Top Soundproof Foam Panels – Guide & Comparison
If you have been looking for the best soundproof foam panel and you haven’t found it yet, this quick guide is here to help you with that. Those of you that have little to no time on their hands, we have a few suggestions for you. Our team took the time to carefully analyze the quality of some of the sought-after products on the market, and after intense research, we decided that the Izo All Supply Egg Crate Foam Tiles do an excellent job. They can serve so many purposes, being capable of helping everyone from musicians to podcasters. Such lightweight panels are always great to be used to treat ceilings. Passing all the required safety regulations, the panels won’t burn your house down. If you aren’t able to find them, look for the Xin and Log 48 Pack Acoustic Foam Panel.
Comparison table
Our Top Choice
There are many instances where you can use these foam panels, from soundproofing a room for a podcast to improving the acoustics for a music studio. You can treat walls using these panels, but they are also a good choice for the ceiling or doors.
You don’t get many colors to choose from and the ones offered aren’t great-looking.
Offering you the possibility to use them in any possible situation, these panels come neatly packed and ready to be placed on your walls and ceiling. They are great at canceling noise and reducing echoes.
2nd Best
Ideal for any kind of room, from recording studios to control rooms or karaoke rooms, these foam panels have a noise reduction coefficient of 0.4. The panels only take between 6 to 12 hours to decompress, unlike others that need water, or can take days to do so.
The material feels floppy and doesn’t give the impression of durability.
These are always a good choice if you are looking to absorb mid and high frequencies in a sound recording studio. They do work well for other applications such as vocal booths or control rooms.
Also To Consider
These are so lightweight that you can attach them to the ceiling with no problems. They are highly versatile and can be used to improve the sound quality of music studios, or for those that want to stream. The panels are small and that adds to their versatility.
You will be spending a lot of money trying to stick these to your walls.
Tiles like these are useful for small apartments where you only need to soundproof small places. They are compact and can be cut to whatever shape you need to fulfill your every soundproofing needs.
10 Best Soundproof Foam Panels (Updated Reviews) in 2020
We had a look amongst the best soundproof foam panels and we also listened to what experts have to say about each model. Following our research, we found some affordable soundproof foam panels, but some more expensive top-notch models too. It all depends on what you want to get, so here are our top picks.
- 1. Izo All Supply Egg Crate Foam Tiles
- 2. Xin and Log 48 Pack Acoustic Foam Panel
- 3. Izo All Supply Purple Charcoal Acoustic Foam Tiles
- 4. Jber 48 Pack Charcoal Acoustic Panels
- 5. Burdurry 96 Pack Acoustic Panels Soundproof Studio
- 6. Dekiru Upgraded 12 Pack Acoustic Panels
- 7. Ywshuf Acoustic Panels Studio Foam 12 Pack
- 8. Siless 12 pack Acoustic Panels
- 9. Fstop Labs 12 Pack Set Acoustic Panels
- 10. True North Acoustic Foam Panels 12 Pack
- Our Comprehensive Buying Guide
- Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Izo All Supply Egg Crate Foam Tiles
If you’re looking for the soundproof foam needed to cover your recording studio, or your vocal booth, this one from IZO should do the job for you. It comes shipped in small packs of 3 tiles, and each of them needs to be split apart. Once you let them take air they will measure 1.5 inches in their highest point and half an inch in the lowest.
The overall noise reduction coefficient is 0.55 for these tiles. They are compact to be easy to transport, but more importantly, to allow you to alter their placement with more ease. Each of them measures one square foot.
You can use this soundproof foam to cover a vocal booth, a recording studio or to improve the sound of a home theater. They will help you improve the sound clarity in almost any kind of room. If you’re a content creator, the foam will serve you well.
Pros
These foam panels can be used by many professionals, from musicians to YouTubers and gamers, they serve a purpose for everyone.
The panels can be used to treat walls but they are better used for the ceilings, where they are more efficient thanks to how lightweight they are, especially if they aren’t placed at a parallel angle to the floor.
These panels pass technical specifications such as the CAL 117-2013 (that requires the product to be resistant to smolder). You won’t be having these burning up your house easily.
The acoustical foam used here is a cost-effective method for sound absorption and you also get efficient sound reduction over most frequencies when using these panels.
Thanks to how compact and flexible they are, the panels allow you to place you in creative ways to get the best out of them.
