Skip to content
Felt & File
Sticky notes and a pen on a desk surface

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

The twenty questions we get asked most, answered briefly, each linking to the page that does it properly.

Start with the right question

Almost every expensive mistake in this subject comes from one confusion: absorbing and blocking are different physical problems. Clap once in your room - a ring that hangs means reflective surfaces, which acoustic panels fix. Then sit in silence and list what you can hear - everything on that list is arriving through a wall or a door, and no panel will touch any of it. Sort that out first and the rest of these answers follow.

What follows is the twenty questions we get asked most, answered briefly with a link to the page that does it properly. For how the site itself works, see how we pick and editorial policy.

Still looking for something?

Every page on the site is listed on the sitemap, and the guides index groups the twenty pages where we do the arithmetic. If a question here is not answered anywhere, ask us - a question we cannot answer is usually a page we should write.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Do acoustic panels actually work?
Yes, for echo, reverberation and how you sound on calls. No, for noise coming from outside the room. The failure mode is almost always quantity: one twelve-pack is typically under 3 per cent coverage in a normal room, where 15 to 20 per cent is where the change becomes obvious. Do acoustic panels actually work.
How many acoustic panels do I need?
For a typical 12 by 10 ft room with a hard floor, eight to eleven 24 by 48 in panels. That comes from about 420 sq ft of reflective surface treated at 15 to 20 per cent. The full calculation, with your own room dimensions as the input, is on how many acoustic panels do you need.
Will acoustic panels stop my neighbors' noise?
No. Panels absorb sound inside your room and have almost no mass, which is exactly why they absorb well. Blocking needs mass and airtightness. Acoustic panels vs soundproofing covers the distinction, and it is the most expensive one to get wrong.
What is NRC and what is a good one?
The Noise Reduction Coefficient: a number from 0 to 1 produced by ASTM C423, a laboratory test. Anything at 0.8 or above is strong, and 1.0 means the panel absorbed essentially all the energy reaching it. The more useful question is whether an NRC is published at all - of eleven panels we examined, three publish one.
Is acoustic foam the same as acoustic panels?
Physically both are porous absorbers. In practice the 1 in wedge foam sold in bulk packs publishes no absorption data at all, works only at high frequency, and looks like studio equipment. Acoustic panels vs foam covers the three situations where foam is genuinely the better buy.
Do room dividers block sound?
Cheap fabric-on-frame dividers do essentially nothing. Partitions with a PET or polyester core absorb reflections and interrupt the direct path, which makes a shared room noticeably calmer. Neither stops a conversation being heard, because sound travels over, under and around any divider. Do room dividers block sound.
What is the difference between a room divider and an acoustic partition?
The core and the weight. A divider is fabric on a frame at 9 to 21 lb for 30 to 70 dollars; a partition has an absorbing core on a weighted base at 47 to 67 lb for 320 to 650. They photograph identically. Room divider vs acoustic partition.
Do desk privacy panels reduce noise?
The ones with a felt or polyester core improve what your microphone picks up, because they sit a foot from your mouth and intercept first reflections - which is the best position a small amount of material can occupy. They do not reduce the room's overall level. Do desk privacy panels reduce noise.
Are office pods actually soundproof?
They substantially reduce sound and are not soundproof. Published RW figures of 25 to 35 dB mean speech inside is typically audible but not followable from outside. Worth knowing: RW is a building-element rating, and the standard written for pods is ISO 23351-1, which no listing publishes. Are soundproof pods actually soundproof.
How much does an office pod cost?
3,200 to 5,400 dollars for the Amazon-available tier, plus 150 to 400 for a chair that is almost never included. Premium direct-sale brands run 8,000 to 20,000 and are usually quoted. What an office pod actually costs.
How much space does an office pod need?
11 to 30 sq ft of permanent footprint plus about 30 in in front for the door swing and chair access. A single-person pod realistically needs a 9 by 9 ft room. Office pod dimensions.
Should I buy a pod or treat the room?
Treat the room first, almost always. A pod blocks and panels absorb, and if the complaint is echo rather than intrusion, 600 dollars of panels fixes it while the pod addresses something else. Office pod vs treating the room.
What size file cabinet do I need?
Stand your files upright and measure the run in inches. Under 30 is a 2-drawer vertical; 30 to 70 is a 2-drawer lateral; over 70 is a 3-drawer lateral. That measurement compares directly to the linear filing inch figures we publish for every cabinet.
Vertical or lateral file cabinet?
Lateral if you have about 3 ft of free wall: roughly double the filing inches per drawer, and generally better value per inch. Vertical if you only have a narrow gap. Both need about 32 in of floor depth once the drawer is open. Lateral vs vertical.
Does a locking file cabinet protect against fire?
No, not at all. A key lock and thin steel offer no fire resistance. Documents whose originals matter belong in a certified fire box, which is UL Classified and ETL Verified and is a different product. Fireproof file cabinet vs safe.
How much weight can office shelving hold?
Where it is published, 30 to 60 lb per shelf, which is one to two full banker's boxes at about 30 lb each. A steel storage cabinet publishes 120 to 180 lb per shelf, which is four to six. If you are storing paper, the cabinet is the right product. Cabinet vs shelving.
What is the best under-desk storage?
Mounted drawers on the underside of the desktop at about 11 dollars, because they cost no floor and no desk surface at all. For volume, a rolling cart with a published load rating. Best under-desk storage.
What should go on the desk and what should go under it?
On: things you touch hourly - a pen, a notebook, live projects in vertical slots. Under: supplies stock, cables, spare paper, anything weekly. The test is whether forgetting it exists for a day would cause a problem. How to organize a home office.
Do you test the products you recommend?
No. We own none of them, we have no meter or test room, and we say so on every page. Every figure here is either a manufacturer's published specification, named as theirs, or our arithmetic from it with the working shown. How we pick.
How are you paid, and does it affect rankings?
An Amazon commission on purchases made through links here, at no extra cost to you. It does not affect ordering: several top picks are the cheapest products in their category, and our highest-commission pages open by suggesting a cheaper alternative. Affiliate disclosure.
A figure on this site looks wrong. What do I do?
Tell us, with the page and the figure. We check it against the manufacturer's published specification and fix it if you are right, with a visible note and an updated date if it changes a recommendation. Contact us.

Read next

Where to go from here