GIK Acoustics Panels Overview and Installation

As Audioholics, our pursuit of audio perfection seems never ending. We are always on the lookout for that next piece of gear that will improve our system. Many of us will spend our budgets dry and drive our significant others to the brink of the funny farm in this continuing journey. With all of this madness, however, the one area many of us overlook that can have significant impact in our system is room acoustics.

It may well be that the reason we overlook the importance of adding room treatment is that we find spending a lot of cash on something that just hangs on the wall is pretty boring. I mean, an acoustical wall panel has no flashing lights or twisty knobs to play with.

Many of us will finally give in and commit a small amount of our well-earned audiophile budget to a do-it-yourself acoustical wall panel project. We search the Internet for countless hours trying to find the perfect low cost recipe for our DIY panels. With material list in hand, our first stop is the hardware store. Our next stop is the fabric store. I don't know how you feel about entering a fabric store, but I feel as though I should be wearing a Groucho Marx mask to hide my identity when I enter one of these places.

With all materials in hand, we head out into the garage and assemble our panels. Many that have decent carpentry skills and patience will end up with pretty respectable looking panels. Others will find their projects in the woodpile. What if we told you that you could now purchase high performance acoustical panels for about the same price or lower than the DIY project? Hard to believe, isn't it? Read on.

Physical Characteristics

The recent upstart Internet-direct company, GIK Acoustics, has introduced two models of high performance, value-priced acoustical wall panels. The GIK 244 is a large panel and the GIK 242 is a thinner version. Both panels are available in the standard colors of black or white. Additional colors and fabric material choices are available for an additional cost.

The GIK 244 panels sell for the low price of $59.99/each plus shipping. The GIK 242 panels sell for $49.99/each plus shipping. Impressed with the low cost? So were we.

For this review, we ordered two GIK 244 panels. The 244s assembly, fit, and finish are pretty good considering the price point. The back outer frame is butt jointed and constructed from 1-inch x 2-inch pinewood with mitered braces at each corner. The 4-inch, 8-pound mineral wool absorption material is sandwiched in-between the frame. The front of the frame consists of floating plastic, and muslin material covers the back of the wool panel. The outer frame dimensions are 24-inches wide x 48-inches tall x 5-3/4-inches deep. The frame is covered with thick canvas material that is stapled to the back. On the top and bottom of the panel are seams where the material is folded over. Once the panel is installed on the wall, the seam is really not that noticeable but the seams are there nonetheless. Certainly, we can overlook this minor shortcoming considering the price of the panel.

Installation

If you are going to obtain two panels, we suggest you place them in the corners and use them as traps. The 244 is very effective at absorbing low frequency information evenly from about 125Hz to 4000Hz, although the test data indicates the panel is effectively absorbing low frequencies down to 50Hz.

With four panels, we suggest you use two in the corners and two at the first reflection points. If you don't have sophisticated equipment to measure your room's acoustical properties, an easy way to find the approximate first reflection point on the sidewall is to use a mirror.

Sit in the primary listening position and have a helper walk along the sidewall with the mirror at the approximate height of the tweeters in your loudspeakers. As your helper is walking toward the speakers, look in the mirror. When you see the speaker's tweeter in the mirror, this is the location where you want to mount your panel. This method seems unscientific but it will get you in the general vicinity of the first reflection area. All that's left to do is mount the panel, insuring the correct height.