Cons
The choice of colors is a limited one and the existent colors don’t match many room designs.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($9.99)
2. Xin and Log 48 Pack Acoustic Foam Panel
For those that work in a studio and want something to absorb mid to high frequencies, this is the ideal product for that. When buying a pack of these you get 48 tiles each measuring 12 by 12 by 1 inch. You can use these panels in recording studios, vocal booths, or control rooms, thanks to their design and their capacity for diminishing echoes.
The overall noise reduction coefficient (NRC) is 0.4, which can be achieved when perfectly aligning the tiles. Once you receive the package you need to remember that it’s compressed and you will have to leave it between 6 and 12 hours to decompress.
This soundproof foam is effective in small and medium rooms and it does well against flutter echoes and standing waves. For maximum noise absorption, the foam cell structure is of high density. The foam looks good in any kind of room.
Pros
It’s the ideal soundproof foam to be used in home theatres, karaoke rooms, recording studios or control rooms. It can serve many purposes.
The foam has a decent noise reduction coefficient of 0.4 which can be easily achieved with just a layer.
With other foam panels, you have to wait a while for them to get to their full size once decompressed, but these ones only take between 6 to 12 hours to do that.
Small and medium rooms often suffer from standing waves and flutter echoes, and these panels come as a solution to that problem.
They are panels with high density to ensure no noise bounces away from them.
Cons
The ridges of the soundproof tiles are shallow and connecting one to another is a difficult task.
The foam feels floppy and it doesn’t give you the feeling that it’s that strong.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($45.99)
3. Izo All Supply Purple Charcoal Acoustic Foam Tiles
Coming in a small format, these soundproof tiles will offer you more options when placing them in achieving the design you want. With a full pack of these, you can cover 12 square feet, as each of the sheets covers one square foot. The product comes shipped as 6 tiles of 12 by 12 by 1 inch, and each of them splits into 2 separate egg crate wedges.
When measuring their height, the highest point measures 1 inch and the lowest ¾ inch, thus the ridges are not that protuberant. The overall noise reduction coefficient is 0.4 when the tiles are placed accordingly.
These tiles are a good choice for multiple purposes, from recording studios to home theaters or vocal booths. Absorbing noise and echoes, they provide the sound quality you need in these situations. Those media content creators will be pleased to use these for acoustically treating their walls.
Pros
Thanks to how lightweight they are, the foam panels are an excellent choice for covering your ceiling.
Helping you with increasing sound clarity in any kind of room or space, these can be used for those working in music studios, streamers, or those that need their room to have better acoustics.
The foam is soft and flexible and it’s great for dampening purposes if you wish to protect a camera for example.
This particular foam passes the CAL 117 technical bulletin which sets the standard in the industry for furniture and upholstery flammability.
Coming in a small format, these panels will allow you to place them as your heart desires.
Cons
Although a cost-effective method of soundproofing your walls, these foam panels don’t stick very well and you will be finding yourself spending a lot on safe products to make them stick to the walls.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($17.99)
4. Jber 48 Pack Charcoal Acoustic Panels
Being a great way to spot treat your walls from a soundproof point of view, these panels are great in any recording studios, control rooms, home offices, or home theaters. The pack consists of 48 tiles, and they can cover a surface of 48 square feet, which means each of them is one square foot.
The tiles are 1-inch thick and when they come they are compressed to one-third of their volume. You will have to let them get back in shape. These panels will help with reducing the noise and eliminate reverb, flutter echoes, disperse undesirable acoustic reflections, and they do really well in small to medium-sized rooms. However, they have also been used in churches, which is proof of their versatility.
With this soundproof foam, you will be able to improve the audio quality of your recordings by reducing the background noise and echo.
Pros
You will be able to record your music, podcasts, voice-overs or anything else with the help of these soundproof panels.
The panels are easy to shape and to cut into size, and they are thus easy to place to get the best acoustic performance out of them.
The versatility of this material means that it can be used for multiple purposes, including to spot treat a recording studio, be it professional or not, an office, or home theatre.
There are no dangers in using this foam, compared to polyurethane foam, fiberglass or rock wool that come with health risks.
You can use this product to cover walls, ceilings, and even doors, and this makes it a good all-around choice for your room.
When used in medium-sized rooms the foam is also good at reducing slap-back and room ring.
