Sound Absorption Barn Doors

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In photography we have barn doors for light to keep the light from spilling onto unwanted areas. With room treatment, we are trying to prevent sound waves from bouncing off the walls and too our ears, adding a delayed sound.

The problem I have with room treatment is the cost and aesthetics of it all. What if we could make broadband absorption "barn doors" or barriers for our speakers to reduce the amount of absorption/diffusion needed in a room. They would be placed so that the sound never makes it too that section of wall. It reminds me of a barrier for ambiophonics.

Is there any merit to this and has it been done?
 
...These are not my photos, so let me know if that is an issue.
 

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diyAudio Moderator
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Yes it can be done but it's not that simple. Bass absorption takes too much material. If you try to deal with discreet lower midrange modes you end up with large chunks of it all over the place. Besides, what about holes. Absorption won't fix narrowing, or lobing and their affect on the reverberant field, unless you absorb that too ;)
 
Unfortunately sound waves do not behave quite like visible light. Visible light waves have tiny wavelengths of the order of a few hundred nano-metres.

Low frequency sound will have wavelength of many feet, higher frequencies a few inches.

Building absorbers or reflectors for sound waves is thus a different proposition than trying to control light, which is both small and the range involved quite narrow.
 
As AllenB was touching in his last comment, you can use walls to direct the sound towards an area. This is commonly seen in control rooms with people doing what they call Live End Dead End (LEDE, which is often applied wrongly as this is a very specific room design, not just concept, but I'm getting off base here).

Moveable room treatments are a thing too, often referred to as Gobo. As AllenB said, it needs to be thick, but there is no reason it can't be moveable.

As for cost and aesthetic, there are options. Why not do similar to what move theaters do, a bunch of pink fluffy insulation behind fabric walls? Can make it thick and then hide it pretty well.
 
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