Egg-crate foam as a wall treatment.....

[Tube60]

Has anybody tried this? I thought it could be a good idea. I was looking at a piece the other day, and it reminded me of the foam spikes in an anechoic test chamber. I would consider it to be good at damping standing waves and reflections behind the panels. I searched the forum, but I didn't find anything on it. Any thoughts? In any case, I might try some to see what happens.
Regards,
Ross

 

[Robin]

Egg Create Foam...

Tube60,

Yes, as a matter of fact I use it on the inside of the door to my HT room. It works great. very little sound drifts into the hallway. The egg create foam also dampens the sound vibration of my Descent subwoofer's powerful tri-bass speakers. That's the only place I use the egg creat foam (it's cream colored / yellowish in color). I think you can see it in use, at least part of it in some of the photo's of my system #57. A wonderful sonic door or wall treatment and I think it looks great as well...

 

[DTB300]

In any case, I might try some to see what happens.

That is the best solution, to see what it does...or does not.

 

[kach22i]

Are you talking about this packing stuff?

It works, play with it and have some fun.

 

[Tube60]

Thanks for the replies so far.
I'll get some of the cream-colored stuff and give it a whirl. To make it more aesthetically pleasing, I may do a thin coat of Fleck Stone which would also have the advantage of creating a mass differential, which would further dampen reflected sound.

 

[LaserMark4]

One thought from an ex-fire prevention/firefighter is that you want to make sure you cover that type of material with a non-flammable covering, as most of those materials burn like gasoline if they are ever ignited. That looks like the same egg-crate sound proofing material that killed the 96 patorons in WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island nightclub fire in 2003, fully involving the entire builiding in less than 3 minutes.

Might want to do a flame test to be safe (ignite on a small vertical piece outside to see how fast it burns). That way when your packed HT crowd starts the "Bic lighter over the head" support wave, you'll have no fears.

 

[Tube60]

One thought from an ex-fire prevention/firefighter is that you want to make sure you cover that type of material with a non-flammable covering, as most of those materials burn like gasoline if they are ever ignited. That looks like the same egg-crate sound proofing material that killed the 96 patorons in WEST WARWICK, Rhode Island nightclub fire in 2003, fully involving the entire builiding in less than 3 minutes.

Might want to do a flame test to be safe (ignite on a small vertical piece outside to see how fast it burns). That way when your packed HT crowd starts the "Bic lighter over the head" support wave, you'll have no fears.

I've considered that. Urethane foam is nasty in that regard. I think there are some fire retardant egg-crate foams available at upholstery shops.

 

[dyazdani]

The egg crate usually works decent in taming some of the HF garbage, I've tried it before for first reflections and front wall treatment. It doesn't really have enough density/thickness to do much with LF waves.

The good thing is that it's quite inexpensive so it never hurts to try it out. You can line your whole house with egg crate foam for about the price of one commercial panel

 

[SteveInNC]

I've considered that. Urethane foam is nasty in that regard. I think there are some fire retardant egg-crate foams available at upholstery shops.

You can get Auralex Studiofoam Wedges, which is basically Class B fire-treated acoustic foam for not too much money. http://www.auralex.com/acoustic_studiofoam_2w/acoustic_studiofoam_2w.asp

The national chain Guitar Center usually carries some of the Auralex foam variants in their stores, so you can look at it first-hand. Here are their California locations: http://www.guitarcenter.com/locations/cities.cfm?state=California

Read this description of the RI fire before you use untreated foam:
http://mixonline.com/design/applications/audio_ashes/