Improving the Sound in My Office

Last week I showed you my new desk and office makeover. The space looked better, but it had some serious audio issues I needed to fix. As someone who’s played music most of my life, I know a bit about making music, but I’ll be honest – I didn’t know much about how sound works in a room. Rather than spend weeks learning the physics behind it all, I decided to learn from people who already knew their stuff. My research led me to focus on three main things: reflection (sound bouncing off surfaces), diffusion (sound scattering in different directions), and absorption (surfaces that catch and reduce sound).

The first project I tackled was building a bass trap for that empty corner above my desk. If you’re like me, you might be wondering what the hell a bass trap is. Well, it turns out bass frequencies love to build up in corners, creating this weird, muddy sound that doesn’t match what’s actually coming out of your speakers. The bass trap I built wasn’t just foam – it had a hard surface with holes that let some sound through to the foam behind it, while bouncing other sound back into the room at different angles. Did it work? I honestly couldn’t tell you, but at least it looked pretty cool up there.

The second project was way more ambitious – a giant wooden diffuser for the wall behind my desk. After falling down a rabbit hole of research about diffuser materials and geometry, I decided to keep it simple but with a twist. Instead of just making a static wall of wooden slats like most people do, I wanted to build something that could move and change. Each slat can slide forward and backward about an inch and a half, creating different patterns and, theoretically, different sound diffusion effects.

Building the diffuser turned into one of those projects where I just had to make things more complicated. I decided to add carved patterns across all the slats, which meant building a special frame to hold everything in place while I power carved across them. Then I had to figure out how to mount this pretty heavy piece on my concrete wall above my desk without it falling on my head. I went with a French cleat system, but the conduit running down my wall forced me to space it out from the wall a bit.

The finishing touches involved dyeing the visible wood parts with India ink to match my desk – it turned out this awesome deep black that still shows the wood grain. For an extra bit of flair, I added some LED lighting behind the slats. When you walk past it, the light creates this cool waveform effect as it shines through the gaps. Half the reason I built this thing was just to have something that looked awesome on my wall.

To test if the diffuser actually made any difference to the sound, I recorded myself talking through a cardioid microphone both before and after installing it. Look, I’m no audio expert, but I could hear some subtle differences, especially in the higher and lower frequencies. Would I have noticed if I wasn’t specifically looking for changes? Probably not. But from what I understand, room treatment is more about the combination of multiple elements working together than any single piece making a huge difference.

I still have a lot of work to do in this room. There are plenty of flat surfaces that need attention, and I’m learning as I go. Sure, these pieces look cool, but I’m not entirely confident they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. That’s why I asked my viewers to share their experiences and tips in the comments – sometimes the best way to learn is from people who’ve already been through it.

After wrapping up these projects, I’ve got a better-looking office that might sound a little better too. The diffuser adds some serious style to my wall, and even if it’s not perfect from an acoustic standpoint, it’s a start. Plus, I learned a ton about sound treatment along the way, even if I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’ll be tackling more of those problematic flat surfaces around the room. This is definitely turning into one of those projects that never really ends – but those are usually the fun ones. Thanks for hanging around, no go make something awesome!