DIY ACOUSTIC PANELS ARE HARD...But So Worth It

[@andrewrobinsonreviews]

This was a terrific video Ealan! Entertaining and informative. Good work. Is your carpet in yet? Regardless, good work!

[@ealanosborne]

Oh yeah…guess I forgot to mention the carpet tiles that went in. That’ll be in the grand reveal episode coming out soon, then! 😄 Thanks for the kind words, Andrew! 🙌

[@IBuildIt]

Those quick clamp hangers are awesome! And thanks for the mention :)

[@ealanosborne]

Absolutely! Thanks so much for the inspiration and your willingness to have a conversation with me!

[@NewHopeAudio]

Great video. Thanks for sharing. For an air gap (albeit minimal) I mounted 1x3’s (you could absolutely go 2x3 etc) to 1) mount to studs and be able to mount the panels anywhere on the board while being sure they’re not coming off 2) have a 3/4” air gap and I just used 3/4” rubber feet mounted to the back bottom of the panels so they’re off the wall roughly the same amount as the top portion.

[@Schmiddis_focus]

For somebody who finds this video: I used pretty much the same material as Ealan did but made my life much easier. In Germany you can get the store staff of where you buy the MDF from to cut everything to size. In my case it didn't even cost extra that way plus I didn't have to cut anything. I'm sure there are stores in the US that offer this service as well. For a secure fit i measured every needed hole, marked the spot and drilled a pilot hole for each screw. The result is very clean and very sturdy. Structurewise I did it the same way as Ealan with one support-beam in the middle, but I hung mine up the Wall with steel nails (two per panel in a stone wall). After that I covered the front and the back with very light weed matt for the filling to stay out of the air I want to breathe and to ease out contrast between the materials that would have been easy to spot with the property of Linen (which I used as a top fabric) being very see-through. Hope it helps. Nice video and great explanations!

[@ealanosborne]

Thank you for this! We’re all in this together, helping each other out! 🎉

[@avgeek8810]

Nice! I remember when I was 17 and was building my first home theatre. Had to make my acoustic panels myself but I didn’t paint the wood. I just had the textile all around and stapled on the back. They turned out great 😊

[@jeffjefferson7384]

Terrific guide. What demo scenes do you use to test out the panels? You could probably do a video just on those!

[@aussierob7177]

I have curtains of different thickness covering both side walls which i can open to expose small sections of bare wall. The front wall has motorised velvet curtains which open and close, when i watch a movie.The floor is covered in thick carpet. The ceiling and the back wall are the only surfaces not treated.

[@elijahball9349]

Those table saw techniques were terrifying.

[@ealanosborne]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZ_UlH9mos-AoNk

[@JavonDGreen]

Ealan Awesome video my friend. Thank you for taking the time to make it. I know it added more time to your build process and we appreciate it. I still have a few questions. I get it took out the reverberation in your room. However it’s really about how the system responded to it for me. Did it clean up your audio presentation? Did it measure different? An echo is an echo however as someone who might be wanting to follow the same steps I’d like to know how the system sounds afterwards. I know you linked a video of someone else’s channel that talked about it more in a technical aspect. However I’d like to hear it from you.

[@ealanosborne]

Hmmm…well the thing about home theater acoustic treatment is that you’re not dealing with a music studio setting, or vocal booth setting, where deadening the reflections is key for critical listening and music mixing. Home theater, on the other hand, still needs room character. So while my acoustic panels helped with the ridiculous reverb decay time, it’s still not completely dead. It still has some reflection properties to it since it has plenty of spaces of bare wall and ceiling. It definitely helped clean up the sound, made it less muddy, less fatiguing over longer listening periods, and better precision between all the speakers. That, and I heard a bass response like I hadn’t heard before in a home setting. It was really cool. I have to attribute that to how thick I made the panels, along with the air gap, to better manage those long ass low frequency waves. 🤘 I have yet to really measure the room extensively with REW, but I know what my ears heard, and it was leagues better. 🙌

[@JavonDGreen]

@@ealanosborne awesome!!! That is exactly what I was looking for

[@SaqibDadani]

Ealan : I have small media room (10*15)and with REFERENCE DOLBY ATMOS HOME THEATER SYSTEM (with two R-625FA Dolby Atmos® floor standing speakers), can you please guide me if I can add acoustic panels on the ceiling, as my understanding is the elevated speakers reflect sounds from the ceiling. Adding acoustic panels on the ceiling will degrade the overall Dolby Atmos experience ?

