Page 1 of 1

NRC rating of memory foam aka visco elastic foam.

Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 5:34 am
by RyanC
Does anybody know the effectivness of visco elastic foam? With the thicker matress pads going for cheaper and cheaper on ebay I was wondering.

I know that because it is usually flat it will not have a great HF nrc, but compared to any other foam or rockwool etc it is very high in mass. It goes up to 6-7lbs/cu ft. Also it seems the resiliant nature of it would make it good for sound absorbtion, especially at lower frequencies.

I have a matress pad (highly recomended) and it seems very dead and I know that the blue sky monitors claim to have a visco foam baffle (I tend to prefer the sound of hard baffles having had expirimented with that myself but that is another thread). Anyway this may be an exciting material for LF absorbtion- any thoughts??

RC

Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 12:05 am
by AVare
Check the flame spread/smoke index. We are talking about lives.

Andre

Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 1:00 pm
by RyanC
From the memory foam factory website:

Is Memory Foam Fire Retardant?

Yes, memory foam is fire retardant, hypo-allergenic, anti-bacterial, and complies with California 117 requirements.



Do you know otherwise? Thanks-

Ryan

Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 7:37 pm
by knightfly
People throw terms around like frisbees these days; bottom line is, can you BLOW through it? If not, it's likely CLOSED cell foam and not worth anything for acoustics. If you CAN blow through it, then how cheap did you say it was? Hmmmmmmmm...... Steve

Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 12:45 am
by RyanC
Hmm-

You can blow into it, eg it doesnt stop you from blowing, but it is too dense to go through to the other side- but then again I couldn't see blowing "through" 4" rockwool etc. It's not cheap like fiberglass but a queen matress pad can be had for ~$100. Thanks-

Ryan