Testing a performance product is necessary to ensure its advertised claims are accurate, and that it will do just what it is made to do. For some products, proving their function and benefit is easy, like showing that a bowl holds soup or that a coat rack can hold coats and stand upright. Less-tactile items often require more effort to quantify their performance claims, however. Sound treatment products are one example, as the sound waves they are built to stop or manipulate cannot be held or seen. Because of this, we are forced to rely on technical performance values rooted in science for qualifying performance and reference points when comparing products.

Acoustical testing, performed by qualified, independent laboratories, is necessary to validate the performance of a foam sound treatment material. When performed in a laboratory, a foam sound test generates comparable real-world factors like noise reduction and sound transmission that can be applied across a field of products. This establishes a structured way of identifying what products address what frequencies and how well, as well as how they compare to each other. A test sound of varying frequency is played in specially-built rooms, both with and without the treatment materials, and levels of sound are recorded and evaluated to create the performance values consumers rely on.

It’s also important to perform these tests periodically, as changes in the raw material sources that sound treatments are manufactured from may impact end-performance. Fabrics used in covering panels also have a bearing on product performance. With sound being non-tactile, products may make claims stating that they can perform in ways they are incapable of because the average person has no way to measure their claims, only hearing the results after purchase and installation. Acoustical testing is the best way to identify these performance values in sound deadening products, which helps consumers make the right decision for their space.