Diffusion vs. Absorption on Sidewalls?

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Hi all,
I've built a set of 4 aborbing panels from Jon Risch's recipe. I made them about 30" wide by 5' tall and they are elevated by the wood frame so they cover the center portion of the walls. I've placed 2 on the wall behind the speakers and 2 on the side walls. All are spaced about 6" off the walls.
They certainly have done the trick in absorbing reflections, killing slap echo, and drastically improving imaging. After some playing around, I realized that the absorbers on the side walls make sibilance much more noticeable, especially on female vocals when the singer takes a breath too close to the microphone or pronounces esses. Removing the side wall absorbers really helps the problem on these recordings and restores some spaciousness, but now the slap echo is back and the soundstage is not quite as wide. The absorbers are wide enough to cover the first and 2nd reflection points and I tried moving them fore and aft to dial in a little more reflection but this only seemed to give the worst of both worlds.
I was thinking of trying diffusion on the side walls, but I haven't seen much in the way of cheap DIY diffusors and little mention of using diffusion on the side walls. I haven't got around to it, but I am going to hang some limp plastic over the side wall absorbers to see if the added reflection will improve spaciousness and lower sibilance. I was also thinking of trying the DIY room lenses but I've heard they work poorly with other acoustic treatments and I would like something that is a bit more linear of the frequency spectrum than the lenses. Any ideas?
tia,
Dan

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Topic - Diffusion vs. Absorption on Sidewalls? - Dan E. 14:19:29 09/16/00 (8)

Re: Diffusion vs. Absorption on Sidewalls? - Jon Risch 08:52:14 09/17/00 (2)

will you ever design a DIY diffussor Jon? (nt) - Mikenificent1 20:34:11 09/17/00 (1)

Re: will you ever design a DIY diffussor Jon? (nt) - Jon Risch 10:40:14 09/18/00 (0)

You might want to try this instead... - Frosty 20:07:22 09/16/00 (1)

Re: You might want to try this instead... - geoffkait 03:18:33 09/17/00 (0)

Re: Diffusion vs. Absorption on Sidewalls? - geoffkait 16:33:20 09/16/00 (2)

more questions for you Geoffkait - Dan E. 07:02:11 09/17/00 (1)

How many bottles of beer on the wall? (somewhat long) - geoffkait 10:57:12 09/17/00 (0)

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