Bass issues. Corning 705 safe for health? Home Depot sells?

[BrHeck]

Hi,

I have problems with bass in my room setup (11 feet by 14 feet. 8 feet high). I cannot feel/hear/sense the bass when I am infront of my setup, but I can outside of my room and in the corners of my room. My neighbor feels it more than I do, he said. Anyhow, I want to put bass traps. I read corning 703 or 705 would be good. FYI, I do not have any current treatment in my room. I don't think I have any big reverberation issues tho.

Questions:

1. 705 OR 703 for my purposes? This guy from readyacoustics says 703 is better overall: Foam for Acoustic Room Treatment - Page 2 - The Gear Page But I read on Ethan W. website that 705 is better??

2. Are these safe? I thought fiber glass and insulation was cancerous, asbestos, ect...

If not, Is there a alternative solution?

3. If they are OK, I need to buy them in California, USA. Does Home-Depot sell such things? ( its not on their website tho)

thank you

[Glenn Kuras]

1. 705 OR 703 for my purposes? This guy from readyacoustics says 703 is better overall: Foam for Acoustic Room Treatment - Page 2 - The Gear Page But I read on Ethan W. website that 705 is better??

Over all 705 will outperform 703 on the lowest frequencies, but 6" of 703 cost less then 4" of 705 and will work better. It really just comes down to cost vs performance. 703 is used A LOT so you can feel confident using it.

2. Are these safe? I thought fiber glass and insulation was cancerous, asbestos, ect...

yes rigid fiberglass or mineral will is fine.

3. If they are OK, I need to buy them in California, USA. Does Home-Depot sell such things? ( its not on their website tho)

I don't think Home Depot sells it. See if you have a SPI in your area.

[joshuarlyon]

1. If it is insulation you're after... I just discovered something pretty cool. it's called UltraTouch. It is made from denim so it is more dense than fiberglass insulation (better for bass absorbtion). The site's spec sheets show that it has excellent noise reduction qualities when it comes to losing sound through walls. The only downside is that it is about 50% more money. But it doesn't contain any harmful chemicals like some fiberglass... and it doesn't make you itch when you install it. It's available exclusively at Home Depot, but it might be cheaper to order directly from the company.

Victor Insulation

2. If you don't want to open your walls (or don't want to spend as much money)... I would suggest putting some acoustic foam underneath and behind your monitors... the reason is that bass frequencies are especially prone to "latching" onto surfaces such as your desk or walls. They travel through those surfaces and into the walls where the air pockets inside the walls amplify the sound and it's heard on the other side clear as day. Putting open-cell acoustic foam under and behind your monitors will help keep those bass frequencies in the air and directed towards your ears.


Auralex Acoustics - Acoustic foam bass trap products.

Auralex Acoustics - SpeakerDudes(HD)

Hope that helped.

[BrHeck]

thank you both for the info.

I am very curious about the Ultratouch. It sounds great and the ratings on the r-13 acoustic properties for 3.5" seem promising.

I like that it is natural and won't be a health issue. This stuff is going in the room which I also sleep in and spend lots of time in. health is #1 to me in general.

if anybody has more info on this Ultratouch insulation, I would like to hear your experience (Especially if you also have tried the Owens corning 703 or 705).

thank you

P.S. I found SEVERAL places which sell the Ultratouch stuff in California. Prices vary, but here's the average prices:

r-13 24 inches wide 126 sq feet ~$75

r-13 16 inches wide 106 sq feet ~$65

r-13 acoustic testing: UltraTouch Natural Cotton Fiber Acoustic Insulation - LEED eligible

I don't know the other dimensions of the stuff (thickness..but I'm assuming it's 3.5" for r-13 and 5.5" for r-19) and for a 2 x 4 that's 8 sq. feet. So if I buy the 126 sq. ft package, I can build 15! panels or maybe 7 really thick ones!!. not a bad price. :D

When I called various places, they said r-13 is good but r-19 is thicker and may be better for acoustics. They all said (various sellers) that even the r-13 is fine because it generally out-performs its equivalent in fiberglass material. Not sure the validity of these claims, but I asked about 4 or 5 sellers and they all said the same thing.

[Weasel9992]

Just to be clear, mineral wool and rigid fiberglass are perfectly safe. It's really not arguable at all. There's tons of research out there...real research, JAMA type research...that's pretty conclusive. Here's a few older threads that have some of it in them:

rockwool

The Comparative Safety of Rockwool, Fiberglass, and Organic Fibers (a review)

The Comparative Safety of Rockwool, Fiberglass, and Organic Fibers (a review)

Frank

[jwl]

Ultratouch is great, but it's ugly. It's really floppy (much more so than even rockwool) and you won't get nice, neat edges on yoru traps if you use it. Best use for Ultratouch is to stack it in corners, and build a false front like a giant speaker grille to cover your bass trap.

2. If you don't want to open your walls (or don't want to spend as much money)... I would suggest putting some acoustic foam underneath and behind your monitors... the reason is that bass frequencies are especially prone to "latching" onto surfaces such as your desk or walls. They travel through those surfaces and into the walls where the air pockets inside the walls amplify the sound and it's heard on the other side clear as day. Putting open-cell acoustic foam under and behind your monitors will help keep those bass frequencies in the air and directed towards your ears.

I'm curious about these claims. What do you mean that bass frequencies "latch" onto surfaces such as a desk or a wall? What you are describing sounds more like sympathetic resonance to me, such as in a 3-leaf system. Is this what you mean?

If so, I'm not sure open-celled foam, or even the better-performing fiberglass, ultratouch, or rockwool, will help much in terms of stopping sound from going through a wall. All of these materials are velocity absorbers; in order to work as absorbers the sound must pass through the material.

Can you clarify what you mean? I must be missing something....

[Glenn Kuras]

Ultratouch is great, but it's ugly. It's really floppy (much more so than even rockwool) and you won't get nice, neat edges on yoru traps if you use it. Best use for Ultratouch is to stack it in corners, and build a false front like a giant speaker grille to cover your bass trap.

I guess he could frame it.

[Weasel9992]

Originally Posted by jwl

Can you clarify what you mean? I must be missing something....

You and me both.

Frank

[BrHeck]

I buy 5.5 inch thick Ultra-touch for $50 dollars 64 square feet for 3 corners of my room. I probably build frames for these or stuff int he corner and make a nice burlap grill over it.

thank you for the advices and I will let you know if they actually help. if not I will try something else to get my bass to not get lost in my room everywhere but at my mixing position where I want it!

[jwl]

If you can, buy the 5.5" thick batts in both the 24" and the 16" size. That way you can double them up, put a 16" batt across the corner, then the 24" batt in front of that. Those 2 together make a pretty nice corner trap.

[BrHeck]

hi, yes i bought 5.5 thich R-19 and doubled it in each corner of my room. so 11 inch thick panels 2 feet by 4 feet.

I don't really notice much of a difference. i didn't make a proper comparison or with meters and what not tho.

I will try to move some around, maybe behind my monitors?

A little dissapointed, but I guess one cannot expect dramatic results with justa few traps. then again, maybe my issue wasn't as bad as I thought. i have never been in a properly treated room, so i have no comparison to gage :(