I placed the Tri-Traps in the two rear corners stacked two high and laid the two others on the floor behind the couch. At this point, you are pretty much done, right?

Mostly.

GiK doesn't really have any way of mounting the Tri-Traps in the corner. Why would you need to? Well, no matter what your builder says, your corners might not but perfectly square. If not, the Tri-Traps might stick out a bit. The only way to combat this is to pull them in as tight as possible. Also fighting against you is any trim around the bottom or top of your wall. Most walls have at least a few inches of baseboard. Without some sort of cutout on the bottom edge of the trap (something that might serious increase the construction cost of the trap), the baseboard will push the entire trap off the wall. If you are stacking them like I am, that means that the top trap can be over 2 inches off the wall! Some of the solutions I've seen online have been industrial Velcro (be careful, once it is on you'll probably have to destroy the trap to get it off), L-brackets, and picture hangers. I'd like to see GiK come up with a solution that can be integrated into the design. Since I'm stacking mine and had a few inches between the ceiling and the top of the top trap, I went with a more "removable" solution than the industrial Velcro. Basically, I pushed the traps back into the corner and wedged some small pieces of scrap wood between the ceiling and the top trap. This held both the traps in place and minimized the gap between the traps and the wall without being "permanent." If you have crown molding on your ceiling you're going to need to order a custom height solution to get it under the edge of the molding.

The traps are very light - almost too light. While GiK has had their traps measured and I don't doubt their effectiveness, there does seem to be a lot of extra room in there. I spoke to Glenn Kuras (owner/founder) of GiK about the traps (specifically because I didn't want to take mine apart just to see the insides) and he stated that they went with 4 lbs insulation and not a heavier one because the performance differences in this application were nominal. While I have no problem with that, having a trap with a lot of room between the front fabric and the start of the insulation was a little disconcerting at first. I'd expected a solid mass of insulation with maybe treated corners or perhaps some wood/plastic bracing at the corners.

What I found particularly disconcerting was that the back two sides of the trap were solid. I'd much prefer a more "wire" frame around the insulation. According to GiK, this solid panel is by design:

The way we build them and the materials we use provide a membrane effect to boost the low frequency absorption while at the same time, roll off upper mid and high frequency absorption. This is done to be able to properly treat a room in the bottom end without overdamping the mids and highs. Most rooms already have plenty of upper mid/high frequency absorption with carpeting, curtains, etc.

A solid panel, especially as light as the material they used, is going to vibrate. This could add noise to the room. While they are claiming that this is acting like a diaphragmatic absorber, it really is a dangerous gambit. If that membrane vibrates at a frequency that you don't need dampened, it could be adding to your problems or perhaps creating new ones. The solutions could be to either to eliminate it and go with a more frame-less solution or to stuff the trap more solidly so that the insulation itself stops any possible vibrations.

Listening Evaluation

You only have to read the Auralex review to know what I thought of the Tri-Traps' performance. In my room, almost every metric was improved - at least subjectively. From an objective measurement standpoint, my improvements were not as dramatic but I chalk that up to the fact that I could only measure one speaker from one listening position. If you factor in the sub (which wasn't included in the Auralex measurement), I'm guessing you'll see a much more dramatic improvement (as my secondary measurements with the Velodyne SMS-1 showed).

I think the more dramatic subjective difference for me was the bass response and imaging. As I mentioned in the Auralex review, the bass problems were much reduced and I could tell dramatic differences between before and after listening sessions with material like Attack of the Clones. At the beginning of the movie there is a flyover of the ships as they are landing. The bass is dramatic, deep, and sweeping which is exactly what you want for a listening evaluation. In nearly every room I've been in (including mine) you can hear how the room (and speakers in some cases) affect the sound. Instead of a slow, steady sweep, it will get louder at times and cut out at other times. The Velodyne SMS-1 helped with this quite a bit but it was still there. When I added the Tri-Traps, while it didn't completely alleviate the problem, the differences were amazing. Much more linear, much tighter, the whole experience was better.

On a more questionable note, I felt that the imaging of the room increased. While a one eared man fighting an octopus could hear the differences in the bass response, the imaging was a bit subtler. Pans were more convincing, left/right separation more defined, and the overall listening experience was increased. The Tri-Traps seemed to be taking a lot of the "noise" out of the room. This is exactly what they are designed to do and I felt they really made a big difference.

While I would normally include aesthetics as part of the setup, since you're going to be "hearing" about them more from your spouse than actually "hearing" the bass traps, I'm including it here. Let's be frank, corner traps are never going to make your spouse as excited as they are going to make you. They don't get it and that's just a fact of most of our lives. But the Tri-Traps do everything they can to minimize the confrontation. They offer multiple fabric color combinations, they are designed (with a little DIY help) to sit flush to the wall, and they are relatively small. I think the most important thing is that the edges are pointed. Other corner solutions are circular which I think looks weird. Some of the others that I've seen are pointed but a fraction of the size of the Tri-Traps. I'm sorry but the whole point of a corner trap is to reduce bass frequencies. If you're going to go through the hassle and expense, you might as well do it right. Sticking a tiny bit of material in the corner just isn't going to do it (this is physics, people, no matter how many customer reviews the competition might have). No amount of engineering can replace the physics of needing material in there to combat the sound waves as they pass through. On top of that, I couldn't find a corner trap that was even close to the Tri-Traps for value. Most cost 2x's the price of the Tri-Traps. Some more. A deal is always a good argument on the spousal front.

Conclusion

I very rarely say anything unequivocal in a review. Hold on to your hats 'cause I'm gonna to do it now. The GiK Tri-Traps will improve the sound in your room. They will. It doesn't matter the speaker or the amp. The DVD player or the processor. The Tri-Traps will help curb your bass problems. Are they a panacea? Will the fix everything? No, of course not. But ask any acoustical expert and you'll find that corner bass trapping is high up on their list of "first steps to a better sounding room." GiK makes this easy and frankly affordable. With the rest of the competition costing much more (for products that are no better and many probably much worse), the GiK Tri-Traps are a no-brainer for the enthusiast that is serious about making their room sound better.

GiK Tri-Trap Bass Traps

$258 (for 2)

GIK Acoustics USA
3065 McCall Dr, Unit 8
Atlanta, GA 30340

1.888.986.2789

www.gikacoustics.com

About GIK Acoustics
GIK Acoustics is committed to making sure all of our products have certified testing. Would you buy a monitor without a data sheet? We think acoustics should be the same. All GIK products are tested at Riverbank Acoustical Laboratories and we are able to provide you with certified absorption reports for the GIK 244 Acoustic Panel and the GIK Monster Bass Trap.