I find GOM to be ugly... what are my other choices?

Guilford makes numerous types of panel fabric. 701 is just one type. I personally like anchorage. Otherwise, as long as the material is acoustically transparent, its fine to use. Just do some testing on it.

I used dazian and love it. I believe the kind I used was called Janus which is fire retardant and acoustically transparent. Prices are much cheaper than GOM too.

I agree that the FR701 looks like a cubical covering - VERY ugly (IMO). I used Anchorage Midnight for my theater's main color and Streetwise Asphalt for the black as the Streetwise has a pattern in it that keeps the fabric from looking plain.

I would guess there are a ton of people who use Anchorage for their theaters. I think Art Sonneborn's is Anchorage Mulberry. I know he uses Streetwise Asphalt for the black in his theater.

If you are putting speakers behind it, make sure you test it.

The anchorage is definitely a nicer looking fabric, but in my experience it isn't as transparent as the 701 and it seemed to really clip my highs. I didn't love the burlap look of the 701 black sample, but I must say that once I had it on my panels themselves, it took on a much sleeker, nicer look. Now that my panels are in place they don't look like burlap any more.

If I were just doing panels with no speakers behind them, I'd go with anchorage. If using speakers, I'd go with 701 (Danzien may also work well--I actually preferred the 701, as the Danzian sample I received was a little shiny for me-- but it is all just personal preference).

I use stretch velvet on mine. An idea I credit to McCall! Works great, great looking, although not fire retardant, it is very AT and available in a wide variety of colors. Plus being stretchy it's damn easy to work with!

You really think the stretch velvet is AT?

Anchorage looks nice, but acoustical transparency-wise, it's not great. The worst of all GOM fabric Carrara - gorgeous, but is really the pits acoustically.

This mean not that it won't work, but that you need equivalently a lot more treatment area to get the same effect as a more transparent fabric. Basically, it is reflecting most of the sound at around 2 kHz and above so it can't be absorbed by the fiberglass behind it. I don't think Streetwise is sold anymore, so I scrapped my acoustical test data for it.

- Terry

McCall did a bunch of studying on itas well. When stretched you can damn near see through it., it becomes that thin. Have you ever played around with it? If you did you might feel differently.

I'm not saying it's not, I'm honestly asking. I want stuff that blocks tons of light but doesn't reflect sound so much. I'll have insulation to absorb the sound. Of course, if the fabric gobbled sound (not reflected it) I'd be okay with that too

Fabric, unless it is VERY thick, doesn't absorb sound.

The only thing fabric will absorb is MONEY.

Oh..I misread it in the form of sarcasm. That's my bad.
It would not block light at all. If you want to block light just get a light blocking shade

Maybe he meant absorb light as opposed to reflecting it. If there is insulation behind the fabric, why would it need to block light as there would be little light that is going to pass through even 1/2" of insulshield.

At this point I am just confused!!!

Of course you are. Judging by your avatar photo, you cannot even keep your head screwed on.

Sorry lads! What I'm trying to say is I don't want the fabric to reflect light. I don't want it block light either. I'd really like it to absorb light/cover up whatever color the underlying sound absorbent material I use.

The only real light in the room is coming indirectly from a projector. Black velvet not stretched too thin sounds like it would do a great job of soaking up the errant light.

Okay, back on track now. I use stretch velvet on the sides of my screen as well, that way any light spillage will be soaked up. I can say anything about the cover up as under it is black linacoustic.

It's the same topic bro. We're discussing it as better looking fabric to cover sound aborbing material.

The following is a limited list of other Guilford fabrics well suited acoustically for acoustic panels:

Hopscotch 2813
Lido 2858
Venesia 3575
VSB 2145
VSS 2402
Wilshire 2735
Auster 2537
Bailey 2299
Cordial 4055
Spinel 3582

BTW Jo-Ann burlap is acoustically transparent enough for speaker cloth usage!

701 isn't as bad as you might think from the samples. Just get a color as close as possible to the surrounding wall color and the panel will almost disappear. Perhaps you're tending to think of it as a decorative accessory. It's not.

701 all around in my space.

Thats because GOM is used by a lot of manufactures of cubicles.