Sound is absorbed, diffused, or reflected. Reflections from room boundary surfaces can confuse our stereo or home theater sonic presentation at the listening position. One way to minimize reflections is to use a sound absorption solution.

A sound absorption solution to this reflection control issue is probably the most common approach used because sound absorbing materials are inexpensive and plentiful. Most materials are readily available and can be purchased at most home improvement stores.

One must be careful in the use of sound absorbing materials. Too much sound absorbing materials can take the life out of our presentations and contribute to a “dead” sounding room. Once sound energy is absorbed, it is converted to heat and lost forever. We don’t want to lose too much energy in order to control it when creating a sound absorption solution.

Instead of using a sound absorption solution to minimize reflections in our home theater, recording studios, and personal listening rooms, one should consider a balance between absorption and diffusion materials. This combination of methods can minimize reflections through sound absorption materials and also provide the “air” in our presentations by diffusing the remaining energy throughout our listening or monitoring positions.

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When we refer to noise, it is usually in the context of unwanted sound energy. The word noise has a negative connotation. Most of life’s noise we want to keep out of our rooms or contain the noise within the room or space it is generated in and keep it from leaking into other rooms.

A noise barrier would refer to some type of system which would prohibit noise from leaving or entering a room. A noise barrier technology is not to be confused with sound absorption technology. Sound absorption technology deals with absorbing energy inside of a room. Noise barrier or any sound barrier technology refers to the inhibiting of sound from entering a room or leaving the room and going into adjacient rooms or structures.

Noise barrier technologies are complicated and difficult structures to build. One must isolate the mechanical vibrations that sound produces through a series of layers of different materials and air spacing. Most noise barrier technologies must be physically decoupled from existing structures, so that sound vibrations are not transmitted to surrounding structures.

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Sound absorption deals with the absorption of energy within our room boundaries. Our room is a vessel into which we put sound energy in through the use of amplified sound. If we have too much sound energy for the room or “vessel” to handle, we must reduce that sound energy through sound absorption. Sound absorption technology deals with the sound energy within the room itself.

This is true for all frequency ranges. Excess low frequency energy into our rooms causes numerous listening issues. Specially designed sound absorbers must be used to control this type of energy in our rooms, so the low frequency energy does not smother the other frequency ranges. Middle frequencies are important in the accurate portrayal of our vocals. A balance of sound absorption and sound diffusion works well for mid range frequencies. High frequencies are usually controlled through the use of sound absorbing foam technology.

Soundproofing refers to the energy within our rooms and also to the energy outside our rooms. We use soundproofing technology to keep noise outside our rooms from entering our rooms and interfering with our speech or musical presentation. Soundproofing technology can also be used to keep the energy within our rooms from “bleeding” into other rooms or adjacent rooms. This is especially true for low frequency issues or “bass boom”. Soundproofing technology is complicated to design and expensive to implement. One has to spend a lot of money in soundproofing materials to affect a small amount of change.

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