[@ealanosborne]

Correct. It’s best that you have a flat ceiling for upward firing reflections. You might be able to get away with some slim panels near the corners (directly above the TV) and even some behind your listening position, just so you have something up there to help deaden reflections. 🤷‍♂️

[@SaqibDadani]

@@ealanosborne Thanks

[@Cpt_Adama]

You can screw the MDF but you need to pre-drill the hole the proper size for which screw your using. Ideally you want the hole to be just barely smaller or the same size as the main part of the screw without the threads.

[@prodby430]

You could also make some front covers which you fix from the sides and would not need so much fabric if you want to wrap them.

[@ealanosborne]

Thanks for the tip!

[@chrish7336]

Ealan, late to the show here, but thanks for the info. Something else that may be of interest would be creating your speakers out of ceiling tiles, foam panels. I recently saw a few videos that show how to do this. best part is they can also reduce the echo/reverb while providing the sound you want. While these panels would still require the use of a sub for the full low ends and added clarity, the panels will do double duty in your space. Tech Ingredients I believe is the guy I watched that tried multiple materials for these panels. In one I believe he did a 4 panel per channel setup for a fuller sounding range. He does get scientific with information so if you can bare through the technical info I think you would find it beneficial.

[@ealanosborne]

Whoa, cool! Thanks for the heads up! 🤘

[@clavicus]

08:33 FYI for everyone else, this is how you create conditions that cause kickback on a tablesaw. Get a miter gauge. Never free-hand a table saw cut like this where the 'waste' side exceeds the width of the side being cut this drastically. Be careful! Also, it's ridiculous that all of these crosscuts are being made on a table saw when the miter saw is right beside you. I have to guess that you just wanted to use the convenience of the tablesaw fence for measurement instead of measuring and marking for cuts on the miter saw.

[@ealanosborne]

Precisely. I already had the lengths measured out on the table saw, as opposed to having to make marks on each individual plank over and over. Just trying to save a little time since I was already behind on the theater build. That and I’m clearly not a woodworking expert. I had access to the equipment, but maybe use it every couple of months for odd projects here and there since I’m capable of doing most projects DIY. 🤷‍♂️

[@fshometheater]

Good job, I have a company in this segment of audio and video here in Brazil, and something that people always forget is the issue of acoustic treatment of the space, it's no use investing thousands of $$$ in equipment and not having a suitable environment, congratulations for your work.

[@ealanosborne]

Thank you very much! Glad I’m doing something right. 😁

[@travisjacobson682]

Nicely done! I've been looking into doing this for my own space. While I'm up to the DIY challenge, I don't have the tools required (e.g. brad nailer, table saw). Lack of access to the proper tools for the job significantly reduces the cost benefit of DIY. I don't mind purchasing tools, but I'm not even sure what is essential. Maybe I should search more broadly for a list of tools recommended for beginning woodworking. Did you come across anything like that in your research?

[@ealanosborne]

I didn’t. But as far as a good overall “starter kit” for a solid woodworking space, having a miter saw, table saw, impact driver/drill with different bits, and a pneumatic kit (stapler, braid nail guns, nail guns). Although I was SO fortunate that my brother-in-law already had all that.

[@travisjacobson682]

@@ealanosborne Yeah... how about an "intro to starter kit for noobs"? Haha. It's a large initial investment, and I'm not sure what else I would do beyond this little project. I guess I could build some speaker/subwoofer enclosures... maybe some birdhouses... soapbox derby car... 😆

[@ealanosborne]

@@travisjacobson682 Haha! True. My brother-in-law does like the challenge of DIY woodworking projects. He and my wife built our current bed frame and side tables, as well as a TV stand and coffee table for himself. The possibilities are endless if you wanna get into it! 😁

[@codyenos4425]

Awesome video this will be so helpful in the near future!…What kind of fabric did you use?

