Accoustical Foam

B

bruuen

New member
i just baught monitors and had planned on buying the popular auralex mopads to put them on, after talking to a guy on the phone at a sound treating place, he said they didn't have any in, but could cut accoustical foam for them and it'd basically cost half price on the mopads. is it all the same stuff? is foam just foam? or is there a reason to get the mopads over the other? thanks.
 
To mechanically decouple the mons from the desk, it needs to sit on a spring (foam) that has a resonance well below the lowest frequency of interest. So another foam would work, until it took a set and became stiff instead of bouncy.
 
<< is foam just foam >>

the short answer is "no". :D

the long answer is "do some searches here for foam, auralex, etc" and prepare to sit back and do a lot of reading as to "why foam is not just foam".


cheers,
wade
 
I found a paper that explains how a mass-spring isolation system works. In this case, the mass is your monitor, and the spring is the pad of foam. The idea is that the pad will prevent the monitors vibration from being transmitted into the desk. If you look at the resonance curve, you want the resonance peak to be well below the lowest frequency your monitor will be putting out.

For acoustics, foams vary tremendously, and foam ain’t foam. In this case, foam is a simple spring, so it’s not as critical.
 
i admit i was being facisious with the 'foam is foam' comment, i know theres a lot more to it then just a spongey material. i just wanted to see what differences i'd be faced with...thanks for the replies
 
I use pipe insulation myself. I think I got most of my studio foam at a place in NKC (North Kansas City) called ABFoam for 80 bucks for a 8'x10' peice...its got the flame retardant treatment and it works just as good as the corregated foam anybody sells.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top