Acoustic foam is a bit more of a niche. People don’t want to expose themselves outdoors when they are creating a space that should also be aesthetically appealing, which doesn’t mean acoustic foam is ugly or anything. It just has a very distinctive look that you can’t mask. (Pros and cons of Acoustic foam)
Acoustic foam is a bit more of a niche. People don’t want to expose themselves outdoors when they are creating a space that should also be aesthetically appealing. It doesn’t mean acoustic foam is ugly or anything, it just has a very distinctive look that you can’t mask.
Pros of Acoustic foam
Flexible sizes and shapes
It cannot be denied that acoustic foam has larger foam panels when it comes to dimensional flexibility. While standard acoustic panel sizes can offer pleasing aesthetic possibilities, such as larger panels that flow into one another, or octagonal panels that can serve as design elements, the standard design of most acoustic foam products is plug-and-play. makes them much more flexible to handle space.
Simply put, where acoustic panels can have multiple options that solve design or aesthetic problems, acoustic foam kits aim to let you do one thing very easily: cover an entire given space. For this reason, the industry standard is a 1-foot square panel, which makes it easier and cheaper to cover large areas.
Easy to customize
One of the best things about acoustic foams is that they are made of foam! Folding, bending, or cutting is easy, which means you can truly customize the space without feeling like you’re destroying expensive equipment. Do you have one corner that square panels won’t fit? Cut one off to shape? This is not something you can do with a massive acoustic panel
Pros of Acoustic foam
Not a very good view
There are places where acoustic foam panels merge. Recording studios. YouTube video background. Maybe in a collaboration booth. A foam panel with jagged edges is difficult to confuse with anything else. And this look, especially when it is dark foam, is not really what you would consider a design element.
This is normal – especially since it is these jagged edges and mismatched corners. That allows the foams to do their job and pick up sound.
But if you’re trying to control the appearance of a space with more precision, your Styrofoam options are limited to black squares with jagged edges, or (maybe better or worse depending on your taste) bright ones like Foamily Red. / Carbon acoustic panels (on Amazon).
Not something that you can do with your own hands
Although panels can be assembled from a few simple parts. The acoustic foam must be produced in bulk using equipment that can handle materials. Inflate them with air, and cut into the characteristic shapes required for acoustic foam to work.
For this reason, they are generally cheaper than panels, but you cannot make custom acoustic foam.
Summarize
if you start podcasting at the end or are trying to produce high-quality recordings, then you can probably go straight to acoustic foam. And for anything in between, just be sure to pause and think about your needs. And the goals you set for your space. With a little planning, you can’t go wrong.
Pros and cons of Acoustic foam
