I have 3 4' x 8' of 3/4" inch Sonopan II sheets given to me from my neighbour who finished a drywall install. I thought I would take them and try and make some simple acoustic panels for my 8'x20' foot room. I'm trying to do it on a small budget and weighing in if I should just scrap the idea and buy some of the cheap foam 12" square foam tiles from Amazon. The problem is that looking at the reviews some of the panels look kinda deformed and "tacky" looking. They are not a cheap option to cover a large surface area.
I thought of the idea to cover the sonopan with a cotton or canvas drop sheet for painting. I am not sure if I am any further ahead messing around trying to make them look good enough and if I put them on the walls will they even work? There seems to be a difference between sound proofing and room treatment to reduce sound absorption and the Sonopan seems to be marketed for insulating rooms bolstering modern constructon materials such as sheetrock/dry wall.
I wanted to take some baseline measurements with REW before I start messing around with the stuff. I am waiting for a calibrated mic but I wanted to ask the question because my room is rectangerlar with 9 foot plaster ceiling so I am looking for easy ways to remove the "live" aspects of the room. I have started with added area rugs which I feel improved things quote a bit but I am going to add a couple more. As for the walls my front wall is my projector screen so I can't add anything there. I have a large window on the right side that is 70" x 35" I thought I may cover it with sonopan to keep the area dark and to add some absorbing qualities or to make it a little nicer looking add the foam tiles on the window. I don't use it for anything and it could remain sealed. My rear wall is another place where I imagine needs treatment. It is just a large dry wall space about 8' x 9'.
Has anyone worked with sonopan and have any good and easy traps or panel designs? I am sort of interested in using it as I already have it. I know some people use a combination of rockwool and sonopan. I really want to avoid having to cut wood and make frames.
Also -- my speakers are rear ported. Is there anything to anything to gain by putting the Sonopan sheets behind the speakers flush to the the floor. That would not impact my projector "screen"?
Let me know your ideas and suggestions.
JD
I thought of the idea to cover the sonopan with a cotton or canvas drop sheet for painting. I am not sure if I am any further ahead messing around trying to make them look good enough and if I put them on the walls will they even work? There seems to be a difference between sound proofing and room treatment to reduce sound absorption and the Sonopan seems to be marketed for insulating rooms bolstering modern constructon materials such as sheetrock/dry wall.
I wanted to take some baseline measurements with REW before I start messing around with the stuff. I am waiting for a calibrated mic but I wanted to ask the question because my room is rectangerlar with 9 foot plaster ceiling so I am looking for easy ways to remove the "live" aspects of the room. I have started with added area rugs which I feel improved things quote a bit but I am going to add a couple more. As for the walls my front wall is my projector screen so I can't add anything there. I have a large window on the right side that is 70" x 35" I thought I may cover it with sonopan to keep the area dark and to add some absorbing qualities or to make it a little nicer looking add the foam tiles on the window. I don't use it for anything and it could remain sealed. My rear wall is another place where I imagine needs treatment. It is just a large dry wall space about 8' x 9'.
Has anyone worked with sonopan and have any good and easy traps or panel designs? I am sort of interested in using it as I already have it. I know some people use a combination of rockwool and sonopan. I really want to avoid having to cut wood and make frames.
Also -- my speakers are rear ported. Is there anything to anything to gain by putting the Sonopan sheets behind the speakers flush to the the floor. That would not impact my projector "screen"?
Let me know your ideas and suggestions.
JD
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Puffy soft area rug.
Basically yes make the room look like a tent with drapes everywhere.
Multiple king size sheets or harbor freight canvas painter cloth
Get creative with patterns and layers.
Can " paint" the room any color, depends on the fabric color.
I use combination of white painters canvas and whatever king size sheets had a color I liked.
Basically yes make the room look like a tent with drapes everywhere.
Multiple king size sheets or harbor freight canvas painter cloth
Get creative with patterns and layers.
Can " paint" the room any color, depends on the fabric color.
I use combination of white painters canvas and whatever king size sheets had a color I liked.
Ditch both ideas of using Sonopan or "acoustic foam" for acoustic treatment, those will skew the room sound so the bass booms and from higher mids to highs are absorbed. Basically the effect is the same as holding wool socks over your ears.
For controlling room modes , easiest and cheapest way is to optimize speaker and listening position placement in the space. You can get pretty good estimations by playing with REW Room simulation.
Although you don't want to build any frames, but I'll still suggest: If you can utilize the wall that you're using as projection screen, you could build a frame, fill it with suitable insulation product and stretch an acoustically transparent fabric over the frame to prevent dust/particles from the insulation and a secondary frame over that for acoustically transparent screen fabric.
10' by 12' area of 4" thick OC FR706 (mislabled as FR705 in the picture) in A-mount has been tested to absorb nearly flat from 80Hz upwards. That is actual full sized sample test data. Copyright John Brandt, the original drawings can be downloaded from https://jhbrandt.net/resources/
For side walls one option could be to make or buy 2+" deep canvas print frames, fill the space behind them with absorption and hang them from ceiling mounted curtain rods. You can increase the absorption by dividing one large area to smaller pieces and distancing those based on the dimensions of the pieces, eg. 2'x2' panels with distance of max. 2' to the next piece.
More info in this article https://audioxpress.com/article/progress-on-calculating-edge-effect-of-acoustical-absorption
I know these suggestions break the limitations/preferences you mentioned in your post, but physics is a tough & fair lover, we all have to accept the reality that physics doesn't care what we prefer. It just is and we play along.
For controlling room modes , easiest and cheapest way is to optimize speaker and listening position placement in the space. You can get pretty good estimations by playing with REW Room simulation.
Although you don't want to build any frames, but I'll still suggest: If you can utilize the wall that you're using as projection screen, you could build a frame, fill it with suitable insulation product and stretch an acoustically transparent fabric over the frame to prevent dust/particles from the insulation and a secondary frame over that for acoustically transparent screen fabric.
10' by 12' area of 4" thick OC FR706 (mislabled as FR705 in the picture) in A-mount has been tested to absorb nearly flat from 80Hz upwards. That is actual full sized sample test data. Copyright John Brandt, the original drawings can be downloaded from https://jhbrandt.net/resources/
For side walls one option could be to make or buy 2+" deep canvas print frames, fill the space behind them with absorption and hang them from ceiling mounted curtain rods. You can increase the absorption by dividing one large area to smaller pieces and distancing those based on the dimensions of the pieces, eg. 2'x2' panels with distance of max. 2' to the next piece.
More info in this article https://audioxpress.com/article/progress-on-calculating-edge-effect-of-acoustical-absorption
I know these suggestions break the limitations/preferences you mentioned in your post, but physics is a tough & fair lover, we all have to accept the reality that physics doesn't care what we prefer. It just is and we play along.
