What's the point of absorbing bass??? (1 Viewer)

[Chris:-/OV]

Hi
I'm still a newbie but can someone please explain to me what's the point of absorbing bass? eg. Say you build a bass trap to absorb frequency's down to 8oHz. Are those frequency's going to sound tighter and louder if this bass trap is built successfully?
Also. I read the term "main reflection points" a lot. What are these? (please explain)
Thanks, HTF is the best

 

[Pete Mazz]

Think of your room as having mirrored walls, ceiling and floor. Now imagine your speaker's drivers as light sources. As you sit in your listening position you will see reflections of your speakers on all these surfaces. These are the first reflection points you've read about. Placing absorbers at these locations can help some rooms acoustics, and usually improve imaging.

Low freqs travel in waves around a room and cause nodes and antinodes of freq reenforcement and cancellation. Bass absorbers are used to try and absorb some of this reflected energy before it has a chance to "excite" the room. You wind up losing some SPLs, but wind up, hopefully, with flatter FR and lower reverberation time (ringing).

Pete