Cons
It’s the kind of foam that smells and you’ll have to wait a while for the smell to pass.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($44.99)
5. Burdurry 96 Pack Acoustic Panels Soundproof Studio
There aren’t many soundproof foam panels that are eco-friendly, but fortunately, this one from Burdurry is one of them. The panels are made using high-quality polyurethane foam which is environmentally friendly, and they are durable and effective. For the same reasons, you will find them safe and they won’t pose health risks.
When it comes to noise absorbing capabilities, the sound panels are capable of dampening mid to low-frequency waves and they do a good job at diffusing them too. They will increase sound clarity and minimize interference. Coming in packages of 24, these tiles can cover 1 square foot of space each, and they are 1-inch thick.
You will find the panels easy to install, and they can be used as acoustic covers for walls, ceilings, and even doors. Using staples, nails, tacks, or glue, you can stick them to any surface. Just make sure you don’t have to get them down.
Pros
Being suitable for a wide range of purposes, the soundproofing foam is capable of dampening the sound in recording studios, control rooms, home theaters, vocal boots, movie theaters, and many others.
These are professional studio-grade panels that act really well in rooms where you want to record voices, different sounds, or where you want to film videos.
When used alongside the brand’s corner bass traps and corner blocks, these tiles are really effective at sound deadening for flutter echoes and standing waves.
If you place the panels in medium-sized areas such as isolation boots or control rooms you will notice a reduction of slap-back and room ring.
The foam won’t fall apart over time and neither deteriorate if you keep it clean and dust-free.
Cons
Waiting for these panels to get back to their full size once you decompress them is a nightmare – you’ll have to wait up to 3 or 4 days in some cases.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($90.99)
6. Dekiru Upgraded 12 Pack Acoustic Panels
Giving you plenty of alternatives to decorate your room in multiple colors, these panels are effective and they’re also pleasant to the eye. They do a good job of absorbing unwanted waves, reverbs, or echoes, and they can also serve as simple wall decoration. The panels are made using 100% polyester fiber, which is safe to touch and to breathe near.
No matter the location you want to place the panels, they will be safe for adults, children, and pets. You can use the soundproof panels for many purposes, as they do well for professional studios, concert halls, podcasting, home theaters, offices, and many other situations.
You will be able to install them with little fuss. You will have to get a spray adhesive or an adhesive double-sided tape (the brand sells its own separately), and the panels will stick to the walls.
Pros
The design of these panels ensures that the sound waves traveling around the room are captured and don’t bounce off walls and ceilings.
A good choice for recording studios, these foam panels can also be placed in any other room where you want optimal sound.
Made of a soft and rich natural material, the panels won’t pose a health threat and they feel pleasant in your room.
Thanks to the many colors they come in and their model, the panels can serve as a soundproofing option and as decoration as well.
The material is a soft yet resistant one and it can be cut with ease with the help of an art knife so that you can place the panels any way you want.
Cons
Putting these on your wall is a difficult task. You will need to use a strong adhesive, and if it’s too strong you might damage your walls.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($36.99)
7. Ywshuf Acoustic Panels Studio Foam 12 Pack
Whether you’re looking to cover your walls to have better acoustics for podcasting, or if you’re hosting a Webinar, or you simply want on echoes in your sound, these acoustic panels will help eliminate that problem. Studios, vocal booths, offices, home theaters are all environments in which you need good sound, and the panels will help you achieve the acoustics you want.
Panels like these are also an effective way of reducing noise outside the room they are placed in. they help by increasing noise absorption inside the room and thus the sounds don’t get transmitted further. With these, you will have better acoustic control over your sound, the reverb, flutter echoes, and waves get reduced.
The panels are especially useful in small or medium-sized rooms. When you buy them, the panels come in compressed packages and you will need to let them expand.
Pros
This product is certified with the CA Technical bulletin 117 which means they have increased resistance to fires and smoldering.
The overall noise reduction coefficient is 0.5, which is a great number if you’re looking to dampen the sound in a room.
High-frequency sounds are the ones that get absorbed the best with these soundproof panels, thanks to the short wavelength of the sounds.
One great aspect of these panels is that they are easily machinable, meaning that you can take a knife and change their shape as you see fit, or as you need to cover every square inch of your walls.
