If you live in the city then you must have probably thought about finding the best acoustic foam panels in the world and installing them in your home. And this is true for lots of people, not just city-dwellers!
Acoustic panels for your home are the ideal solution if you have loud neighbors, or just want to have a little bit more of peace and quiet.
In fact, these are a must if you want to get into any sound-related work, be it recording music or making your own podcast, so it’s clear that acoustic panels can serve many purposes for a lot of people.
Finding a good soundproofing method is a task that requires proper research, given that not all methods fit every need. For example, if you just want to block out your neighbors’ late-night conversations, then you might be just fine with some acoustic paint.
However, if you’re looking for a more professional solution, then acoustic foam panels are the ones for you.
This is one of the most popular sound dampening methods out there, and it’s pretty likely that you’ve seen them in music studios. This is because they not only reduce external sounds but also do a great job managing the acoustics in a room.
If you want to know more about how acoustic panels work and, most importantly, what are the best acoustic foam panels on the Internet, then stick around to make the best choice.
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Best Acoustic Panels and Soundproof Foam
There are a lot of options when it comes to picking the best sound reducing foam, so to make sure you end up with the best one for you, we’ve brought you a list of the best acoustic panels and soundproof foam for your home.
All these options have been picked out of dozens upon dozens of other choices, and they all respond to different soundproofing needs for your home.
Whether you’re setting up a professional studio or you just want to make things a little quieter around your home, make sure you’re always picking out the best article for you.
So, take a look at the best soundproofing acoustic foam panels we’ve found for you today.
- Pyramidal shape
- Fire retardant
- Environmentally friendly
These soundproof panels are some of the best you can get for any purpose, be it building a home recording studio or reducing the noise inside your home office.
What makes them special is the pyramidal shape of the foam, which does a lot more than just reduce noise.
When you’re looking for a good acoustic foam panel, you have to know that what they do is change the characteristics of the acoustics in the room.
That includes reducing echo and reverberations, giving you a cleaner sound quality.
These foam panels in particular are great for both your home or a professional studio since they’re super easy to apply. They also cover a very important safety factor, which is that they are fire retardant.
Fire safety is important for any room you might be in, but especially for those with tons of wires and electronic devices in them, like professional recording studios.
These panels are also made with environmentally friendly materials, and also have a very firm quality to them that prevents them from losing their shape over time.
- Different colors
- 12 inch squares
- Easy to clean
As we mentioned, pyramid patterned foam is one of the best resources you can find for improving the acoustics in a room.
These panels in particular are 2 inches thick and come in a 12 x 12 inches presentation, allowing each of the six panels to fit perfectly on any surface you stick them to.
If you want the best sound quality you can get inside a room, these panels are best located on walls and ceilings, thus reducing sound reverb, echo, and noise.
If you’re going to be recording sound and voice, make sure they’re placed directly behind your microphone.
These panels can look amazing for your home or studio, given you can pick out between ice blue, charcoal, red, burgundy, or even a combination of those colors. This goes a long way in making your panels a little bit more aesthetic.
Sound reducing foam is super low maintenance, requiring very little care over time. If you want to keep them clean, just dust them gently or use your vacuum to remove any dirt.
- Pyramidal pattern
- 17.8 inches long
- Designed for corners
Corners are one of the main issues in a room when it comes to finding soundproofing methods since they cause most of the reverb and bounce. These panels are exclusively made to solve this problem, serving as the perfect complement for square noise dampening foam panels.
These are 17.8” long and come with a pyramidal pattern that helps improve the sound quality in the room.
As we mentioned before, this type of panel works best as a complement for the more traditional square panels that go on your walls.
However, they are a great help in really securing the corners of your recording studio and getting rid of any unwanted echo.
These panels are also very easy to take care of and only need a little dusting every once in a while. They come in a 4 pack to cover all corners of a small to medium-sized room, considerably reducing the reverb that ends up on most of your recorded material.
You can pin them to your walls using velcro, spray glue, double-faced scotch tape, or any other method that you like and won’t permanently damage your walls.
