Learn How this room was tuned
Active bass absorbers
How the two PSI AVAA C214s in the rear corners take in the bass notes the room exaggerates, with electronics rather than bulk.
PSI Audio AVAA C214
Two active bass absorbers, one in each rear corner behind the sofa.
Every room exaggerates a few bass notes. Sound bounces between the walls, and at certain low frequencies the reflections stack up into room modes: one note booms and hangs on after the music has moved past it, while another almost disappears. The usual cure is bulk, with deep traps of mineral wool filling the corners.
An AVAA works the other way. Microphones inside it sense the air pressure in the corner, and its electronics drive a small loudspeaker so that the corner behaves like a much larger opening in the wall: the excess bass flows in and does not come back. It has no music input and is not wired to the system. It only listens to the room.
PSI Audio, a Swiss maker of studio monitors, invented and patented the technique and is still the only company that makes it. By PSI’s figures, a C214 absorbs as much as a passive trap up to 45 times its size.
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