John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Does this exist in Australia? Or is it the same as/similar to particle board?

I have a sneaking suspicion that it's a stupid question But I'm about to build some acoustic panels and I want to be able to explain everything to my father who- God bless him- has skills for building stuff, unlike me

Also, I have bought some Calico material to cover the front of the panels and the Insulco semi-rigid glasswool inside. Is this material suitable, or decent enough?

Luan is nothing like particle board - usually when you find Luan plywood anymore, it can be any of a couple hundred different species - the term is now used to mean any tropical plywood instead of a specific species of wood. Actual Luan is a wood that looks like mahogany but is softer. A lot of it used to come from the Philipines, which have become about 80% deforested due to bad forestry practices.

Particle board is a building material, sold in sheets, that is made from wood sawdust and scraps, ground up and mixed with glue, and then hot-pressed into sheets under several TONS of pressure. Particle board is dense and heavy, good for sound proofing, but low strength in most axes.

I wouldn't use particle board for absorbers, other than possibly the rear and sides if you can't find MDF locally. As for the fronts of panel traps, luan (if you can find it) is OK. Other plywoods are probably better, since they aren't as soft... Steve