Acoustic panels that actually look GOOD 

🔥The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/zacbuilds01211🔥

There needs to be a clear distinction between SOUND PROOFING ... and ACOUSTICAL TREATMENT. They are entirely different things - and hence why different materials are typically used for each application. If you are trying to sound proof a room - you are largely concerned with sound transmission - and will largely be working at the level of room construction,. If you are trying to improve the sound within a room - you are largely concerned with sound absorption, and preventing the build-up of reflected sound within the space. The sciences and materials used in pursuit of each objective are distinctly different.

Zac, a few suggestions. 1. Float your panel a few inches off the walls. 2. Place your panels for primary reflections (think of mirror reflections from you to microphone off walls…if you’re not already doing this. 3. (Perhaps the last large improvement) Put panels on the ceiling (and thick rugs on the floor).

"Better to be too big than too small." My man why you gotta do me like that.

Hey Zac, fellow Canadian checking in! Appreciate the videos, but I'd like to clear up some misinformation for people reading the comments! The foam panels you show at the beginning only reduce flutter echo and are a cheap, not-so-great solution. They are not similar to the diffusion panel you made because diffusion and absorption are different concepts. As an aside, the wooden diffuser could've been improved by using an online calculator for proper block lengths and placement rather than randomly gluing pieces. Back to the panels, there's a reason why thicker panels are used and that's because they're meant to absorb sound waves. Sonopan is a material used for sound proofing, which is different than sound treating. The purpose of Sonopan is to keep the sound from travelling through the wall, but if you use it in a panel, it's like covering up a wall by adding another wall. Rockwool does a much better job letting sound waves bounce around and get "trapped" in the panel. Finally, flutter echo is not the only thing you're trying to fix with sound treating. A major issue is bass build up, which is at its worst in triplanar areas (corners). Panels should be placed where you're likely to have first reflections, but also in corners to mitigate bass build up. Your room has multiple windows and tall ceilings which is kind of a nightmare for acoustic treatment. You could certainly do it, but you'd need a lot more panels and better placement for more effective treatment. There really isn't a huge difference in your audio test. Hope this helps you and other people reading and if you want to hear my own DIY acoustic panels at work, feel free to check out my music. Cheers!

The corners are always the worst part of covering frames with fabric. But always start each side in the center of all sides and work your way toward the corners. It makes it much easier to keep it all smaooth and straight

I’ve just made similar panels but using 3-4 bath towels, stretched and stapled into the frame, covered with a quality black bed sheet. They work great. I had the wood from old bed slats and the towels were $2 each (from a hotel) so they cost me around $10 each to make. They are very large.

Ok, first the big problem with the foam panels, besides their being ugly, is that they only absorb in the very upper frequencies, which definitely helps but is not ideal. The reason why Rockwool is chosen is due precisely to it's thickness. The thicker the panel, the greater the sound absorption and the better it performs at absorbing a wider range of frequencies (but not bass, that is a whole other story). The other thing most folks do not do is to mount the panels a few inches off the walls, which when measuring shows significant increase in sound absorption across a maximum frequency range. And the viewed below is entirely correct that sound absorption and sound proofing are very different goals requiring different materials. Those stiff, flat panels may reflect sound waves as much as they absorb them, which is not that much help, whereas rockwool will not tend to produce any reflections. It should also be mentioned that sound diffusion panels should be constructed and installed along with absorption panels, at nearly 50/50 ratio, and some will suggest mixing them along any given wall space. But hey, much better to treat your walls with something vs nothing. I have seen so many pictures of extremely expensive top line hifi systems set up in entirely untreated rooms, which likely sounded horrible.

