Bed Egg-crate vs. Acoustic Foam
 

Ok, I'm sure everyone has thought of this at one point or another. Does egg-crate bedding material absorb sound good? Is there a huge difference in sound absorption between it and true acoustic foam?

Bedding: http://www.geocities.com/dtmcbride/p...r_comf_sup.jpg

"Real" foam: http://www.avayan.com/Music/assets/i...dioleftday.jpg

Lloyd:

Sending you on a mission to educate yourself about sound absorption. Read this http://www.acoustics101.com/

I used to own an audio post facility, egg crate foam is of very limited value IMHO. Auralex makes great stuff, their little kits sound as if they would be of great value to you. You need bass traps, diffusion, corners and a lot of other consideration to tune a room. Egg crates alone, as I stated, are of dubious value acoustically.

Dan

There is something else you might want to try if you want to do the DIY thing: there is a material called 'Sound Board' at your local Home Despot or Lowes. It is amazing at killing reflections and deadening a room. Plus, it is only $10 for a 4 x 8 sheet.

It does come with a warning, the stuff is designed to be between two sheets of drywall. Not designed for exposure. So the stuff sheds its asphalt impregnated fibres. Painting it seems to help.

No. It will only absorb a small portion of the sound (high frequencies). It doesn't have the ability to absorb the real problem frequencies of a room other than a high frequency flutter echo. A muddy sounding room would get muddier. Sound blankets would do a better job as dealing w/ that problem.

Acoustic foam most likely has a higher density...but, a combination of density and thickness is what is really needed. I wouldn't use anything less than a 2" foam and then I would mount it off the wall about 1" 1/2.

For performance, a 2" thick fiberglass panel of 6 to 7 lb density covered with a "class A" gilford fabric is the standard. It will do a great job throughout the vocal range and give you a class A fire rating for safety.

You can improve the performance of most absorptive materials by providing an "air gap" behind the material.

Yikes! Once you paint an absorptive material...it starts to become reflective.

In do-it-yourself mode, I would walk past the Homasote isle and go to the ceiling dept. Look for the 2 X 4 X 1" fiberglass ceiling panels. They probably have around a 4lb density. I'd glue two of those puppies together with liquid nails and cover it with fabric. Then you have a nice 2 X 4 X 2" fiberglass panel that would perform well in the vocal range.

Lloyd, do you want a DIY solution or an out of the box solution?

Dan