Cons
As is often the case with such products, this soundproof foam is difficult to attach to the wall. If you’re using some soft adhesive, the foam won’t stick, especially on the ceiling, and that’s why you need to use powerful glue that might damage your walls when you want to take the panels down.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($18.95)
8. Siless 12 pack Acoustic Panels
If you’re a musician or a sound engineer and you need to reduce the ambient sound, mixing in a music studio or recording is made much easier with these foam panels. The acoustic foam panels are capable of absorbing sounds of low, mid and high frequencies with accuracy and that makes them great for recording rooms.
Siless foam panels are made using professional-grade acoustic foam that has been created to offer great sound absorption in many situations. It has a consistent density to ensure that and it’s a firm material. You don’t need to worry about the quality of these panels as they can compete with the greatest in their class.
The design requires less material and that makes them lightweight and capable of being placed on the walls or ceiling. There are no special tools needed to install these, and you don’t need to put too much glue to attach them.
Pros
You can find so many purposes for these foam panels, from reducing the noise in a room to making sure a certain room has the acoustic properties you want.
Vocal booths, control rooms, acoustic studios, utility rooms, medical facilities, and many others can benefit from these panels.
Designed to last a long time, the product provides great noise absorption.
Using them to treat small-to-medium rooms, these panels are easy to install and only require you to place glue on their back and stick them to the walls.
They will not deteriorate over time if you take care of them and they will always alleviate slap back and flutter echo.
If you’re looking for a smooth and calm interior, these are a good choice.
Cons
Some of the panels are not the proper size. They have mismatched dimensions, with one side being smaller than the other and that causes problems when it comes to properly aligning them.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($19.95)
9. Fstop Labs 12 Pack Set Acoustic Panels
Where moderate sound deadening is required, these panels are capable of providing strong noise reduction. They are 2 inches thick and they can cover a surface area of 12 by 12 inches. They can be used to spot treat home recording studios or professional rooms for commercial or home offices, home theatres, and many other purposes.
Sometimes altering the dimensions and shape of panels has a negative impact on them, but with these ones, you can cut them however you like and they will still work. The brand is proud to say that the quality of the materials used is superior, the panels are thicker, denser, and more uniform.
In a pack of these, you get 12 acoustic panels without the stickers needed to place them. They each come with the same classic design that is excellent at deadening sounds and absorbing echoes. Thanks to the rigid material they offer long-term durability.
Pros
Easy to cut to any shape and size, these panels are suitable for soundproofing rooms of any size.
They are made from rigid and consistent materials that help them stay strong for a long while, even when put to stress by intense vibrations.
The applications for the foam panels are varied, from removing reverberations in sound studios to providing sound proof insulation in industrial places or domestic applications.
The panels are made of polyurethane foam, which is not dangerous like rock wool or fiberglass, even if you sit close to it.
Thanks to the reduced weight, the foam is suitable for walls, doors, and even ceilings. You just need a strong glue for that.
The foam panels are most effective against standing waves and flutter echoes and that’s why they are good for home studios.
Cons
It takes a while for the panels to get back to their normal shape after you get them out from their package.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($21.99)
10. True North Acoustic Foam Panels 12 Pack
Controlling the sound is made easier with these panels capable of taking the clutter out of the sound. They help you only hear the direct waves coming from the source instead of the reverberating echoes moving across the room. These dampening panels are 12 inches by 12 inches and they measure 1 inch at their thickest point.
This means that they will work more efficiently for mid to high-frequency sound waves. They can be used to treat walls but can also be placed on ceilings. Panels like these are good for areas where you want sound control but don’t require total sound absorption. This includes sound studios, recording studios, home theaters, or offices.
You can use the panels for both professional and home acoustic control, as they reduce reverberations and absorb sound. Being 25% denser than the industry standard they offer more sound absorption.
Pros
Being cost-effective, these panels don’t require you to place them around every corner of the room, but rather spot treat the environment in certain places.
The noise reduction coefficient is 0.5, which is a great number especially for something so thin.
These panels are lightweight and that allows you to place them on every surface, from walls to doors and ceilings.
They are extra dense and this might give you the impression that they are heavy, but they are also thinner than usual, and the result is a material capable of absorbing more sound.
The pieces are sent compressed and interlocked – getting them apart is an easy task and they also take little time to get back to their full size.
Cons
The tiles aren’t precisely cut so if you want to make a visually appealing design out of them you have some work to do.
Buy from Amazon.com for ($21.99)
Our Comprehensive Buying Guide
Soundproof foam panels reviews often discuss the noise reduction coefficient, but they sometimes forget to mention what that really means. We will be discussing that below. Even if you are only looking for cheap soundproof foam panels, there are still some things to look for when purchasing them. So here they are.
