AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panel

Alphasorb panels are the perfect sound control solution. When it comes to sound, it can be pristine when it leaves speakers or as it comes from a human voice, but the room in which it's heard may not be acoustically optimal. This means that the sound might bounce around too much and create “muddiness” or other unwanted features, making the sound worse than it otherwise would be.

To fix this, we utilize sound control solutions so that the sound is toned, meaning any issue caused by the uniqueness of the room is removed, leaving the sound clean and heard as it should be.

The two biggest issues that sound control seeks to fix are echo and reverb:

Echo occurs when sound reflects back clearly with a delay. The most commonly understood example is when you shout into a cave and you can hear the initial sound reflecting back to you repeatedly as it bounces off the walls until it has no more energy and quiets. Often, many normal spaces that feature hard furniture and walls and cavern-like ceilings are essentially acoustic caves, meaning that any sound will have an associated echo. The best way to solve this is to install Alphasorb acoustic panels which will absorb the echo, leaving sound crisp and clear.

Very similar to the ear but acoustically distinct, reverb is another issue that sound control seeks to solve. In confined rooms, sound will bounce off of walls, ceilings, floors, and furniture, creating a dense set of reflections that combine and join the original sound. This leads to muddiness, making the original sound lesser, and maybe even unintelligible. Just like with echo, utilizing Alphasorb acoustic panels will absorb reverberations, leaving the original sound intact and pristine.

To understand the power of Alphasorb acoustic panels, check out the following before and after videos:

• College Auditorium Before and After Acoustical Treatment
• Dog Kennel Quieted by AlphaSorb Acoustical Panels

There are a few types of materials utilized for sound absorption.

Fiberglass is an industry standard because of it’s effectiveness in sound absorption. Fiberglass is also a semi-rigid material, meaning it can hold its shape without a supporting structure. In contrast, mineral wool is a loose material that’s often used in acoustic panels. Since it’s a loose material, it needs to be contained with a structure. When it comes to acoustic panels, mineral wool is typically contained within a wooden frame. With fiberglass, no frame is needed, which means the panel is more light weight, and the sides of the panel also enhance sound absorption. The frame required of the mineral wool means that there is a small area of reflection of sound, which causes the issues we are trying to get rid of. The frame creates less overall space for sound control to occur, meaning the same size fiberglass panel is capable of more sound control.

Due to this significant difference, Alphasorb acoustic panels utilize fiberglass in a frameless design to maximize sound absorption. To learn more about the benefits of fiberglass over mineral wool, see a full explanation here.

Another benefit of Alphasorb panels is the aesthetic options. Because sound control requires acoustic panels to be hung on walls, they will obviously be seen, and therefore need to be treated aesthetically to fit appropriately within your overall design. We offer a wide variety of acoustic fabric that covers the panels, notably Guilford of Maine, to meet any design requirements you may have.

Click here to see how a client utilized Alphasorb fabric wrapped panels in their restaurant.