Acoustics and Aesthetics
At the summer NAMM Show in Nashville, TN, the Metro generated even more oohs and aahs than we hoped it would. Quite literally dozens and dozens of people - from magazine editors to big-name recording artists - termed the Metro "REALLY COOL!" It seems the market was ready for the looks and performance of the new Auralex Metro(TM).
The first thing you notice about the Metro is its unique appearance. With what may to the uninitiated seem like a random landscape of plateaus of varying depths, widths and heights, the Metro certainly stands apart from the look of other absorbent foams the marketplace has become familiar with over the past few decades. It's common knowledge that many major brands of acoustic foams exhibit poor consistency from panel to panel, so inventing a panel contour that offered an upscale appearance and superior panel-matching characteristics was a definite priority during the Metro's design phase.
Aside from offering a unique visual appearance that has already been embraced by upscale houses of worship, corporate users, recording facilities and more, there is definitely sound acoustic thinking behind the Metro's surface contour.
Without delving too deeply into the physics of sound absorption and diffusion, suffice it to say that the Metro plateaus' varying heights, widths and depths spread out in the time domain the sound that is not absorbed by the Metro, effectively softening a room's resonance peaks. By varying the amount of acoustic foam that different segments of a sound wave must pass through before striking the mounting surface, the Metro quite effectively depletes the sound wave's energy, evening out the sound that is reflected back through the Metro from the mounting surface. Also, because it takes the different segments of the sound wave different amounts of time to pass (twice) through the different thicknesses of the Metro after striking the mounting surface, the sound wave is quite effectively spread out in the time domain. So, instead of having a harsh reflection coming back off the mounting surface in unison and at full force, as would be provided by a flat piece of absorbent material, the sound wave is segmented in both frequency and in the time domain. What remains in the room is a smoother-yet-not-too-dry sonic character.
t is for these reasons that, for those users who desire an upscale look and effective modal control without having too much sonic energy removed from their room via excessive mid/hi absorption, Auralex feels the Metro is darned near the ideal solution, effectively offering both absorptive and diffusive mid/hi band benefits from one product.