Cheaper Acoustic Foam?

[Bill Lorentzen]

When I look at the prices for acoustic foam I am always shocked. I know it is special 'cause the little bubbles are open and the sound can go in and come back out of phase - but it's still just FOAM, right? You know, the stuff they use for packing material?

Does anyone make real acoustic foam at a realistic price?

[frankie c]

Go on ebay,,,,

Auralex is expensive....
if u know what u are buying, u can get the SAME thing for like HALF the price...

[DeeDrive]

Get owens corning 703 rigid fiberglass. Better than foam in every way. And at $10 for a 2x4 sheet of 2" fiberglass, it's cheaper than foam too. Just cover in it fabric to keep the fibers from getting in your lungs. Do a search for more info.

[drumkideric]

Cheaper foam also goes up in flames rather quickly. Nicer foam is fire ******ant.

[beyond]

Originally Posted by drumkideric

Cheaper foam also goes up in flames rather quickly. Nicer foam is fire ******ant.

who you calling a ******

[bpape]

Be very careful. The foam on eBay is a fraud. It's been tested and found do do basically nothing. The specs they show were just lifted from the Auralex site. It is also not a Class A fire rated material (can you say Great White?)

Packing foam is NOT at all the same thing as acoustical foam, nor is mattress foam, etc.

703, mineral woo, acoustical cotton, etc. are all far superior solutions per inch of thickness.

Bryan

[Acoustic Cloud]

If you DIY, ATS acoustics online has good prices on all the stuff in bulk.

I agree with Bryan, foam does very little for the dough, so even the much cheaper stuff isnt that good of an investment.

If you dont do DIY, Realtraps or GIK acoustics gots some good products.

[flail19]

Originally Posted by DeeDrive

Just cover in it fabric to keep the fibers from getting in your lungs. Do a search for more info.

Ummmmmmmmm not to hijack this thread but, I have planned to treat my living room with 703. I have children. Are there health considerations with 703? Does anyone have solid information on this?

[DeeDrive]

Originally Posted by flail19

Ummmmmmmmm not to hijack this thread but, I have planned to treat my living room with 703. I have children. Are there health considerations with 703? Does anyone have solid information on this?

I don't know of any studies out there, but fiberglass fibers are fairly large, and as long as you use a tight enough weave fabric, you should be ok. I used 99 cent/yard muslin, and it works great. As long as you don't disturb the panels, no fibers should come loose, but with kids, who knows... Might be a good idea to treat the UPPER corners of the room so the kids can't reach them.

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by flail19

Ummmmmmmmm not to hijack this thread but, I have planned to treat my living room with 703. I have children. Are there health considerations with 703? Does anyone have solid information on this?

OC 703 is fine.. Read all about it here.
RECORDING - Exposing the Myths of Fiberglass - Acoustics & Design

Glenn

[Bill Lorentzen]

I'm well aware of the deficiencies of foam. I have had built many 703 based absorbers for my studios. However, in a current location I have absolutely no absorption from carpet or soft furniture in the control room. I have 4 medium sized low freq Helmholtz units of the Everest design, and no high to mid absorbers. So I think foam would be a decent expedient to kill first reflections off the walls and ceilings from the monitors. But I won't spend several hundreds for foam.

[Glenn Kuras]

well it sounds like to me you have a good handle on what is good foam vs bad foam. I will say though that you have built panels in the past so why not just build more.

Glenn

[Bill Lorentzen]

Hi Glen,

I don't have time to build them.

I saw a post in another thread by you or someone else from your company, where you mentioned acoustic cotton. I bought some cotton batting several years ago from Hot House, the speaker makers in New York, and made some simple panels with it. It worked well considering it was only about 1' thick, but it was pretty expensive.

I am interested in cotton because I personally don't like fiberglass. I see some 2" cotton panels on the web that test fairly flat down to 250 Hz. I have not gotten any data about cost though.

The panels you make are OC 703?

[Studiocat]

I bought auralex foam first, realized a couple years later that it's kinda lame, and built my own fiberglass panels. The panels are sexy (I covered them in nice colored fabric) and they were cheaper. They take an afternoon to build and it's worth it.

A

[Studiocat]

These are the panels I built...

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by Bill Lorentzen

Hi Glen,

I don't have time to build them.

