acoustic foam (1 Viewer)

[gregg hh]

I will soon start construction of a new garage which will hold a threater inside, so at this point the options are open. Does acoustic foam (the type I see in a recording studio) help when covering the walls or simply make the room too dead. Should I look into that or just carpet the walls? Thanks.

 

[SteveLeach]

This site www.soundproofing.org/infopages/soundwalls.html has lots of information on various standard construction techniques and what you could expect for typical STC ratings using them.
Also there is a link on this page that talks about some common myths on sound proofing. Keep in mind that they are trying to sell their products. But IMHO the information is still valid.

Hope this helps

steve

 

[gregg hh]

Thanks Steve. I may not have been clear though. I'm not concerned whatsoever about sound being heard outsite my theater, more so looking to see if any materials will help it sound better inside.

 

[Shane Morales]

Um, why are you building a garage with a home theater inside instead of just adding an extra room that is a home theater? Is it going to be like a split with the home theater on one side and a car on the other?

 

[gregg hh]

I'm going to build a large garage. I only need a cars worth of space, as I've got a garage in my home also. I like the idea, because it gives me a versitile space in which to construct a HT room to my liking. Also, movies can be watched without bothering anyone in the house.

Back to this thread, I had planned on carpeting the walls. I think the "studio foam" looks reallt neat, though I'm not sure of it's effect or cost........

 

[SteveLeach]

Carpet WILL increase the acoustic absorbency of a room, it will do little in the way of soundproofing. Is that really the look you want for your HT?

 

[Shane Morales]

I like the studio foam look, too. I just bought some of this stuff from partsexpress.com


It does work. I'm not sure how well, tho.

 

[gregg hh]

Thanks Shane. Let me know how it turns out. I would love a pic after the instal.

 

[Andrew Steel]

Hi Shane,
Foam will work. Fibreglass will work too and is often more efficient (depending on density). There are manufacturers of nice fabric finished pre made f/glass panels around. Neither will do much for low frequency though and if you absorb all the mid highs and not the low end it may sound unbalanced. There are some recording and acoustics newsgroups that discuss this a lot and what to do to fix it. The good news is that if you are building from scratch it isn't too hard. Absorbing low frequency generally requires physically bigger materials as the wavelength is longer. The simplest start is the semi rigid fibregalss across the wall to wall and wall to ceiling corners.

try recording.org forum and homerecording.com forum