How a Barrel Sound Diffuser Panel Works

Hard, flat walls throw sound straight back into a room. In a band room, church or studio that means slap-back off the rear wall, ringing between parallel walls and a sound that is harsh up close and muddy at the back.

A barrel diffuser replaces that flat surface with a curved one. Sound hitting the rounded face is spread across a wide arc instead of bouncing back in a single beam, so each reflection arrives weaker and from more directions. The room keeps its energy and liveliness – the diffuser does not absorb it – but the echoes that made it hard to play or listen in are broken up. Acousticians also call this shape a polycylindrical diffuser.

Where to Use Barrel Acoustic Diffusers

• Band rooms and orchestra rehearsal rooms – a row along the upper walls stops the loud sections bouncing back at the players.
• Churches and worship spaces – rear and balcony walls, so congregational singing and music stay full without echoing.
• Choral rooms – singers hear the blend of the whole group rather than the wall behind them.
• Recording studios and home studios – the rear wall of a control room or live room.
• Performance halls and multipurpose rooms – long, hard walls above head height.

The curved face also makes barrels an easy fit where a room has to look finished. Wrapped in fabric they read as a feature wall rather than equipment, and in the standard white finish they sit quietly against most painted walls.

How to Mount Barrel Diffusers: Orientation and Spacing

A barrel spreads sound across its curve, not along it, so which way it faces decides where the sound goes:

• Curve running up and down – spreads sound side to side across the room. The usual choice for rear walls.
• Curve running side to side – spreads sound up and down, useful on high walls and under balconies.
• Alternate them in a grid – mixing the two orientations spreads sound in both directions across a large wall.
• Keep them above head height and a few feet or more from the players or listeners, so the scattered sound has room to spread out.

Pair them with sound absorbing wall panels: absorb where echo lasts too long and at the first reflection points, and diffuse the rear and upper walls. A room treated only with absorption sounds dead. Diffusion keeps the life in it.

Barrel Diffuser Panel Sizes, Finishes and Fabric Colors

• Four sizes – 2′ x 2′, 2′ x 4′, 4′ x 4′ and 4′ x 6′. Sizes are nominal: each panel is 1″ shorter in each direction, so a 2′ x 4′ measures 23″ x 47″.
• Standard finish – a clean white plastic face.
• Fabric finish – wrapped in FR701 fabric in 44 colors, to match or contrast with the rest of the room. See the FR701 fabric colors.
• Fiberglass backing – optional on either finish, adding absorption behind the curved shell.

Pick the size and finish from the menus above. For a fabric finish, choose the color in the fabric menu; for the standard finish, leave it on “None”.

Want sound scattered in every direction instead? See the Pyramid Sound Diffuser Panel.