BVE 2016: Suck up the Bass with this new PSI Audio AVAA C20
Wait, what’s that?! A little black box that you simply plug into a power outlet and it will suck up your room’s resonant bass frequencies? Designed to draw out lumps between 15Hz and 120Hz, PSI claim their new AVAA C20 is as effective as an acoustic bass trap 4 times the size. Is this a groundbreaking solution for those difficult rooms, or will it suck?
A common misconception when designing an acoustic space or treating an existing structure is that you have to try and absorb all frequencies. Although this is very effective for most frequencies, if you’re in a small to medium sized room, there is little you can do about the very low end. You’re much better off letting those frequencies escape somehow. That is unless you can “suck” them out with this new acoustic absorber from PSI.
I myself have just setup some monitoring in a domestic environment for additional workflow reasons and, as expected, there are lumps in the lower frequencies. As it’s a domestic environment, huge bass traps don’t seem appropriate, so this is really intriguing. As nearly all of us work out of small facilities these days for at least some of the time – if not all – this looks like a great alternative.
It’s not much to look at, just a black box with a grill on the front shaped to fit in the corner of a room where bass trapping is usually required. It is designed to absorb standing modes between 15 and 120 Hz in a room by acting like “a hole in the wall much larger than the dimensions of the AVAA”. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t very clear how the AVAA works. It appears to measure the incoming sound waves with a microphone and counter-act them with a transducer style membrane, without emitting the polar opposite wave.
I’m really curious to try a pair of these AVAA’s and feel this is the perfect time for a product release like this. However, listed with one UK distributor for 1,586.00 GBP ex.VAT each, having just a pair would cost more than most home studio monitor systems. They recommend having a minimum of 4 in a small to medium sized room which soon adds up to a lot of money. Personally, until I try these, I can’t help but feel they’ve priced them out of the market they’re ideal for.
More Information: http://www.psiaudio.com/en/our-products/avaa-c20/
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