Looks matter
The most obvious feature of acoustic panels is their design. How they look doesn’t always have an influence on how they work, but the design often matters for the eye. In terms of patterns, there are many choices, but the most common is the pyramid (eggshell) structure or the wedges.
These give the panels a visually appealing look but also serve a purpose. There is one drawback to these patterns – they can ruin the look of your walls when applied incorrectly. Furthermore, there are some panels that don’t have an aesthetic purpose and those, no matter how you place them, can make a room look bad.
If you’re not satisfied with panels with patterns you can always choose flat models, which are covered in plain canvas and they are joined together to form sort of a false wall. These look like simple painted walls, and they make your room smaller. However, unless you place these all around the room they don’t do that well thanks to a poorer design from an acoustic point of view.
The thicker – the more absorbent
Much like the case is when buying a jacket, the thicker it is, the more insulation it offers generally. Of course, it also depends on the material used and the density of the material. However, as a rule of thumb, the thicker the panel, the better. An affordable soundproof foam panel that is thinner is not useless though – it should be good at absorbing lower frequencies and can serve a purpose in any kind of studio.
If you are looking to block outside noise with the help of panels, thinner ones won’t help you too much. They absorb some of the noise but this isn’t their best purpose. You should be looking at thicknesses between 2 and 3 inches for the ideal panels.
Noise reduction coefficient (NRC)
You will often see that a usual soundproof foam panel review discusses a number representing the noise reduction rating and that represents how good panels are at absorbing sounds. The higher the number, the better the soundproof capability of the soundproof panels. These ratings should appear on the boxes and this makes it easier for the customer to decide between two separate models.
The rating is a number between 0 and 1, and this means ratings of 0.5 are a usual norm. The closer the number is to 1 the better the score. However, you don’t always want that number to be close to one. NRC is tested based on different sound frequencies and while a good score means better sound absorption, in certain cases you need the foam to be able to absorb a certain sound frequency more than others.
Most musical instruments, however, work under 250Hz, and foams aren’t even tested under this frequency. This means that the NRC is not always a relevant number. There is another number to guide you, the Sound Absorption Coefficient, and this one usually tests at lower frequencies. If you are able to find this number on the box, base your decision on it.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Do foam panels reduce noise?
Most panels do reduce noise, and while there are some products that are better at absorbing echoes, and others better at reducing sound transmission, they all eventually reduce the noise. Some panels do a bit of both with mixed results, and these panels are called composites.
You should use echo-absorbing panels to improve the acoustics of a room. Usually installed on walls and ceilings over the finished surface of a room, these don’t absorb too much noise. If you want better noise-canceling you need products that are placed inside the walls. These act as part of the construction material, and the process of installing them is more difficult, most often they need to be placed in the wall from the start of the building’s construction.
There are thus 2 different products and approaches to sound-treating rooms, and while the panels can reduce the noise, they are not the best solution.
Q: Do acoustic foam panels work?
Yes, they do work but it all depends on what you want them to do and how. Understanding how sound works can help you in using foam panels to their best potential. Sound travels in waves forming vibrations, and as those vibrations travel across the air they get lost over long distances.
When hitting hard and plain surfaces, however, sound reflects back, much as light does. In a room where you have many walls close to each other, the sound will bounce back and forward producing a lot of unwanted background noise.
Even a cheap sound foam panel can help to prevent this by offering many small angles on which the sound to bounce. So instead of hitting a wall and coming straight back into the room, the sound will hit a foam panel and get lost in its small intricate details. Eggshell panels are good at this because they have so many small surfaces on which the sound can bounce.
Q: How can I soundproof a room?
There is no one answer to this question, as there are many factors affecting the acoustics of a room. The walls and how they are placed are a big influence, as well as the exact spot you have your recording gear. Sadly, you can’t just get soundproof foam panels and hang them in places of your room hoping that you can soundproof it.
If you’re looking to fully soundproof a room you might need to cover the whole room in soundproof materials, from the floor to the ceiling. This is why recording booths are so small – because they require fewer materials to soundproof.
It also depends on the exact effect you are trying to get in that room. If you want a home theater, you need to give a channeling effect to the room, so the sounds travel in a single direction. A little absorption is required here but it’s not essential.
