For audiophiles like for me, achieving the highest sound quality is a priority—but I still care about how my space looks. This aesthetic feature is the failing point of many acoustic panels, which are wall attachments or standard barriers designed to absorb background noise, reduce echoes, and improve the overall sound of a given room. At worst, they look like burlap tapestries. Best of all, though—as I recently learned when I tested the Gik Acoustics Sound Barriers system—they look like high-end conversation pieces that marry functionality and visual flair.
Gik Acoustics makes acoustic panels that don’t look like weird pieces of insulation. Its SoundBlocks system, which I tested in my studio and home office, allows three panels to be stacked to create small walls that look legitimately cool, more like wooden sculptures than professional musical instruments.
My more stylish friends have admired the panels and speculated that they were either a guitar amp cabinet or an actual sculpture. No one recognized them as acoustic panels. Importantly, the panels have also improved my listening and recording experience.
Why Do I Need a Panel?
Photo: Parker Hall
Even if you buy the best audio equipment availableYour sound quality may not be as good without acoustic panels, and that’s mostly due to physics. Modern rectangular spaces, often decorated with walls, windows, and a few soft noise-absorbing surfaces (like ’70s-style carpet), don’t sound like that.
To understand why, think of your room as a swimming pool. Your speakers are a series of repeating stones to create different sized splashes in the pond. General sound is the product of various wave frequencies, all of which bounce and bounce around in the air. Waves hitting a wall and bouncing back against new waves can cancel each other out or create strange phase issues (wave interference), just as you might imagine the water in a pond would run against itself to create strange peaks and valleys. The more the walls can absorb the waves to reduce the reverberation effect, the better the sound quality in the room.
No matter how cleanly your speakers (or rocks) can produce a signal, most of the sound you hear is related to the listening environment. In an ideal world, the “flow” of music from the speakers reaches your ears evenly, without any strange “bounce back” from the previously transmitted sound waves. Unfortunately, this is difficult to achieve without a smooth, dense surface (or a special room like a professional recording studio) to absorb the waves and prevent reflections.
Living Room or Studio
Photo: Parker Hall
Design is one reason a musician may purchase the acoustic panels they need to ensure the best sound. This is where Gik Acoustics Sound Barriers shine. Sold in three-box sets, you can choose from 20 fabric colors, 14 wood-front designs, and five wood-finish shades. You can stack them in what looks like a wooden sculpture using a slide and lock railing system, or arrange them as a unified cube across the room for a classic effect.