There’s a trick for getting upholstery tight and wrinkle free. Start with one staple tacking down each side, then do opposite sides working from the middle outwards. For the tacks, put a small scrap of cardboard in there so you can easily pull out the staple if needed. I’d start with the two long sides, pulling tight both across and away from the tack. Pulling both ways will keep it nice and taught the whole way across. After that, you might find that the ends are too loose and need pulled tighter, you can rip off the cardboard and there’s space to get a flat head in without damaging the fabric. For the corners, stop a few inches from the corner. This is where cutting off the extra really helps, all that excess makes it harder to keep it looking nice. What you want to do is cut off the corner at a 45, leaving the sides longer. This is one of those spots where you need to fudge things, the less excess you have the easier it is to hide the extra in the back. Cutting off the extra also keeps bulky fabrics from getting too thick. If you think of something like leather, it’s about 1/32 to 1/8” thick, having 3-4 layers at the corner can be enough to prevent staples from biting the wood and creates enough bulk to keep the seat of a dinning room chair from sitting flush against the frame (think about posts and apron pieces). With the trimmed corners, fold up the long side. You can tack it on the back and on the short side to keep things nice and smooth. The staple on the short side will get covered when you fold up that side. With that side done, you can take your time folding up the last edge until you get it looking nice. Don’t worry about anything more than 1” past the corner, you can cut that off and ignore it (that’s where you’re fudging it, only the actual corner needs to look good).

It definitely improves the sound, but you can only go so far if you want to keep it minimal. Cause there's still quite clear echo from it just being a small room with parallel surfaces. Some random easy things to improve it could be carpet, close curtains, open closet. You could try tackling some nice basstraps in another video.

Recently found your channel and been binge watching. You attention to detail is how I work myself. Im not a professional carpenter but a retired auto body tech so perfection is still how I approach any projects car/home related. Love the channel dude keep on rocking!!

The thing with sounds is the"frequency" wave length absorptions of the material used.. So the thickness and material density has a great absorption. High pitch is easily absorb, because of small wave length. The lower frequency like bass are longer wave length, therefore need more material to be absorbed. So rockwool versus sonopan and how thick you go. Both would the best but at different wave length. The ultimate would be using both, and varying the thickness.

Those panels indeed look very good. However, I would suggest that to make the difference more noticeable in the test recording, you should record from a slight distance to the microphone so it has a chance to mix up with the room sound too. At a closer distance, the primary sound source (your voice) is too strong to be affected much by the room reflections. Cheers

Hey Zac, great idea! Sound tech here and I see so many people in the DIY space turning to definitely less safe options like fiberglass insulation in their home-made panels. It was great to see an alternative use for something like Sonopan. Honestly, and this is probably due more to how perhaps have your Yeti set up with its back/rejection towards the windows (particularly if you have it set to any thing other than omni), I heard the most monumental change on your lav mic even before you started doing the tests so it’s definitely doing the job! Though it still did help tame some of the mids/upper mids for a definitely cleaner sound over the Yeti. Great idea!

Great video. I've been having to record at home for nearly two years and my main room for recording can always do with more panels to absorb reverb.

I've seen this video a hundred times by a hundred different creators. This is by far my favorite because you took the time to research the plausibility of using a different damping material. Good job.

Great Effect 👍 I did some "Bass Traps" out of cheap foam mattresses and made the frames out of drywall frames. Reason for these frames is that I needed to shape the absorbers triangular to fit floor to ceiling in my funny shaped "under the roof" listening room 🦇 and I didn't have woodworking tools. Keep on spreading ideas in your very pleasant style and thank You 💚

I built some with rockwool insulation in a wooden frame, then I got burlap coffee bags from a local roaster and stapled them over it. They looked fantastic and worked a treat.

This definitely looks so much better! I love how sleek they look! I gotta get some Sonopan next time I’m in Canada! I also love the sign and the backlighting! That plus the sound absorption panels makes the office look really clean and nice! I need to make some, and the fact that I’m not working with loose insulation is something that sounds great to me! I can’t stand working with insulation! Great video

Love the video thank you! Just an FYI if you have thicker panel’s then they will capture more low end frequencies. You would also prefer to float them off the wall about an inch so sound can get behind the panels and be captured as well.

