Good Morning all
I'm a photographer and I want to use my images printed on fine art paper in my listening room as absorption panels by attaching them in front of thick diy panels (or panels made by a pro, that's indifferent).
Format varies from circa 43x75 cm to 110x80cm c.a.
For my artistic work I need to stick to fine art paper like this, which is cellulose based and thick.
Glossy FineArt: Hahnemuhle FineArt
I have no way to use any sonically transparent canvas as mean of printing since that would alter the images' artistic value, plus the pictures I'm exposing are samples to be shown to customers so I need to hang the real ones.
I was told that the above paper would not be suitable at all for audio purposes, so I would like to have some opinions by people with more experience than me ... I want to enjoy my listening room while showing my real work to prospective customers
I'm a photographer and I want to use my images printed on fine art paper in my listening room as absorption panels by attaching them in front of thick diy panels (or panels made by a pro, that's indifferent).
Format varies from circa 43x75 cm to 110x80cm c.a.
For my artistic work I need to stick to fine art paper like this, which is cellulose based and thick.
Glossy FineArt: Hahnemuhle FineArt
I have no way to use any sonically transparent canvas as mean of printing since that would alter the images' artistic value, plus the pictures I'm exposing are samples to be shown to customers so I need to hang the real ones.
I was told that the above paper would not be suitable at all for audio purposes, so I would like to have some opinions by people with more experience than me ... I want to enjoy my listening room while showing my real work to prospective customers
Assuming the panels you're talking about are porous absorbers (which most are) then any paper obstructing the flow of air into the porous material will reduce their effectiveness. There are other types of room treatment that you could put a photo on (resonant panels / helmholz resonators) but these are usually used across a small bandwidth usually in the low mid / bass region and as such you would need to tune and position them to treat the particular modes of a room, so you'd end up with your pictures in strange places (probably corners).
If you're interested in learning more the BBC website has a lot of research papers on the topic which I assume are available outside the UK.
If you're interested in learning more the BBC website has a lot of research papers on the topic which I assume are available outside the UK.
I would say it depends on weight / m² of the front material, where you place the absorber in the room and the dispersion pattern from your speakers.
A thick paper, canvas or plastic film in front of a resistive absorber (insulation) may actually be a better choice than a sound transparent fabric. It is (usually) the low frequencies (modes) one wish to absorb / dampen while the energy in mid and high frequencies are wanted as intact in energy as possible. Curtains, pillows, carpets and fabric upholstered furniture are good absorbers for those frequencies but quite useless for lower frequencies. Putting up absorbers with transparent fabric as front material, you may end up with a room sounding to dead (= dampened wrongly) with too short decay time for mids and highs in comparison to too long decay time in the bass, say below 250 Hz or so.
The weight / m² of your photographic paper and how it is applied plays a role for which frequencies that will readily pass through and into the absorber material. Check out enclosed pdf from Kleiner's and Tichy's book "Acoustics of Small Rooms". Besides improved reflection of higher frequencies (keeping these intact) the front material also acts as a membrane absorber and improves absorbtion of lower frequencies.
A thick paper, canvas or plastic film in front of a resistive absorber (insulation) may actually be a better choice than a sound transparent fabric. It is (usually) the low frequencies (modes) one wish to absorb / dampen while the energy in mid and high frequencies are wanted as intact in energy as possible. Curtains, pillows, carpets and fabric upholstered furniture are good absorbers for those frequencies but quite useless for lower frequencies. Putting up absorbers with transparent fabric as front material, you may end up with a room sounding to dead (= dampened wrongly) with too short decay time for mids and highs in comparison to too long decay time in the bass, say below 250 Hz or so.
The weight / m² of your photographic paper and how it is applied plays a role for which frequencies that will readily pass through and into the absorber material. Check out enclosed pdf from Kleiner's and Tichy's book "Acoustics of Small Rooms". Besides improved reflection of higher frequencies (keeping these intact) the front material also acts as a membrane absorber and improves absorbtion of lower frequencies.
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thank you all, interesting answers. I was also mulling about making a detachable frame that would allow me to change the images once (hopefully) sold.
When alone I could simply detach the pictures and enjoy listening. I think I might insert small magnets within the panel frames in order to use a metal frame. Sounds a bit complex perhaps
When alone I could simply detach the pictures and enjoy listening. I think I might insert small magnets within the panel frames in order to use a metal frame. Sounds a bit complex perhaps
I think in theory the paper types I shall be using do correspond to your equation, so the absorbers should be working under the 250 hz frequency in the case of the bigger pictures, for the smaller ones they should absorb better.
The last period you quote makes me think a bit, the foil/picture in this case would not be placed upon a perforated metal sheet, I would be simply using a slightly loose sackcloth to keep the absorber in place, not too tight.
The only tension by this setup would be on the outer frame since the picture would be attached there by its white border.
It would probably be kept down by thin a frame, so that it might somehow act as a drum skin, even if it would not be stretched tight. I might devise a way to press it down only on key points, so possibly avoiding any drum effect.
Oh, that´s *inkjet* "photographic paper" ... I had thought you were talking real , photographic emulsion coated type.
No it's exhibition type cellulose paper, made by a 500 yo mill in Germany. It is exclusively made for digital printing.
Paper is, well, it gives a sensation of being ... pure paper, a bit rugose, like certain leaves. It is not very stiff like old style chemical photo paper, it is instead easy to spoil it by clutching it roughly. It feels also less stiff than sketch paper, but two or three times thicker than that.
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