[@ealanosborne]

Nothing special. Just some light fabric I got from the fabric store, and porous enough to see some light peek through when you hold it up to a light source. 👍

[@jrep88]

I built my first acoustic panels about a year ago. The first one sucked but the rest looked great. We went the 1x4 route instead of MDF. Also used a generic mineral wool with the identical acoustic properties as 703. Think we came in at $30 for each. Well worth the investment in time. Basic panels are around $100 each with shipping. FYI if you get some wire screen door material and staple on the front your fabric will turn out great 👍

[@ealanosborne]

Awesome! Thanks for the tip!

[@MuzdokOfficial]

john crafting is incredible

[@TheNickmeeks1]

Hey nice video. I really like how you’ve got your points across quickly without wasting too much time but not dropping details I think you missed something though. The “air gap“, needs to be a sealed box. So when you bring it away from the wall the way you’ve done your freestanding ones is sound can go through it get reflected and come back through it again in the ‘velocity zone’. (as in the sound is moving through it) but against the wall is what’s called the ‘pressure zone’. (Where sound isn’t moving, it just pressurised like if you squashed a spring) The air gap is meant to be an airtight sealed box behind the insulation. So a 3 inch insulation layer followed by a 3 inch air gap, but also the frame will need to be 6 inches deep sealed on all sides to a rigid backing. Bass follows the lowest path of resistance and will just go around the panel. By sealing it on all sides and on the back, you create a pressure difference outside the panel verses inside the panel in the air gap. This is what gives you your extra bass absorption boost. Note to things in the acoustic insider video. His panels are all flush with the wall on the sides so the air gap is built into the panel. Also on the acoustic calculator that you highlighted with the graph showing the difference in absorption, on the right hand side of the graph where it shows each panel make up they both say they have a rigid backing. Aka the back is sealed. Hope that helps. 5:23

[@ealanosborne]

Whoa, thanks! Good to know! I will def apply this new knowledge when I build out my “dream” theater a few years from now. 😁🤘

[@TheNickmeeks1]

@@ealanosborne acoustics is such a rabbit hole 🕳. As soon as you’ve got something figured out, almond comes the thing you didn’t know, and then the thing you didn’t know you don’t know is purging round the next corner!

[@adamjj85]

Congrats on the panels and the room build! The difference is amazing. Hoping to do the same for my theater build with movie posters printed on the fabric! But I will probably just go with 1x3's or 1x4's for simplicity.

[@ealanosborne]

Yeah, with my "dream theater" in the future, I'll def be printing posters on the fabric! Do it! :)

[@cgsmithinnola]

Great video! I recently built 10 panels with 3" thick rockwool and used 2x3's and my 2'x4' panels ended up just over 20 lbs each! yowzers. Sturdy, but heavy! Wish I had used lighter wood! The sound is SO much better in my little home studio though!

[@ramonbmovies]

Good video. But I'd take caution with using that insulation. Most insulation, including rock wool, is made w/ formaldehyde which causes cancer. It's not a problem when it's inside walls that are then covered up with drywall. But when you only cover them w/ a thin, extremely porous fabric, I guarantee that some of that insulation will eventually come out in the form of dust. You will breath in that dust...That's literally the only reason I have not built my own panels. Access to cheap insulation WITHOUT formaldehyde doesn't exist in the states. You can buy it, but it's very expensive. i.e., denim or hemp. I researched using foam that's used in couch pillows, but that's even more expensive.

[@erecher005]

nice video, very thorough, thank you for putting this together. I will check out John's vids also. I have a few panels up but need some more and am considering DIY

[@Karim-ik5ij]

Hey! Do you remember where you got the fabric from?

[@ealanosborne]

Yeah just my local Joann’s Fabrics 👍

[@cpt.hindsight]

Thank you, informative and fun to watch, as usual 👍👍you nailed it, "down the rabbitt hole" pretty much sums it up. Trying to figure out what goes where, no cover 35% of the wall/ceiling, no cover 50%, use riser as basstrap, no riser are no good, build baffle wall for LRC, no wait someone said that was a bad idea, dampen first reflections, no you sbould diffuse mids and highs, no use a multifusor on first reflections gah blah, mmfffpp, gnnahhh?!🙃

[@ealanosborne]

RIGHT?! 😄

[@byronhadley9662]

This was a great video! I really appreciate how you shared your troubles and the struggle of finding good information

[@5thpixel]

Another great video! but as a rookie woodworker, i noticed the danger in how you were cutting the wood and that kickback at 8:33 was inevitable. glad you weren't hurt!

