Acoustic Absorbers
Absorbers are used to tame or adjust the reverberation present in every room, in order to make those rooms viable for their purposes, be it a production studio with monitor speakers, a recording room with instruments, or a living room with hi-fi speakers.
Acoustic treatment is the primary objective when preparing a monitoring, recording, or listening space.
Regardless of how expensive the playback, or recording equipment may be, untreated rooms will diminish any gains of any system, therefore room treatment is the first thing to invest in when setting up a room.
And before you say „room eq” it does nothing about RT60 – in untreated rooms, frequency calibration usually makes things worse.
It’s not your KRK Rokits
As the name „Absorbers” suggests – they absorb incoming sound waves, reducing the amount of reflection from the surface.
- Early reflections from hard surfaces will interfere with direct sound from the sources, which will lead to comb-filtering, affecting your frequency response.
- Late reflections increase your RT60 (reverberation time 60dB), making your room sound uneven, boxy muddy and bla, since low frequencies usually decay for longer.
- Every axis of your room has its resonant frequency, which will lead to formation of standing waves, which will introduce massive comb-filtering and long RT60 times at specific frequencies.
- Incoming sound wave energy transfers into the walls, which will vibrate on their own, transferring the vibrations into surrounding materials, becoming secondary sources of sound, introducing many different delays, or even rattles and sympathetic resonances.
- Untreated surfaces means that sound can travel via many reflections towards windows, doors, or thin boundaries outside of the room, creating sound pollution, which may induce noises regarding your shit snares from potentially mad surrounding inhabitants.
With just a few well placed absorbers you can drastically reduce those issues, immediately improving your frequency response, RT60, stereo image and perceived transient response – call it clarity.
They come in custom colours
Pick a color from the rainbow and we will pick the closest equivalent in the fabric store.
And sizes
Extra absorbtion required for low frequencies? Making window inserts? Building a foley studio?
Buy moar pay l€$$
We offer discounts depending on the amount of ordered products.
The primary cost of manufacture is labour and preparation.
The moar time we save, the moar r€v€rb you damp per €.
Materials used
Frames – OSB, MDF, fresh or upcycled timber.
Wool – Paroc Ultra.
Fabric – single layer polyester-cotton (usually).
Mounting options:
Wall – french cleets.
Ceiling – hooks.
Note – hooks and mounting acessories are not included, unless agreed otherwise.
Absorber panel
This is the most cost-effective option to do primary acoustic adjustments in any room, be it a bedroom studio, or studio bedroom, recording room, hi-fi room or event space.
No fancy external lacquered frames, or additional layers of sintepon. Light, efficient and no other option does better.
Can be made out of upcycled timber to reduce the price.
60€
Size:
Height – 120cm.
Width – 60cm.
Thickness – 10cm.
Weight – ~3-5kg.
Absorbtion:
125 Hz: 0.35
250 Hz: 0.80
500 Hz: 0.98
1 kHz: 0.92
2 kHz: 0.90
4 kHz: 0.85
(data retrieved from independent measurements for similar product direct on masonry, no air gap)
Personal measurements with and without air gap, soon.
Basstrap
Capable of absorbing lower frequencies, taking the same amount of space as a regular panel in the corner, due to 1.8 times the amount of wool packed in.
No mounting necessary – just shove it into the corner and stack them.
The basstrap uses a 10cm panel plus an additional wedge, bringing the average thickness to ~18cm, therefore significantly increasing the absorbtion coeficient at 125-250hz.
Can be made out of upcycled timber to reduce the price.
120€
Size:
Height – 120cm.
Width – 60cm.
Triangle – 50cm square sliced.
Weight – ~12-15kg.
Absorbtion:
125 Hz: 0.65
250 Hz: 0.95
500 Hz: 0.98
1 kHz: 1.00
2 kHz: 1.00
4 kHz: 0.90
(data retrieved from independent measurements for similar product direct on masonry, recalculated based on average thickness of the product)
Personal measurements with and without air gap, soon.
Acoustic modelling
We offer acoustic modelling services, to help customers figure out where exactly they should position their panels, speakers, and setting up a recording space.
It is included for every customer, in order to figure out how many panels are necessary to achieve the intended results.
Depending on the project, this comes with additional services:
- 3D files (.blend) for precise mounting.
- Generating several alternative options.
- Before-after measurements.
- Ray-traced impulse response emulation.
Calculating the required number of acoustic panels is included, other services may come at an additional price.
Want to switch from bedroom studio to studio bedroom?
Get in touch.
Disclaimer
- All of the listed prices are without VAT.
- Invoices available.
- Manufacturing begins after payment.
- Depending on the conditions, the order is ready ~10 days from receiving the payment.
- Delivery can be arranged at an extra cost.
- Mounting can be arranged at an extra cost.
- We do not accept returns.
- The order can be cancelled and you can be reimbursed, only if we haven’t started the manufacturing.
- Hooks and mounting acessories do NOT come attached to the panels, since they can tear the fabric, when stacked in transport.
- Using upcycled timber may lead to slight deviations in measurements up to 1cm, hollow spaces, uneven surfaces, which will only be visible on the wall-facing side of the panel. None of these impact the performance of the product.
- Ray-traced impulse responses are an emulation and should only be treated as a reference, rather than an absolute truth.
- Beware that this is local production in Lithuania. International shipping of such large items will be …expensive.
Questions? Get in touch.
Want even cheaper?
You can DIY, about which you can reads moar hear, or here’s an idea pictured:
Or get in touch, we may think of something, such as frameless panels, fabric leftovers bla.
