .
We do have a dedicated Original Tube Trap product line which is exclusively distributed through most domestic hifi dealers and select international distributors. Call the factory 800 ASC TUBE (373 8823) for additional details and price lists. We do not have on line ordering or buying at this time.
In addition to our stock product line, available factory direct or through domestic dealelrs and international distributors, we also offer a dedicated Original TubeTrap product line which is exclusively available through domestic dealers and international distributors. Call the factory 800 ASC TUBE (373 8823) for additional details and price lists. We do not have on line ordering or buying at this time.
MODEL#...COMMON NAME | NOMINAL DIAMETER | NOMINAL HEIGHT | LF CUT-OFF FREQUENCY |
9X4 FRTT......9” TubeTrap | 9” | 4 ft | 110 Hz |
11X4 FRTT....11” TubeTrap | 11” | 4 ft | 90 Hz |
13X4 FRTT....13” TubeTrap | 13” | 4 ft | 70 Hz |
16X4 FRTT 16” TubeTrap | 16” | 4 ft | 55 Hz |
20X4 FRTT....20” TubeTrap | 20” | 4 ft | 40 Hz |
Stock Colors:
- Black
- Silver Papier (Silver Grey)
- Grey Mix (Medium Grey)
- Medium Grey (Charcoal)
- Quartz (Tan / Beige)
*Custom Colors available at minimum Extra Charge
Order your Tubetrap reflective bass trap today!
In addition to the wide variety of standard TubeTraps available we provide an even wider variety of modified TubeTraps. Some modifications are superficial, belonging to the shape of the TubeTrap. Other modifications are changes to the interior space of the Trap, where it has been fit with some sort of performance enhancing feature.
It is not unusual for a corner to not be 90 degrees but some other angle. Still, the owners might want a TubeTrap that fits the odd angle corner snugly. Other modifications to shape include changing the end cap angle from 90 degrees to some other odd angle, so the units can be butted together in a continuous form.
We add absorption enhancing elements inside what appears to be an ordinary TubeTrap. The most common upgrade along this line is the SuperTrap, where about 1/3rd of the TubeTrap has been restricted in performance so that its available working volume is transferred over to enhance the performance of the other 2/3rds of the trap. This is the SuperTrap, a broad band modification of the TubeTrap and it typically extends the roll off frequency of the TubeTrap by ½ octave lower.
We add sound canceling elements to the inside of some TubeTraps. Usually it is a tuned Helmholtz resonator that provides the sound canceling effect inside the TubeTrap. But an active sound canceling unit can also be mounted inside the TubeTrap
We also make TunedTraps. These units are specifically tuned for powerful absorption at a particular frequency. The entire tuning system fits inside the outline of the TubeTrap, so these Tuned, and the SuperTraps look just like the Stanadard TubeTraps. TunedTraps act like SuperTraps in the lowest register but at the resonant frequency the backpressure buildup inside the TubeTrap goes to zero due to the sound canceling effects of the Helmholtz resonator inside the TubeTrap. This wide variation of TubeTraps are all available within the standard TubeTrap product line.
Customized TubeTraps include modifications to standard traps and specialty BassTraps. Examples of modifications might include a hole running through a TubeTrap so a stiff power cord can be lugged and unplugged into a power socket without having to move the TubeTrap setup. Another modification might to notch out part of the side of a TubeTrap so that it fits close up to and around some obstruction. It is not unusual to modify a TubeTrap so that it holds a TV monitor or some other piece of artwork.
We also make true custom bass traps, usually for an acoustic designer with a particular need. All our bass traps still utilize our patented RC time constant bass trap principles but not all include our treble range diffuser. We collaborate with the designer to design and manufacture a short run of special products which meet the specifications of the job.
One current custom trap is the FlatTrap, a bass trap that is typically only 4” deep and 2’ square, that is fit with a 2’ diffuser panel. It is very efficient to very low frequencies. It is fairly low cost and practically covers the entire wall and ceiling surface of heavy walled soundproof rooms. The FlatTrap is typically a semi-fnished flat black unit that is used inside of stretch wall systems. A variation of this unit includes a 2x2 diffuser mounted to the surface of the FlatTrap.
Another system of custom bass traps are VentTraps. These are basically acoustic friction elements located in one place with a duct connecting their back side to an acoustic volume that is some number of feet away. Most of our traps have the acoustic resistor wrapped around the acoustic capacitor forming an integral self contained bass trap package. These VentTraps are essentially no different than what we see in electronics, which is an electronic resistor connected to a capacitor with a wire, except in this case, the acoustic resistor is connected to the acoustic capacitor with a pipe of air.
The variety of custom bass traps seems to be limitless, and every once in a while, we build a custom bass trap that seems to have a wider application than the one it was developed for, and if people like it, this new bass traps joins our standard product line.
|
Every TubeTrap comes with a 30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you don't like it, send it back and we'll refund your money, no questions asked. |
||||||||
| Full Rounds* Sized up to: |
2’
|
3’
|
5’
|
6’
|
7’
|
8’
|
||
| 9” (110 Hz) | $380 | $472 | $498 | For Long TubeTraps, please call for availability and price. | ||||
| 11” (90 Hz) | $386 | $488 | $512 | |||||
| 13” (70 Hz) | $462 | $518 | $542 | |||||
| 16” (55 Hz) | $594 | $648 | $688 | |||||
| 20” (40 Hz) | $718 | $764 | $854 | |||||
| 24” (25 Hz) | $859 | $918 | $1046 | |||||
| Half Rounds* |
2’
|
3’
|
5’
|
6’
|
7’
|
8’
|
||
| 9” (110 Hz) | $408 | $435 | $491 | $597 | $694 | $750 | $782 | |
| 11” (90 Hz) | $440 | $468 | $521 | $622 | $694 | $759 | $812 | |
| 13” (70 Hz) | $510 | $538 | $600 | $718 | $753 | $814 | $921 | |
| 16” (55 Hz) | $592 | $639 | $686 | $797 | $866 | $934 | $1003 | |
| 20” (40 Hz) | $656 | $714 | $771 | $886 | $969 | $1020 | $1101 | |
| 24” (25 Hz) | $729 | $777 | $846 | $953 | $1036 | $1121 | $1239 | |
| Quarter Rounds* |
2’
|
3’
|
5’
|
6’
|
7’
|
8’
|
||
| 9” (110 Hz) | $413 | $435 | $507 | $597 | $688 | $750 | $793 | |
| 11” (90 Hz) | $442 | $472 | $525 | $645 | $709 | $769 | $816 | |
| 13” (70 Hz) | $507 | $547 | $622 | $723 | $758 | $820 | $921 | |
| 16” (55 Hz) | $592 | $654 | $797 | $866 | $934 | $1003 | ||
| 20” (40 Hz) | $656 | $724 | $782 | $883 | $975 | $1026 | $1103 | |
| 24” (25 Hz) | $729 | $798 | $868 | $953 | $1036 | $1121 | $1240 | |
|
SuperTraps Any TubeTrap can be ordered as a SuperTrap for an additional 20%. For Helmholtz Traps, add 25%. MonitorStands are priced the same as TubeTraps. Domestic shipping continues to get more and more expensive. Consolidated orders to the dealer is the most cost effective way to ship, although it means waiting. Larger international orders are best shipped ocean freight. Usually there is a shipper in each country that runs or has connections to a low priced route to the US. It is always best to find and arrange for pickup using your own shipper. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
