all iso clips created equal?

ah, my winding path to studio. suffering for new album material? i revisited the risc clips and decided not to do a second wall (MAM system). as far as i can tell this will land me at around 47stc. somewhere between a wall and a mam. now, on the green glue site they have assemblies with comparable stcs as a mam using only green glue and clips...but i figure this is wishful. so i have a few questions about iso clips and hat channel. first, from what i've seen around here there doesn't seem to be an appreciable difference one iso clip to the next. isomax, whisper clips, rsic clips. ditto for hat channel. seems all the load, price, and depth specs are about the same. green glue clips cost: $5.25 (green glue site) coverage: 5sqft depth: 1" rec load: 36lbs max safe load: 46 fail load: 300 lbs there are comparison charts on the green glue site with 2 other competitors. the green glue clips seem to do 1-2 stc better for my assembly. RSIC-1 cost: $6.50 (acousticalsolutions) depth: 1 1/4" rec load: 36lbs isomax: cost: $5.25 (http://www.soundisolationstore.com...also rsic_1 $5.75, green glue clips $4.75) depth: 1 1/16" load: 25 gauge furring 36bs load: 22 gauge furring 46lbs is there no clear advantage to a particular brand? and where is a good place to buy this stuff? i'm in san francisco but i have no clue who would stock it. then there are online stores. http://www.soundisolationstore.com seems decent. any others? thanks

Wait a minute, isn't that comparing apples and peers? The clips are to decouple, while that's not the function of GG. Different application.

i meant green glue clips. they make iso clips now.

oh and i did a rough estimate on my space for 16OC hat channel and iso clips @ 5sqft. $1635...that's a lot of clips and hat. on the isomax site there is an interesting cost/stc rating for various assemblies with and without iso clips. and surprise the clip solution is comparable to a MAM in terms of cost/stc. but they come up with some pretty high stcs for iso clip solutions. http://www.kineticsnoise.com/arch/isoma ... maxSTC.pdf

on the green glue site they have assemblies with comparable stcs as a mam using only green glue and clips...but i figure this is wishful.

it's a fact but is it cost effective when you consider the cost of GG and clips? Room within Room is the most cost effective bang for your buck!

Room within Room is the most cost effective bang for your buck!

awe the sting of experience. i be feelin' her. arrgh. yeah, you are probably right. but i'm going to run the numbers and get some laybor estimates from my contractor. MAM was my first idea. the MAM ideas is a bit more complicated for me though. i have this large glulam that will need framing around. the short end of my ceiling is 7.5 ft. glulam may need a support post. and at some point i will need to remove framing to convert back to garage for resale. so 2 sets of framing with MAM. blah! studio, one day long before my death, i will have you!

cporro wrote:

i meant green glue clips. they make iso clips now.

Aaah, once again I misread a post, sorry... sometimes you read what you want to read.. didn't know about GG clips.

no prob. fyi: 3.14 apples = 1 orange.

From a macro perspective, all of these clips work well to decouple. However as John said, you can decouple for less (and more effectively) with a double stud (room within a room) system. Ceilings become more of an issue since it's harder to insert a new ceiling joist system under the old one. So ceilings are often clipped to save height. Our website has various manufacturers data plotted as a comparison.