We did this with rock wool and about 180 panels. Stripping down wood from our old pews to use as frames for my church sanctuary. It took a long time. We used thicker material and took two people per panel to stretch fabric as we stapled it and got it down pretty well.

I'd recommend the Bessey Corner clamps, each side have their own little clamp so you can prefit your test piece and keep one side clamped so you can get a tighter fit between the seams

Great idea! I'm always on the lookout for new sound absorption materials. I'm going to give this one a try!

old school tip: start stretching from the middle, outward to the corners -- while pulling fabric flat/wrinkless. don't pull too tight, dependings on fabric.

Sound better! Nice. Thanks for sharing the build! Curtains make a huge difference as the windows will be causing a lot of reflections. Some sound blankets (from B and H) up on the ceiling make a huge difference in my home project studio, too and they never appear in the background.

I have various canvas prints on my wall - if the frames are 1" thick, presumably I can just put this Sonopan straight into the back of the frames and get some acoustic dampening from those, which seems great

The new panels definitely look better. When it comes to acoustic treatment. Different thicknesses of the panels and a variation of material affect the different represented frequencies which cause the reverb. And the placement of the panels is just as important especially when we live in square or rectangular rooms.

Magnets !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh heck Zac, that's THE answer to cover my metal door. The noise in and out of door gaps are the worst. Now I can cover the gaps easily and simply release the magnets if I need the door. Brilliant.

On my phone, the difference in audio was very minimal. But I definitely agree that the wide open windows are an issue, too.

Fabric can definitely have a huge impact on reflected acoustics. There's a reason speaker grill cloths look the way they do.

From my laptop, I wasn't able to hear a difference. However, when I put in my headphones, it was a big difference. Great work man!

I'm going for a minimal, all-white '2001: A Space Odyssey' look for my studio and it's hard finding white acoustic foam (that doesn't yellow). I think I'll follow this tutorial to make my own panels. Thank you

Nice concept. I did something similar for my home studio a few years ago. I used 2x4 ceiling tiles for my acoustic dampening material. Framed them with 1x2 pine, so there would be an empty space behind the ceiling tile material. Much of the sound is absorbed by the ceiling tiles at first contact. Any sound that gets through the ceiling tile (transmission) hits the wall, and has to go back through the tile again to affect the room acoustics. Covered each panel with felt from the fabric store (alternating between black and dark red panels). Ceiling tile is not quite as efficient as Rockwool or other materials (I started with Rockwool but the project would have been very pricey). However, my budget solution still made a big difference in my studio, and the cost was very reasonable. The stiffness of the ceiling tiles made them much easier to work with compared to rockwool. I made 10 total panels, used primarily on 2 opposite walls. Thought about making some panels for the corners of the room, too. I have wood-laminate flooring, so another huge help was laying a large area rug on the floor.

Although the panels reduce reverb, there is still significant reverb. It's largely because you are only covering a relatively small portion of the wall surface.

There may be an added benefit by spacing the panels about 1" from the wall. The space would act as a trap and the exposed surface area of the back side may add a tiny bit more. This is usually done on ceiling panels.

Beautiful build. I like the sleek look. Add one more panel above your recording PC. I did this on my setup and it helped a lot with reverb and echo, when I play at night times and could here myself talk. Also I will try to find that material here in Germany and build one for myself.

I would definitely be interested in the comparison to rockwool, I'm planning a studio right now and would love to know what performs better. There's not a lot of info about it online - I could only find one sparse reddit thread on the subject. There's one single comment suggesting that because sonopan is designed for soundproofing (stopping sound transmission between rooms), it may not be as optimized for sound absorption (because the sound reflecting back is not the primary concern, but rather just whether it can pass through.) Sonopan left a comment saying it's effective for acoustic treatment but does not offer NRC data for comparison to insulation like rockwool (and of course they would say that.) Rockwool safe n sound is the most popular option, but their comfortboard 80 may be better because it's more dense and absorbs more of the problematic low frequencies. A comparison to either of those would be really helpful since no such comparison seems to exist at the moment. Opinions on acoustic treatment seem to vary incredibly widely even among experts, so deciding what to buy is difficult as an amateur. Being able to listen to the difference 1:1 would be a big help.