I saw a post in another thread by you or someone else from your company, where you mentioned acoustic cotton. I bought some cotton batting several years ago from Hot House, the speaker makers in New York, and made some simple panels with it. It worked well considering it was only about 1' thick, but it was pretty expensive.

I am interested in cotton because I personally don't like fiberglass. I see some 2" cotton panels on the web that test fairly flat down to 250 Hz. I have not gotten any data about cost though.

The panels you make are OC 703?

No we use 8 pound mineral wool in our panels. With our Tri Traps we use 4 pound. Check out our website it has all that on there plus lab numbers.

Glenn

[Sive]

What about the Auralex D36 Roominator?

I hav'nt tried it, but it seems good for a beginner, and its a fair price..

Its about 150£..

[cstanley]

i dont have first-hand experience with it, but soundproofing.org
in san diego sells fire ******ant foam:

Flame

i've purchased other soundproofing stuff from them, everything
works pretty well. they have a pretty informational site
as well.

-carl

[tINY]

Originally Posted by Bill Lorentzen

I am interested in cotton because I personally don't like fiberglass. I see some 2" cotton panels on the web that test fairly flat down to 250 Hz. I have not gotten any data about cost though.

I have used the Utlra touch cotton developed for wall insulation. It works well and was something like $70 for enough to do about 15 feet of wall floor to ceiling.

Bonded Logic - Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation



-tINY

[aracu]

Will that bonded logic stuff fall apart if it is attached to the
outside of a cieling or wall?

[tINY]

I've wrapped it in cloth from the sale table at the fabric store. It holds up just fine that way.

I used some for a pad under the dog bed and that got pretty flat after about 4months (80 pound Staff-terr).




-tINY

[aracu]

It's the best priced but I couldn't find any acoustical specs on
it.

[BOWIE]

Don't be Auralex's jail bitch.

I just had a great experience w/ Bay Area Noise Control
They sold me what is pretty much the exact same material as Auralex Sheetblok for $139 (vs Auralex at $350!).
Very friendly and honest people.
1-800-4Less-dB
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm PST
No, I'm not trying to advertise for them. I just really think that people here could benefit from them as I have.

[edwinhurwitz]

I would say not to waste your time with foam. I did and like so many others, it was just a way to spend money twice. I finally built some bass traps using acoustical cotton from Bryan's site. The only downside is that shipping is expensive and I found out later that I could get it locally. I'm not bummed, though, because the customer service was second to none. I also bought some first reflection panels from GIK and with the two, my room is actually sounding OK. Foam did basically nothing and wasn't any cheaper.


Edwin

[aracu]

I found the acoustical specs on the Bonded Logic Ultratouch, which are
made of shredded denim. I haven't tried using it, but it's 5 times
cheaper than than the best deal on Echo Eliminator BAC, and the specs on paper look better, showing a more even absorbtion of frequencies. The Echo Eliminator BAC is probably a lot more compact and solid
though, wheras the Ultratouch looks more designed to be used inside
of walls.

[daillman]

foam by mail!

[edwinhurwitz]

Originally Posted by daillman

foam by mail!

Don't do it! I did it and it was worse than Auralex (which I have also spent money on). Both are much much worse than OC703 or acoustic cotton based treatment.

Don't waste your money!
Edwin

[DeeDrive]

Originally Posted by daillman

foam by mail!

Very bad stuff. Looked terrible, not as dense as auralex (although they stole the acoustical data and images from auralex's web site), I had some of their "beige" colored foam, which turned out to be pink, and when I called to complain they refused to let me return it and gave me all sorts of shit.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by DeeDrive

Get owens corning 703 rigid fiberglass. Better than foam in every way. And at $10 for a 2x4 sheet of 2" fiberglass, it's cheaper than foam too. Just cover in it fabric to keep the fibers from getting in your lungs. Do a search for more info.

true, true.

foam is for packing hard drives, not acostic treatment!

[Acoustic Cloud]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

true, true.

foam is for packing hard drives, not acostic treatment!

Plus if they accost you, its even more insulting treatment! Dont EVER use the Auralex glue either. Its rebranded liquid nails. I have some on my ceiling, and trying to pry it off with a shovel made my chimney start to squeek.