What Is a Cheap Alternative to Acoustic Panels?

Cheap Alternative to Acoustic Panels: What Absorbs for Less

The best cheap alternative to acoustic panels is a bare 2 x 4 ft board of 2 in. rigid fiberglass wrapped in breathable fabric: Owens Corning 703 rates NRC 1.00 on its data sheet (opens in a new tab). There's no frame to build or buy, so wrapping it is the whole job.

Rugs and soft furnishings soak up far less per square foot. Johns Manville (opens in a new tab) lists commercial carpet at NRC 0.25, so it takes 32 sq ft of carpet to match one board (32 x 0.25 = 8, against 8 x 1.00 = 8 for the board).

Areas drawn to scale that absorb the same: a 2 by 4 foot 2 inch fiberglass board at NRC 1.00, 8 square feet; commercial carpet at NRC 0.25, 4 by 8 feet or 32 square feet; bare drywall at NRC 0.05, a whole 10 by 16 foot wall of 160 square feet — One board does the work of a 4 x 8 ft rug or an entire drywall wall.

A rug's still worth having on a hard floor, where boards don't go. Curtains, sofas and bookshelves don't come with a lab rating from a maker, so count square feet of rated material, not soft stuff in the room. The soundproof panels guide shows where the boards go to make the biggest difference.

Watch out: none of these block noise coming through a wall. For that, you seal the gaps and add mass, starting with the cheapest way to soundproof a wall. You'll find more cheap fixes in the soundproof panels FAQ.

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