Great video! I've got a bunch of sonopan I want to use to make a sound dampening box for my compressor at the shop!

This is cool. I love building my own things vs. buying them. It saves money and custom is almost always better. I think the size of the room plays a big factor with sound deadening. (think of the referee in a football stadium echo!) If you covered the walls and ceiling with these panels in a small closet, the sound would be perfect. You still have lots of area that will bounce the sound around. Many people overlook the floor and ceiling. Have you ever talked inside an empty room with hardwood flooring? 6 faces of echo! If I am not mistaken, isn't there mathmatical equations of how many panels are needed in a room depending on size? I've heard putting panels on a 45degree angle on wall corners top to bottom really helps.

When you attach a fabric to a frame, *start from the middle* of the length, a couple stapples, then do *the opposide side,* also couple stapples, after you've _stretched the textile_ a bit. Then do the two other sides thes same way. Then, stapple some more spots, each time going from center to corners and stretching the fabric a little bit. Stapple the corners in the end.

Instant sub! My entire entertainment room is done in nautical and the whole reason I've had the panels for 9 months and never installed them, is I don't want to ugly-up my Atlantis vibe. I understand that if you have a couple inches of air between the doubled panels, they're more effective, but that would defeat your goal of the low-profile anesthetics.

One way to make those panels even more special is you can get some custom printed fabric (printful is one company that does this, but there are many) and you can cover them in that fabric with any pattern you want to use.

I'm not handy so I love watching your videos. This time I watched with my 8 year old son, who also enjoyed it! Keep them coming!!

You would also benefit from bass traps where any two or three flat surfaces (two walls > ceiling or floor) meet. They absorb rogue low frequencies where they gather up in corners. I see you have an RPG diffusor, which is great. You can also use bookshelves at empty wall spots filled with books on the shelves at random depths, to form a non-uniform face of spines on each shelf. Parallel surfaces are the enemy, so if you can slightly pitch your ceiling or use an acoustic ceiling cloud, it helps a lot.

here in germany we can buy rockwool in plenty different thicknesses, 4cm to 10cm in 1cm increments. that's 1.6 inches up to 4 inches in 0.4 inch increments in imperial units. but wood fiber acoustic panels are absolutely a thing even in recording studios. they are generally speaking more efficient in absorbing bass frequencies though. towards the highs they are less absorbant and more reflective, atleast compared to rockwool.

Looks Good! some full wall height heavy curtains over the windows will also make a big impact

This is fantastic. I need a few panels like this.

I bet cutting sono pan at a 45° angle and mounting in the panels would help a bit, but then they may not hold in as well as yours did. Awesome build and good way to show everyone that it can be easier to do than most people think, if you have some tools or at least access to them. I would love to give this a shot, as I like the lower profile compared to rock wool. Keep up the amazing content

Thank you for including your mistakes, It makes the videos more realistic and relatable.

I definitely interested in knowing how the sound gets effected relative to other minerals. I would also love to know how to mount a panel with some space from the wall like an inch or two out for the mineral to capture more with less material contents but still remain sturdy and safe for home appliance or startup office. I'd also love to know how that effects the sound and if it rivals commercial bass traps.

Zac, you took the idea right out of my head. I have been wondering if Sonopan could be used effectively as sound absorption panel filler!

