Common Question, simple answers!
Yet a better question to ask would be do you need diffusers? Rather, this is the answer to the question. Once you figure out the need for diffusers, it becomes much easier to find the correct placement for the purpose.
If this makes sense to you, I'd redirect you to the following blogs, which detail the diffusers' functional use, and would help you determine if you really need any diffusers at all.
Now after all, if you think you need diffusers, I'd help my best in helping you place them in the right spot!
Technically, it is our 3rd blog in the Diffuser series. If you're new to this, I'd recommend checking them out to learn the hidden facts, myths, and truths about these powerful devices:
There is no rule for diffusers to be fairly honest. It is a highly debatable topic.
Some people like to place them at first reflection points, but many professionals don't.
Here is a brief outline from my perspective, which can help you get good use of diffusers. But keep in mind one thing, diffusion should always come after absorption. Diffusion is an extremely powerful tool, which is highly misunderstood, and surely, not easy to understand. In my own experience, I haven't found diffusion devices to do any good in first reflection points, but rather lack of intelligibility has been observed. Why do others find it good, I don't understand. All I'd say - different people, different approaches.
It should be used for very specific purposes, and for a few obvious ones, here's how you can place them in optimum positions, provided, the room tonal response has been optimized with enough absorption!
(These points are listed for use in Control Room, Live Rooms are pretty much subject to personal tastes)
1) Cloud: We have observed heavy diffusion right above the listening position (With 2-dimensional diffusers) has helped in creating a psychoacoustically wider and more natural stereo image
Source: Listening Room (GrayVee Acoustics)
2) Non-critical points: Any points on walls that are not critical in the speaker-to-listener path can accommodate diffusion usually. It all helps in retaining a natural tone of room, without generating any specular reflections.
3) Front Wall: Amplitude Grating Diffusion can be paired with heavy pressure-based absorption in the front wall, to again create a a perception of much natural environment for the engineer.
4) Rear Wall: While rear wall diffusion helps in broadening the soundstage for the engineer as well, it is very often used as a coloration device for clients seated in the back on the couch. Close proximity to diffusers makes you observe more of the lobing effects and direct reflections off the diffuser's surface. This produces slight bumps in the frequency range, which creates a consumer speaker-like experience for people in the back, and kind of tricks them into liking it, what they don't like in the flat frequency response!
That said, it is not a 'deception' trick. diffusers won't make bad mixes sound good to people in the back. But most people are not accustomed to the quiet detailed and falt sound of a mastering room, to them it sounds unnatural and the brain starts playing games eventually disliking the mix for no reason. Diffusers help create an environment much closer to natural conditions, which kind of helps in keeping the listeners "sane" in the rather unnatural environment.
Source: Production Suite (GrayVee Acoustics)
These were a few observations from my own designs which I actually averaged out for this one blog. In reality, there's no one-size fits all. Every room presents its own problems, and demands a different approach, unless you have the luxury to build a grounds-up studio with virtually no restrictions, in which case, a set of rules can pre-determine all the solutions and results. But practically, for most of us, it's not viable. So again, if you're going for diffusion, as I always say - you don't probably need it, 99.9% of the time it is not needed and people just add it for the sake of doing everything. It can do more harm than good if used unwisely. But if you still want to, do extensive research, don't believe everything on the internet, find data, find mentors, and then make a wise decision!
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