Or duct tape all the bedding in the house onto your walls and tell all your friends.
Turn it into a shelf.
Have you heard of LEDE?
A common practice in setting up recording and production studios: LEDE – Live End Dead End.
Dead End – the half of the studio in which you, your monitoring and your microphones reside. Most of the surfaces covered by absorbers and basstraps, ensuring you don’t get any significant delays from early reflections.
Live End – the part of the studio behind you, which is supposed to be diffused, scattered and completely broken of any resonant frequencies.
This approach is primarily tailored to our sonic perception – if your room is completely dead and has no reverb left at all, everything feels dull and hollow, stereo depth becomes point-sourced and disorientingly directional.
Diffusion and scattering allows controlled reverb to prevent said issues, but is diffused and scattered enough to not significantly alter your frequency response.
And we do make diffusers, tuned to your room dimensions or specific frequencies you may request.
Safety concers
Keep in mind that this section is purely from our own personal studies and exploration of scientific data and measurements, therefore the following section reflects our understanding based on publicly available data, manufacturer specifications, handling experience and general scientific literature.
We are not medical professionals and individuals should evaluate materials at their own risk and up with your personal responsibility.
This section is only served as a guide regarding certain topics of safety regarding several myths commonly asked by customers.
We take no responsibility if you start shitting bricks, or grow a second (or first) penis. This information is used to kill people one-by-one to reduce the amount of competition.
It is also may heavily edited, to prevent any may knuckleheads from lawyering up, since this is not a forum post, therefore expect a lot of „may”.
We are working on compiling a large review of tests and data regarding fibrous materials used for acoustic treatment.
Mineral fiber dust and outgassing:
The main reason we chose Paroc Ultra to be used in our absorbers is to ensure the highest safety and efficiency regarding several potential health risks. Studios require a lot of panels, which will be not enclosed by walls to prevent any dust, outgassing, or potential allergic reactions.
- Our independent informal uncertifiable workshop condition tests confirm that one layer of woven polyester-cotton fabric is enough to block any dust particles coming through, even if we forcefully rub the pieces of stone wool onto the fabric.
- Paroc Ultra may have the lowest amount of phenol-formaldehyde resin binders in their products, which may be due their use of oils preventing dusting and use of other binders. There are articles (and dogshit on reddit) regarding formaldehyde outgassing from mineral fiber products, therefore we chose the one that seems to perform best based on published information and our personal research.
- We picked stone fibers instead of fiberglass, although the latest advancements in fiberglass seem to make it safer to handle and less prone to irritation, however stone fibers mayy are larger in size, are heavier, and offer higher efficiency per given surface area, based on publicly available testing and manufacturer data.
- Due to differences in stone and fibreglass manufacturing, some fiberglass insulation products may use higher binder ratios to achieve the same density, depending on formulation, which can influence outgassing during handling, and our choices and claims come only from the options available locally.
Mineral fiber versus organic and plastic
The primary reason is efficiency per surface area of used material. Cellulose or plastic may be safer as a material, less irritant, but also less efficien and the additives may pose other risks compared to mineral fibers.
Cellulose, hemp and other organic materials may shine with their green-eco-identities, but they may pose a much larger risk compared to our formalehyde-bound man-made fibers.
- Organic material derived insulation may use less chemical binders, however they may require more additional chemicals due to the fact they are organic:
- It is flammable – therefore they will require added fire retardants, such as boron.
- Fungi and bacteria will eat it – therefore it has to be treated with certain fungicides and anti-bacterial chemicals, to ensure it doesn’t decompose.
- It is moisture absorbent – which makes its dust much more interestings, since it has additional chemicals to make it inhospitable for life. Once it enters your airways, it may have potential to stick to the tissues, mayyyyy absorb the moisture within the tissues, as a result of that it will be much harder to clear the airways, and will dissolve whatever it has been may legally treated with and you will fucking suffocate to death and die in misery.
- Stone and mineral fibers are not classifiable as known carcinogens in humans, according to major health agencies. They can irritate skin, eyes, and the respiratory system if airborne, however they seem to dissolve, or be cleared by normal biological processes.
Here’s some read: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12122570/
Plastic, such as polyethylene (PET) and polyurethane may fit our purposes, and can also be upcycled from reused materials, however they come with their own sorts of issues.
- Plastic is very flammable – therefore it either is a massive fire-hazard, or is heavily treated in brominated flame retardants or borates.
- Plastic is usually of much lower acoustic efficiency, therefore it doesn’t entirely fit the purpose of broadband absorbers, requiring much larger volumes, increasing both – fire hazards, or exposure to flame retardants.
- Plastic can break down and start emitting trace VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from heat cycles, particularly polyurethane, which depending on polymer chemistry may include aldehydes, isocyanates and the rest of the good stuff. Heat cycling it will lead to acceleration of its breakdown and the particles will be much smaller than what any fabric can hold.
And on top of both – both are capable of absorbing odors, trapping moisture and degrading over time, meaning they will be much less reusable, compared to mineral fibers.
Therefore green doesn’t necessarily mean healthier or safer.
Actuals riskss
I housed entire generations of mice in old stone wool insulation in my house before renovation. Although 100% of the mice eventually died, the data may be biased by the fact I used poison.
However – we reused the old stone wool when building our foley studio, and we used agrocultural fabric which does seem to pass through some dust particles.
That stone wool, was dusty and degraded, mice shat in it, some of it was wet, due to the fact I stored in the greenhouse for three years.
During the production of our personal projects, the team members working in that room actually got mad, so that may be the only documented risk.