Great panels, I used dollar store towels in a canvas for my panels but I like this better. Might even make a few DML speakers and put it all together.

well done Sir. and thank you! for ironing those panels. really helps the OCD not seeing creases everywhere

I'm sure someone already said this so throw this comment away if not needed 😊 but float those panels off the wall a bit. Air is the best dampener. Think about the angles of sound absorption like light bouncing off a mirror. Put panels up in the spots the "light source" (your mic) would bounce light back toward itself.. Also, treat your ceiling the same way. With the ceiling, however, you might want to angle the panels towards your mic set-up. I'm guessing you have hardwood floors so I would also put a nice big rug down (something with some plush or cushion) and maybe some stuff in the corners of the room. Bookshelves full of books work great if you're not trying to build bass traps 😁 All those "not a pro" suggestions aside. Awesome video. Definitely gives me ideas for my studio 😎👍

Anything is better than nothing! Looking great :) Something to note, you do want something thicker to absorb lower frequencies/more frequencies. Having something on the walls will help with super high frequencies and get rid of the “ping” sound some spaces have. For watchers, before making a similar project make sure to research materials, frequencies and absorption coefficient(you could get super nerdy about this stuff but for most, there’s no need to). This controls how the room sounds, not if the sound gets out of the room. Cheers

Very nice video. Hopefully you get great use out of them for many years ahead. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work zac. Keep making. God bless.

You had me at "I'm just ironing my sound panels" LOL!😂😂😂

This is good for the highest frequencies and reflections, but like others have said, for a more even frequency response space from wall and I’d even double up those pads. With sound waves, distance matters. Only the shortest waves will be affected up against the wall

I have made 4 panels of 1.2 x 2.5 meter with 80mm rock wool, standing from floor to ceiling dividing the living room in 2 separate rooms but are only friction fit with foam and is easy to move. I plan to move 1 or 2 panels to the wall making a passage and join the two rooms during the summer. The difference is a lot bigger than your smaller panels, it's almost completely dead. Just some window and ceiling reflections remain but these are caught quicly and don't bounce around in the room anymore. I also saved 1000 euro's of the energy bill per year, so the cost was recovered two fold in just one year. The rockwool isn't so bad, just unroll in the frame, fix with some screws, cover with canvas, very little dust while building and no dust when covered. And no saw required to cut panels, just a sharp knife, drill, hand saw and a stack of 90mm wide boards. I've placed 3.6mm plywood boards as backing to make it airtight.

I wish I could source sonopan locally, but can't so I went with dense recycled foam. Tip... I ordered a few extra sound absorbing curtains when I did my windows so that I could use that fabric to cover the panels. They match/blend in with the window treatment and with their extra felt linings, it provided a bit extra sound absorption. Put the felt on first wrapping front and rear, then use the top layer of the curtain to finish the panels off. Make sure to mount the panels an inch or two off the walls if possible... improves performance. I luck out... my main diffusion "panel" is a large 8x9' rubble stone fireplace directly opposite to my AV setup. Works perfectly to breakup the sound and I only needed a few acoustic panels opposite the sliding doors to the patio I put the curtains on (both to the sides of the AV setup).

Nice option for sound panels. I haven’t seen that material before. For sure those blinds will help.

I enjoyed your video (and another recent one with ceiling panels). When I looked up Sonopan, they seem to be CA only. This led me down a rabbit hole of other options, and I'm seriously thinking about getting an 8-pack of 2'x4' acoustic ceiling tiles (which are cheap) and framing around them. Getting photos printed on fabric would be more expensive, but fun and a great options for restaurants looking to make their dining rooms quieter.

Try to do sound acoustic with the same basic frame but inside put 5/8 layers of towels... I saw this experiment on some YT channel i dont remember but the sound was so stupid good that i was blown away! Even better than professional acoustic panels . The sound was perfect , no reverb and a perfect straight line from lows's to high Freq. !

LOL, "a little fussing and a lot of swearing...", I can relate. I found a replacement for an overused expletive, "fork".

ZAC is proof that communication is 90% of success.

Looks great and works well!

