John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

This is my first post in a while (I had another username, but apparently it's gone and unusable now)

I was at Lowes today and noticed that the ceiling tiles they had were for sale a little cheaper than I can find 703. They seemed to be at least twice as dense as 703, too. Would it, therefore, work as well as (or better than) 703 for low frequencies given the same thicknesses? I'm making some 2'x4'x4" frames, putting in sheets of fiberglass, and then covering the whole thing with fabric. I was using 703, but now I'm out and can't easily get more. Low frequencies are my main concern at the moment, so the higher density ceiling tiles seemed like they might be worthwhile.

Sorry if the acoustic properties of layered ceiling tile has been covered, but I did a search and didn't see anything.

S,

> Would it, therefore, work as well as (or better than) 703 for low frequencies given the same thicknesses? <

Yes, probably. Note that most ceiling tiles based on rigid fiberglass have a plastic facing, and those should be removed for all but the one layer that faces the room. And that layer will reflect high frequencies a bit, so you might want to remove that one too.

--Ethan

Thanks for the response, Ethan!

I played around with the facing a little bit, and I'm not so sure removing it from a large number of panels is really very feasible (it crumbles off instead of peeling nicely). Maybe I'll just hold off until I find some cheap fiberglass again, however long that will be.

Might wanna check on mineral wool instead - I can get 4" 4 PCF mineral wool locally (Thermafiber) for $.81 per sq. foot, thinner stuff is less.

If you follow the guidelines in the TOP ANNOUNCEMENT and edit your profile to include a location, we could probably help with sources... Steve

knightfly wrote: If you follow the guidelines in the TOP ANNOUNCEMENT and edit your profile to include a location, we could probably help with sources... Steve

Sorry about that; it's updated now.

Thanks... Steve