Wall Treatments/Panels

Howdy, peep's I'm looking for some help, direction or hints about wall treatments. This will be for my church, the side walls are concrete block and I'm getting a lot of sound reflection since we upgraded the speakers and I have adjusted the amps (800 Watt Crowns for each channel L/R/ Center Cluster and Subs). I used a sound meter to adjust all the amps and now I'm getting the reverb/echo stuff. I know all we need is to make or buy some wall treatments. I looking on the DIY side of things, for we have a carpenter on staff and I'm sure with the right guildlines I can help him put this together.

The size I'm looking at will need to be in the area of 10-12' by 12-14' Cover 3 section of the walls on each side total of six panels. This will cover the front side wall section of the church where the sound reflection is the problem.

I found alot of great info in this thread.

The GIK acoustic panels also look nice. I believe they charge $150 for 3 of their 2" thick 2x4' panels.

I may buy that pack once I move.

You might want to start here:

http://www.jdbsound.com/

I'll second LJ's thread...Recoveryone, a few hundred bucks in raw material and some help from your carpenter friend (which is overkill in the required skills department) would save your church a hundreds of dollars and be just as effective in treatment. 3 panels for $150 is crazy, I think if you have the manpower to do it yourself. When I built mine, I think I estimated it around $21-$22 max per 2 X 4 panel. Could be a buck or two more depending on the deal you get on rigid fiberglass...I'd check around, you'll need a nice amount so you can probably save there. But that's 6 panels for $150, including shipping costs. I think LJ wasn't much higher in his costs. Can't beat it.

Rather than make a 12 foot by 12 foot panel, I suggest a bunch of smaller 2' by 4' panels or 2 x 8's or whatever. My quick math says 3 rows of 5, 4 x 2' size. This is waaaaay easier than trying to jam that much fiberglass in one big panel. Though you could stick all the fiberglass to the wall, build a giant frame and cover it with burlap or some nicer Guilford of Maine Fabric (which might be more aesthetically pleasing). Depends on your budget. The nice thing about the separate smaller panels is that you'd get a bit of reflection/diffusion going on rather than total absorption along those walls. But I'll let you guys decide which way to go.

Yeah I'm looking at the DIY as well since it's seems it may be much more cost effective. However from pricing some of the materials, when you're not looking at making a lot of them, the DIY benefit starts to taper off.

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Originally Posted by emorphien

Yeah I'm looking at the DIY as well since it's seems it may be much more cost effective. However from pricing some of the materials, when you're not looking at making a lot of them, the DIY benefit starts to taper off.

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I think it depends where you buy your stuff from. But yeah, the more you buy the cheaper gets. I dont' think it would be worth it to build just 1 panel if you had to order the material or even drive around town shopping for it.

Consider, however, in any room you're going to need a bare minimum number of panels to really notice anything worth the effort. For 2 channel only, I don't think I'd do anything less than 6 panels. 2 behind the speakers, and 2 at both the 1st and second reflection point ( 2 on each side wall total). So your looking at 6 panels as a minimum for reasonable effectiveness for your money.
With this amount, you can still save a ton. I just looked up the most expensive fiberglass I know, OC 703, 6 panels (4 X 2) for $75. You'll need 4 yards for 6 panels, but let's say 5 for some extra material in the event of a screw up. $40 for fabric $30 in hardware. $30 in shipping maybe? $175 total for 6 panels. Still not bad. You're still saving over 50% from the cheapest source I know. Couple hours of easy hobby work.

I know my fiberglass is cheaper than Owens Corning and actually measures a fraction better at absorption. I'm sure if you checked around a bit in your are you could do this quite inexpensively. I built frames for mine, many people just wrap the fabric straight around the fiberglass to save a few dollars per panel.

Actually, if you build a frame you can easily get away with using mineral wool and get 6 panels of that for $36. If I was to do mine over again, that's definitely the route I would have taken. Just the frame and fabric will support the mineral wool. Live and learn I guess. I thought these would be harder to wrap the fabric around so I chickened out when I got a deal on the fiberglass.

DIY is not for everyone, though.

Thanks for all the input and links people, I will be passing on the info to those that control the purse strings. But for sure I think we will get qualify tech to come out and do an evaluation on what is needed.

Has anyone looked at this material. It has the following sound absorbing coefficients for a 2" thick panel. 125 Hz - 0.38, 250 Hz - 0.93, 500 Hz -1.10, 1000 Hz - 1.07, 2000 Hz - 1.07, 4000 Hz - 1.07. I would like to find some others with whom I could purchase these. They are only a couple of bucks each (depending on size), but the minimum order is 100 pieces.

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Originally Posted by JoeMc

Has anyone looked at this material. It has the following sound absorbing coefficients for a 2" thick panel. 125 Hz - 0.38, 250 Hz - 0.93, 500 Hz -1.10, 1000 Hz - 1.07, 2000 Hz - 1.07, 4000 Hz - 1.07. I would like to find some others with whom I could purchase these. They are only a couple of bucks each (depending on size), but the minimum order is 100 pieces.

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Never heard of it, but it sounds like it could be a good alternative to OC705. How much per 2" piece 2 x 4 in size?

I would be interested in a group buy.

Also, are they any particular color or is it just black or gray or something?

Here is the link with the information.

http://www.jm.com/insulation/perform...glas_board.pdf

I am having my wife quote this through a contractor friend of hers, but the dimensions are restricted to 48-72" by 92-96". I would like to buy these and cover with cloth (burlap?) if I can work out some way to do it.