Are these acoustic panels any good?

[Genius Gone Insane]

http://www.atsacoustics.com/item--ATS-Acoustic-Panel-24x24x4--1007.html

They seem inexpensive.

 

[colonel kurtz]

not a bad price, but goddamn you can DIY some yourself for so much cheaper...

a single 24x48x2 panel is $40, where you can usually get a box of 6 OC 703 panels that size for about $70. add some burlap from whatever random fabric shop, and you've got 6 panels for probably $150, tops

 

[SocialNumb]

What he said.

 

[Metaltastic]

add some burlap

Ah burlap, truly the sexiest choice in interior-decorating fabrics I'd go for a thick bedsheet personally

 

[Melodeath]

I just built 4 bass traps for about $10 each.

Wood, burlap, 8-3/4" thick fiberglass I had laying around

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I got 12 pieces of OC703 for $96 (I bought 36 panels of it).

The fabric I used was $1 a foot, IMO a lot nicer looking that burlap (which cost $2 a yard). I will admit though burlap is better as far as absorption goes (it's got more holes in it ) though, I just couldn't get over the uglyness of it.

Wood I got for free though, so no help their unfortunately.

All of that is making 12 4'X2'x4" panels and 4 6'X4'X4" panels.

The total cost so far has not exceeded $350, with wood I couldn't see it going over $400 (including hardware).

Just a thought man

 

[AudioGeekZine]

$6/ft2 is still a bit too high. 4" thick is nice, with a 2-4 inch gap from the wall it should work very well, but you'll need a lot of them still. And it does come with the installation kit, which is nice.

$1-2/ft2 is doable DIY. I did 96ft2 for about $1/ft2 including buying a staple gun.



ft2 = square foot

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Fuck I wasn't paying attention.

All of those panels are 4" thick.

I edited the post.

 

[AdamWathan]

Are you guys building them with solid 4 piece frames or are you cutting holes in the frames to open it for more absorption or better yet building a framework out of thinner pieces of wood just to create the edges with all 6 sides totally open? After seeing the 8 piece frames with all sides open, I don't think I'd be satisfied building 4 piece ones, but I have no wood working experience and it seems a lot more complicated to be gluing and clamping the more complex ones together vs. just a couple of screws for the 4 piece frames...

EDIT: This is how I would want to do mine...

 

[AudioGeekZine]

those look nice, but I'd imagine the open sides make very little difference in effectiveness. having a 2 inch air gap from the wall makes a huge difference.

 

[grywolf627]

those look nice, but I'd imagine the open sides make very little difference in effectiveness. having a 2 inch air gap from the wall makes a huge difference.

+1
A 2" - 4" air gap really makes the difference in the lower to low-mid frequency absorption. I varied mine. Some with no gaps, some with 2", some with 4".

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Nope mine are solid on the sides. I used 1/4" thick wood.

 

[AdamWathan]

those look nice, but I'd imagine the open sides make very little difference in effectiveness. having a 2 inch air gap from the wall makes a huge difference.

Makes a pretty big difference according to acoustician dudes that own RealTraps and shit. Having a gap on each side adds like close to 300 sq. inches of surface area. Really though, the wood isn't going to stop those low frequency waves from getting absorbed so I guess it isn't that big of a deal. The other thing I like about those traps though is they are much lighter because of all the excess wood that's chopped out...

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

So this below will work ok? If I build one, I'd like to go a lighter route, like this:

 

[AudioGeekZine]

http://www.audiogeekzine.com/?p=390

That's how I built mine.


really no need to worry about the weight of these things. mine weigh about 7 lbs. 24x48x2" a single drywall screw hangs them from the wall.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

So this below will work ok? If I build one, I'd like to go a lighter route, like this:

Looks fugly but functional.


I got lucky, my dad likes woodworking & needed an excuse to try out his new nail gun, so I got these:

4 inches of rigid fiberglass, 2X4 feet. My dad built the frames & I did the cloth work... they look kinda like the monolith from 2001.



Those are just the smaller traps, the big mothers are behind those, 8 feet tall acoustic hangers, built on a John Sayers design.

One can never have too much trapping.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

I prefer the monolith style as well

 

[Ermz]

That's a pretty epic-lookin trap, Oz. What fabric did you end up using? I can't say I've managed to find anything reasonably-priced that looks quite that cool. My frames are all done at the moment, it's just a matter of getting the insulation in and wrapping them in fabric. We have 24 to go through, and 8 of them are 6" corner panels, so it's taking a little while.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

looks like speaker cloth to me, looks just like my panels except 4" thick

 

[Ermz]

Darn. That shit goes for $15 a meter here at the arse-end of the world.