I will soon be moving and plan to hire a contractor to finish the home's presently unfinished basement. There is a company locally that offers an interesting alternative to conventional wood frame/drywall construction in basements. I have been to their showroom which demonstrates their use of fabric covered fiberglass wall panels. While the owner is very proud of the acoustic characteristics of his product, it only takes a couple seconds in any of their paneled rooms to notice how lifeless they are.

My interest here is not for recording but for a reasonably good sounding music listening room. Clearly, that dull acoustic signature would be painful to endure. And yet, there are persuasive advantages to this style of construction using the fiberglass panels, metal studs and other materials not subject to effects of underground moisture. I have been looking for ideas on how to liven up a dead room in hopes of being able to go with the soft wall system.

Ethan, reviewing your experiments with rigid fiberglass panels I noted your comment about 705 FRK and how the metallic paper appears to be 60% reflective at mid/high frequencies. If I were to alternate the panels between raw side and papered side facing into the room, would you speculate as to whether I could mitigate the energy loss well enough to move the room out of the dead zone? I realize this question is lacking in specifics. Actually I don't even have drawing of room dimensions yet. But just in broad conceptual terms, do you think the FRK has potential to reverse what would be an otherwise dismal listening area?

Can't go all out to build a high end listening room but I don't want to make any glaring mistakes that put me in a below average room. So don't hesitate to let me know if you think I'd be better off using drywall from the get-go.

Many thanks.

I don't know your room size, but a typical room can use FRK fronts for all areas except early reflection areas.
http://www.gikacoustics.com/news_020209.html
Also in those non reflection areas you can use diffusion (NOT IN CORNERS AS THAT IS FOR BASS TRAPS ).

As you may know, my living room is full of traps, and the only ones that do not reflect mids and highs are at the side-wall and ceiling reflection points. Your intent is hi-fi listening only, not recording, yes? If so, I think this is a better strategy for you too, rather than alternating types.

--Ethan

Glenn & Ethan thank you! I think I will proceed as discussed and also invest in some treatments once the room is built and can be evaluated.

Best,

Mike

Keep us posted and please let us know if you have any questions.