The point of Rockwool is mass absorption, and it works AMAZING when you install it right. Inside walls it is mostly going to kill midrange and bass noises, and won't be as effective for higher frequencies, but that isn't what they are made for, and those are going to leak through the 2x4s rather than the rockwool. The green board sits between drywall and 2x4s, which allows for sound isolation more than absorption. Hang some heavy drywall on one side, and use isolating screws, and rockwool between the studs, and you have true sound-proofing for a room. When hanging sound treatments ON the wall instead of behind, you actually want loose dense material that covers a broad even spectrum of sound. Rockwool is truly the best application for this kind of stuff as it will absorb most frequencies pretty evenly. I'm sure this also works pretty well too, but I would bet that rockwool would work better, and cover more frequencies more evenly. Lastly, don't forget the floor and ceiling. You have a big fat bass-trap (couch) sitting directly behind you, which is probably your best audio treatment. But adding a short carpet, and having a couple diffusers or absorption panels to the ceiling will probably make a larger overall difference in the room than your panels. Neat project though! And they do look nice and seem to help at least a bit! I'll have to look up that material for my upcoming project. I'm in a 1950s style basement space, and it makes for a very live room with lots of concrete, cinderblock and aged hardwood... it's live down here lol. But I also hate working with rockwool, but keep using it because it is like magic for my house! Every time a wall is opened up, some rockwool goes in, and it makes a small house feel so much larger! Just that audio distance of not hearing every word that everyone says at all times from anywhere really makes a difference! Anywho, if the price on those panels isn't too bad, I might have to try backing a rockwool panel with them. The fabric will keep it in the front, and the paneling can hold in the bakc, and add a little extra depth and rear transparency so it can more effectively be used to 'double absob' audio without needing a literal air-gap behind the panel. But seriously, people don't give enough thought to their audio environment. Having a nice quiet 'dead' sound space... you can just feel the tension melt when it is done right. It is so nice, even if most people don't have any idea why.

This was really well produced, very entertaining 👍

Hey! We seamstress gals LOVE to see guys buying stuff in fabric stores! I always wonder about what their project is and how close they’ll come to actually replicating their ideas. This would reflect on newbies and DYI-ers…….I would never question the outcome of a professional upholsterer - I don’t think!! Glad this turned out - it might be the solution for our echo-y family room.

I have 80mm Rockwool Sonorock in all my walls (2x4's, 12mm OSB + 9mm plasterboard) and 120mm Sonorock in all my ceilings. I do not hear a sound from other rooms, except for contact noises. So mineral wool definately works for me in that application.

One more thing I highly suggest is putting foam in the 90° corners of the room. That should help significantly.

Great video once again Zac. Keep up the awesome content!

Pro tip, get a helper to hold a mirror up against the side walls. Sit where you will speak. Move the mirror panels across the wall until you can see the mic in the mirror reflection. This is your primary reflection point and most effective place to put your sound deadening. If using a cardoid, directly in front and behind the mic also.

Great video! Love the end result!

Great job again Zac, nice touch with the material and the mounting. Kobe 💜💛

Those huge mirror sliding doors will make quite a difference if treated

Thats got to be one the coolest staplers I've ever seen

Hey man! Looks like the fabric works fine for holding in the materials on the back, but I have tried things like very thin wood panels and screen (like patio type) on the back and it's worked some what ok. Maybe see if one of those helps if you ever make more, thanks for the video my man! I prefer your frame style over trying to miter and fit 1x3s

This is a very nice alternative to those who dont want the fire prone polyurethane foam, the expensive melamine foam, or the idea of having fibreglass or rockwool with only a cloth barrier in their room.

From website: Thousands of impressions are made in each panel during the manufacturing process to create varying densities within each panel. Each density absorbs a different soundwave ranging from low bass to high pitched frequencies. Noise STOP Technology is why SONOpan should be your only choice when choosing a soundproofing panel

Killer job, Zac! Those sound panels should definitely help with our upcoming project 🤫

These acoustic panels are great, and I thought about something to make them even better, custom printed fabric to spice it up, will be a bit harder to make it fit perfectly, but you could put any form of art on those panels

I just lost it over your shop! So dope

Not keen on rock wool either. So use medium density, fireproof, furniture foam. Works great and can be found in any desired thickness. It does cost more, but in some long lost comparison tests, worked better too. Used to build industrial silencers and fit out control rooms with it.