- Wedge pattern
- Polyurethane
- Fire retardant
These panels are a little different from what we’ve seen so far. The come in a wedge patterned style, with nine small square per blocks, and are made of polyurethane foam.
This pattern improves the echo absorption and noise reduction in rooms that need and improvement in sound quality.
They can be widely used to cover entire walls in offices, home theaters, or recording studios, and actually give a great final look to your decor. Also, they make your home and studio safer by being fire retardant and made out of environmentally friendly materials.
When it comes to size, they’re pretty standard if we consider that most panels out there are 12 inches long and wide.
However, this is a very good size to combine them and apply them to your walls. Also, you don’t necessarily have to cover your entire walls with them in order to get decent soundproofing.
In fact, you can spot-treat your walls to block out any loud noises, and you’ll see how far a moderate use of these panels can go when it comes to dampening the noise coming through your walls.
- Hexagonal
- Imrpoved echo reduction
- 14 inches wide by 13 inches long
These panels are amazing for a more stylish appearance if you want to include them in common areas, or even if you’re just looking for a more elegant soundproofing solution.
The hexagonal design is a very original touch, and along with that, you can find it in different neutral tones that improve the look of the room you want to install them in.
These panels also come with a beveled-edge design. While the actual pattern of the panel doesn’t really alter the sound quality, you’ll find that beveled designs tend to improve echo reduction.
You can use these sound deadening foam panels to reduce reverberations, echo, and other unwanted sounds that may end up in your final recordings.
Also, these panels are great for decorating common spaces, so if you want to improve your sound quality in order to record videos, then these can make your set look amazing.
These panels are 14 inches wide and 13 inches long. They are also fire retardant and perfectly safe for all environments, and they can significantly improve the overall sound quality of the space you install them in.
- Innovative Periodic Groove Structure
- Fire Retardant
- Easy to set up
These panels not only improve the sound quality of your studio but also give it an amazing look with its unique foam pattern.
You might take a look at this and think ‘it’s too much’, but trust us when we say that the groove pattern in these noise-dampening foam panels does an excellent job in absorbing sound and reducing echo.
The foam squares are 12 inches long and wide, and the grooves get up to 2 inches tall. These are pretty standard measurements, but the real trick here is in the pattern of the structure.
These grooves are amazing at canceling echo and standing waves, reducing noise, and improving quality.
They are also odorless, fire retardant, and ecofriendly. What’s best, they make your home or recording studio pretty cool and set it apart from all the other rooms in your house.
What are acoustic foam panels?
There may be many reasons to install sound reducing foam in your home. Maybe you want to start your own podcast, start guitar or singing lessons, or become a YouTuber.
To do any of these things, you need a proper space where you not only have all of your lighting and recording equipment but also the right acoustics to make sure all sounds are top quality.
If you’re in the process of setting up your own studio at home, then you’ve probably read more than once about acoustic foam panels.
And with good reason! These panels are one of the best inversions you can make for your studio, but, what exactly are acoustic foam panels?
As their name indicates, sound deadening foam panels are pieces of foam that improve the quality of the sound inside the room they’re placed in.
They do this by absorbing sound waves in order to prevent them from bouncing off walls and different hard surfaces.
This bouncing is what causes echo and other acoustical factors that affect the quality of your recorded material.
What noise-dampening foam does is absorb those echoes and reverberations to give you a much clearer sound quality.
Most of these panels are made from polyurethane, which is the best material out there to reduce background noise and acoustic interference.
The best soundproofing foam for your recording studio should be 2 inches thick, no matter the size you choose for your walls. The most common models come in squares, and you can usually find them in packs.
Something very common in sound deadening foam panels are patterns and structure.
The most popular patterns come in the form of pyramids, wedges, or egg crates, but you can also find smooth-surfaced panels with no problems.
While these patterns may improve the sound absorption factor, the real weight of the foam’s work relies on the panel’s thickness and quality.
So, if you’re looking to create a recording space with fine-tuned sound quality to get the best results for any of your projects, then soundproofing foam panels are for you.
