The Bastoni design is a bass trap, a treble diffuser and a treble absorber, quite like many products from ASC. However, unlike most other ASC products, the Bastoni has the treble diffuser and the treble absorber mounted in opposite directions, which creates a whole new class of absorbing diffusers also known as Abfusers.
Bass Trap: The Bastoni system is a hollow cavity created out of a bent panel that has been slotted. In the slot openings a fiberglass panel is placed. We have an acoustic flow resistor that leads to a sealed air cavity, which is an RC type bass trap, like TubeTraps. The size of the slot compared to the air cavity inside determines the low frequency roll off.
The wall of the bass trap resists deformation because it is a flat panel pre-stressed into the shape of a curve. In typical applications the acoustic area to internal volume ratio in feet is less than 1.0, which means this bass trap goes to very low frequencies, in the range of 20 to 30 Hz.
Treble Diffuser: This system uses the very smooth reflecting properties of a convex parabola surface. The parabolic shape is created by edge loading a thin panel. When treble range sound that is traveling in line with this parabolic surface it is uniformly scattered in all directions. It is uniformly dispersed, or spread out. A parabola is the perfect diffuser because it reflects sound with equal loudness in all directions perpendicular to its surface. The intensity of the reflections can be adjusted by changing the amount of bending: the more bent, the more dispersed the reflection.
Treble Absorber: This is a sound fin type of absorber. Most sound panels are mounted flat on a wall. The sound panel here is mounted on edge, perpendicular to the surface of the diffuser. This arrangement allows sound that is perpendicular to the axis of the diffuser to reach and be reflected by the diffusing surface. At the same time sound that approaches the diffusing surface at an angle is blocked by the sound fin and absorbed.

This arrangement of acoustical elements encourages diffusion in one direction and absorbs sound traveling in the other direction. It is more than just a 2-dimensional diffuser, it is a 2-dimensional absorber and the directions of these two operators are perpendicular to each other.
The original BastoniTrap was 4’x8′ in size and had 7 – 12 x 44″ panels edge set into the 2″ slots in the face of the bent panel. It stood upright, with the edge mount sound panels held in the horizontal position, looking something like shelves.
The panel part of the Bastoni scattered treble-range sound horizontally. The edge-mounted sound fins absorbed treble energy circulating in the room the vertical direction. Playback rooms with carpets do not have vertical ambience but rooms with hardwood or tile floors, there is plenty of vertical ambience.
The Bastoni combines a bass trap with treble-range lateral diffusion and treble range-vertical absorption. It smoothes out the bass response for audio, voice or instruments the room while it redirects slap-back and echo into sound that is circulating in the horizontal plane. The vertical reflecting surfaces of the BastoniTrap create a seemingly endless set of quieter and quieter reflections coming from “everywhere” around the listener or microphone. A pattern of these traps around the room creates a very smooth, clear sounding space suitable for listening or microphone work. The apparent size of the room sonically disappears and is replaced with a large-feeling, yet unspecific, spacious space.
In a nutshell, you get three acoustic properties in one product. If allowed to vent into the ceiling, the Panel provides bass absorption to less than 20 Hz. It’s also not limited to use in a “T-bar” grid, the BastoniPanel can also be mounted with 4 screws to a wall or ceiling. A directional abfuser, it absorbs sound from one direction and scatters it toward another, all while working as a bass trap.
The BastoniPanel was designed for use in a 2’ x 2’ suspended acoustic ceiling “T-bar” grid. It offers all the benefits of treble diffusion, bass absorption and bass trapping found in our Bastoni diffuser system. This product is perfect for providing the diffusion needed in high end listening rooms.