The timing of this video is perfect, I was just thinking about getting some acoustig panels

This is great, been looking at installing this stuff for a while but there isn't much information beyond the manufacturer themselves.

Thank you for your time and sharing good job

Nice video, looking to do the same thing. One thing to note, I have the yeti X microphone and the software is pretty good at noise cancelling. Was that switched on when doing the comparison because I could hear a difference but not massively. The video itself was a better comparison. Good job either way. I like your recording style. Keep it up.

I cut this stuff with a razor knife and a drywall square, takes a couple passes but it you cut into the front flip it over and line your drywall square up with the cut and score the back it snaps off nice and clean js

If I were using those foam acoustic panels, I would pair them with decorative ceiling tiles, or what ever is handy, painted black, with occasional lighting and bits of chrome, and go for a Death Star corridor look.

that hammer stapler though, that's something else. I just added it to my amazon basket. That looks way too much fun for a tool.

I should definitely do somethings similar for the studio.

floor, roof and DEFINETLY windows do make the room still echoey, hence why alot of music studio's use a special type of plexiglass in front of the window (with a big gap between). So the reflection gets trapped, and doesn't go back inside. Get a Rug, and sum skypanels, maybe make a star sky panel? With led strips, or led string and some holes in the fabric? Might be best to use the same fabric you used in this video tho, since you can layer it two times; one time, led stripo/strings, then second time, poke holes in the front layer. Just an idea, might be cool to see!

Your a genius! Love your design!

I couldn't hear the difference with the studio mic, but over your lavalier mic it made a world of difference. Perhaps putting a couple of these (without covers or frames even) in your shop (on the ceiling) could help with the shop portion of the videos.

If you leave a small air gab between the 2 panels you will get better result

yeah like data says that super dense glass wool is gonna have a better alpha than any foam. But like the foam is obvs easier to work with because it’s less likely to bulge against your fabric. just always make sure to use an “open weave” fabric because if it’s like a super tightly woven fabric it might be a bit more reflective. These kinda panels only work for higher frequencies but if you wanna absorb a little bass then put a chonky upholstered couch in your studio. If it’s more your look you can try hanging some heavy velour curtains in the space (lotsa gather) oh and for any rectangular room where you have two treated walls and two reflective walls you must put the absorbent walls perpendicular to each other (so you dont have parallel reflective surfaces). this is to avoid a flutter echo zing. the cheapest thing to always do is to use acoustic ceiling tiles and a carpet to get the total reverberation down. Like a class C or glass A grid ceiling tile

1. Sound insulation and killing reflections (which is what absorbers are used for) are two completely different things. So, your argument that Sonopan is better for insulation than rockwool, therefore it must be better for absorbers is wonky, at best. 2. You should allow for a bit of air behind your absorbers. Either leave a bit of space between them and the wall or make the frame deeper, so it forces that space. That really improves absorption in the lower frequency range a lot. There are pretty neat online absorber calculators that can help you find your preferred balance between absorber material, thickness and covered frequency range. 3. It doesn't matter all that much how thin your cover material is. We're talking about sound waves you want to absorb anyway. Either thicker cloth already absorbs that frequency spectrum (in which case it's "less work your absorber") or it passes through to your absorber, which is what you made that thing for. The one thing you don't want is a cover material that would reflect high frequencies... but other than that, it really shouldn't matter. Since I might have been interested in Sonopan for another project, though: It seems that Sonopan doesn't have any retailers in Europe.

Please do a Rockwoll comparision! Im about to start my project and I have no idea where to get the mats you've gotten. Rockwoll however, that I'll find! Thaanks bud

Yeah, yeah! Need good looking acoustic panels! 😍