[@ealanosborne]

Livin’ on the edge, baby! 😄

[@jjguillen65]

Great video brother. Wish me luck. Imma attempt on making two for my LCR wall.

[@ealanosborne]

Woohoo! Do it! 🤘

[@Z-Ack]

Hell i just took an old memory foam mattress and cut it into chunks n built corner bass blocks with it stacked up then hung a bunch of moving blankets over the walls and draped em on the ceiling using fasteners every so often to make it sag in between.. can play drums all night and not have the cops called now.. only drawback is it gets hot as hell in there even in winter..

[@DrMackSplackem]

8:30 Whoa there! That's a job for the miter gauge/crosscut sled. I hate to be 'that guy', but be safe!

[@srikanthharmony]

Superb video bro. Excellent

[@ealanosborne]

Thank you!! 🤘

[@Cyclone311]

Do I see a change it your channel theme? Music, Audio, Movies and......Woodworking? Very nice video, great information. It's always good especially with woodworking to learn from others mistakes.

[@wackychicken]

That was an amazing video, thanks mate. can't wait to see the completed room

[@ealanosborne]

Thank you!!!

[@GB-je5tc]

Kinda like Root Canal / Cap process huh? So nice only after it's all DONE!!! Such it is when reinventing the wheel... LOL. ;)

[@shawnd1355]

Commenting before I even watch. I've been waiting for this! You sir, are awesome!

[@markwilson1446]

You make it overly difficult. Number one you shouldn't mount to wall. Go gobo style, lots of them. Use 3" or 4" Owens corning material warp it in goodwill sheets to prevent fiber migration. Lastly hang lots of warped panels from ceiling with hay bail wire. Hope this helps.

[@ealanosborne]

Thanks for the tips!

[@thereaperscoming]

Thank you for this video, you answered a lot of my questions and explained it in a dum dum approved way. Awesome work. This will definitely be a future project for me.

[@chem_e_markmark6374]

Awesome video! Rule #1 of DIY panels is that the first one won’t be great looking. My first panel lives behind a door.

[@ealanosborne]

Haha! Exactly. Better and better as you go. 😄

[@craigosterberg5045]

Thanks for the video

[@sal6830]

Great job!! 👍🏽

[@ealanosborne]

Thanks, Sal! 🤘

[@MuzdokOfficial]

what room is that lmao a garage. it sounded like a cathedral before

[@MuzdokOfficial]

it has a great reverb for a church

[@etiennedelange6428]

very informative

[@ariandawn4667]

again. i'm impressed with you. :)

[@ealanosborne]

Thaaaaanks! :)

[@BugsBoni]

Entertaining video well planned 😂

[@TheFrugalAudiophile]

Every time I have to take my acoustic treatments down to get in a closet I wish I would’ve completely wrapped them with fabric. Insulation is so irritating!

[@ealanosborne]

For real. I start coughing within minutes when I’m around the stuff out in the open

[@darrylday30]

Just climbed out of the rabbit hole and found this video.

[@EverythingHomeTheater]

I'm in a pickle.. I hate spending money but I hate woodworking to

[@ealanosborne]

Get an intern, or a niece or nephew to build them :D

[@hometheaterjoe9489]

😂🤣😂🤣

[@hometheaterjoe9489]

@Cody Imel hilarious 😂

[@TheArrangment]

Are you not worried about breathing in fiberglass from those panels? Not trying to scare you but those fiberglass sheets are meant to be sealed behind drywall to insulate from weather. Fiberglass strands can escape from the cloth and float around in your room.

[@ealanosborne]

I haven’t noticed myself having any coughing fits or anything. And it’s not like I’m constantly moving them. They pretty much stay put, so there’s no particles escaping due to them being jostled. 🤷‍♂️

[@mrshyst]

Cool video 😂funny as hell too..