What to look for in sound deadening foam panels
First of all, you have to know that sound deadening foam does not block sound.
This means that you can’t expect even the best soundproofing foam panels to do the job of a full home renovation in order to make your walls soundproof.
This is because acoustic foam panels are not actually soundproof. Instead, what they do is improve the sound quality inside the room, reducing echo and reverb.
So, now that you’re clear on what sound dampening foam does, these are the things you have to look for when it comes to choosing the best panels.
Thickness
The best acoustic foam for you should be 2 inches thick or even thicker since this is what will give you the best quality.
Foams that are too thin will not give you the proper coverage and may end up underperforming.
A good quality, dense sound-absorbing foam is what you’re looking for.
Size
Standard foam panels come in squares of 12 x 12 inches and usually come in packs of four, six, or twelve.
However, the best size for you is completely dependent on what you need, and you can actually get packs of 48 or even 90 foam squares.
A few small blocks may be all you need to cover your walls’ weak spots, and you can arrange them in any order you want.
You don’t have to completely cover your walls from floor to ceiling. Check the direction your speakers and monitors face, and place your foam on that place on the wall.
This will absorb the sound coming from your equipment and will most likely only require a few panels.
Safety
This may be an unusual factor to look for in acoustic panels, but it’s actually a very important one.
Most acoustic foam panels come with fire retarding qualities, which is a very relevant precaution if your planning on setting up a studio with tons of wires and electronic equipment.
So, when you’re looking for the best soundproofing foam for your goals, make sure to pick one of the safest ones.
How to install soundproof foam panels
When you’ve already picked out the best soundproof foam for your needs, it’s time to figure out how to install them.
Before you get around to sticking them to your walls, you have to figure out where you are going to place them, since location is crucial to getting the best results.
To find the best place for your panels, you can always use the mirror technique. This very simple method is one of the most popular ways to figure out where and how to hang acoustic foam without damaging walls.
All you have to do is sit in the center of the room where you’re going to install your panels and get a friend to hold a mirror and walk along the walls.
Whenever you see a speaker reflected on the mirror form your position in the center of the room, that’s where your foam paneling should go.
The reason for this is that sound reflects off walls and any other hard surfaces, so the mirror helps to find the first spots where the sound will be bouncing.
When you’re done marking up the spots where your paneling will go, it’s time to hang your acoustic foam.
Now, there are several ways to best install your new acoustic panels.
You can choose permanent methods that will adhere the panels to your walls, or you can go for temporary methods that won’t damage your wall paint.
Here are some of the most popular ways to install your soundproof panels:
Spray adhesive
This is the most secure way to install your acoustic foam panels.
All you have to do is spray a light coat of the adhesive on your wall, and then stick the panel to that very same spot by holding it up for about 15 seconds.
If you don’t want to cause permanent damage to your walls, go for the ones that allow you to remove the panels without sticking to the paint on the wall.
Command Strips
Command strips are great if you don’t want to damage your walls or your foam panels.
You can easily find these at any supply store, and all you have to do is stick them to your foam panel, remove the paper, and then stick them to your wall.
They’re super easy to use and are also very gentle on the material of your walls.
Super Glue
This basic adhesive method is super effective and cheap. However, it can cause some damage to your walls.
Just spread the glue on the spot on the wall where you want to hang your acoustic foam, and then hold the foam against it for 30 seconds to make sure it properly sticks.
No matter which installation method you choose, a powerful tip is to paste some corrugated cardboard to the back of your foam panels to prevent damage to the foam.
This way, you’ll be sticking the cardboard to the wall, which will make the entire thing easier to come off.
Acoustic foam panels are one of the best acquisitions you can get to perfect your audio recordings and get the best quality out of your work.
Any of the options listed above will give you amazing results and will significantly improve the sound quality of your spaces.
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to dampen sound for a bit of quiet, if you want to start recording music at home, or if you’re making a podcast.
Soundproof foam panels remain the best option for you and your goals.