[@ealanosborne]

Thank you very much! 😁🎉

[@C0NASUR]

That s*** can irritate every orifice had me 💀

[@Snoopy101a]

"3 1/2 inches is better than 2 inches" - That's what she said.

[@ealanosborne]

Hahaaaaaa! :)

[@TylerStout]

9:57 MDF isn't fragile per say but think of it this way, it's so dense that there's no room for screws so you when you try to screw into it without pre-drilling a hole the screw is forcing the wood apart. Those look pretty sweet though, I like that you can easily move them around and experiment with where you should place them. For example you might find that the side wall reflections all being absorbed make it too dead or not spacious depending on the speaker and you could try moving them to other parts of the room to see if they have a more desirable effect. I'm planning on treating parts of my living room just have to figure out what I can get away with, probably going to end up with either 2" owens 703 with 2" gap or 4" with no gap then some 2" panels no gap up front for some sbir absorption. Won't be able to do sidewalls so I might just need to get narrower dispersion speakers.

[@ealanosborne]

I noticed it made more of an impact on slap-back reflections when the ceiling panels went up. Something to think about, since you might be able to get away with more up there, since not everyone will enter your living room with the intention of looking up right away. :)

[@TylerStout]

@@ealanosborne I wish but 8 foot ceilings and even if i wrapped them with white fabric I still don't think it would pass WAF. When I get a dedicated theater all bets are off though! The fact that she's ok with rear absorption panel as long as the print on the fabric is nice and I think I can make an aesthetically pleasing front panel setup for my sbir issues should get me a good enough place that with fix the tiny bit of zing I have in regard to decay times. Honestly haven't measured my rt60 times but I'd wager due to having a lot of furniture around the room and carpet on the floor I think once I get a few panels in I'll be in the good range albeit on the higher side.

[@iyona14granturismogt6gtspo7]

Lol ..3 quarters of an inch MDF...3 inch thick MDF would be hundreds of lbs!

[@hometheaterjoe9489]

I trust your judgment bro…js

[@texasbuzzard4970]

Great video Ealan! Been venturing down the DIY panels rabbit hole myself the last week. I think I’ve settled on copying this guy : kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3PcZ2avgNCip7M Would love to hear your opinion on those... I like how simple the panels are (no time/$$ spent on pwood work) now I just gotta get my hands on some 703 without going bankrupt

[@ealanosborne]

Those are pretty good! Although he’s setting up acoustic treatment for what looks like a music mixing studio. Those need to be more “dead” sounding than a home theater space. The fact that he lined his entire walls with panels is too many for HT. You want your room to have some character, not have dead air, or else your AVR will be working too hard to get to normal volume levels. That and he mounted them directly onto the walls. For HT applications, it’s imperative to have an air gap between your panel and the wall or ceiling. It’s a fool-proof way to make your panels work twice as good without spending money on 703 that’s twice as thick. So if you get panels that are 2 inches thick, mount them with a 2 inch air gap. It’s always going to be a 1:1 ratio. 4 inch thick panels? Mount them with a 4 inch air gap, etc. But I agree - getting those 703 panels and just glueing fabric straight on them is going to save you time. 🤘

[@texasbuzzard4970]

@@ealanosborne wow thanks for the reply! Yea I’ve been thinking about a mounting solution to incorporate the air gap. Learned a lot from your video such as a 1:1 gap to panel ratio. I hadn’t considered the difference of home theater vs studio! I was going to make 12 panels but now I think I’ll just make six and see how it sounds. Thanks for the content bro. Love all the jokes you throw in there

[@ealanosborne]

@@texasbuzzard4970 Thank you! 😁

[@mikeortiz2139]

On that first Untreated Room clap, Holy Crap that was awful.

[@ealanosborne]

Tell me about it! 😬

[@mikeortiz2139]

@@ealanosborne hey, by chance, did you find a reliable source on bass traps?

[@Snoopy101a]

"Research"

[@GB-je5tc]

Ealan someone is trying to run a giveaway scam on your channel. I got burned once this way once already on Audiohics' comments section... co firmed scammer there.