To choose acoustic panels, first confirm your problem is echo and loudness inside a room — panels absorb sound to reduce reverberation, but they do not stop noise passing between rooms, which needs mass and construction. Then work through the room's volume, use and target reverberation time, decide placement (walls, ceiling or hanging baffles), pick a finish and, if the space is regulated, a fire class. Finally, insist on an αw figure backed by a named ISO 354 test report at the stated mounting.
Start with the problem: echo inside, or noise from next door?
The first decision is not about panels at all — it is about your problem. Acoustic wood panels absorb sound, softening the reverberation, echo and 'loudness' you hear *within* a room and making speech clearer. That is what acoustic panels are designed to do, and it is the only job they do well.
What they do not do is block sound travelling *between* rooms. Stopping voices, music or footsteps passing through a wall, floor or ceiling is a matter of mass and construction, governed by Approved Document E — not absorption. If your complaint is 'I can hear the meeting next door', no amount of panelling will fix it; if it is 'this room is echoey and hard to talk in', panels are exactly the right tool.
Understand the room before you choose anything
How much absorption you need depends on the room, not the panel. Reverberation time follows Sabine's equation, RT = 0.161 × V / A — the room's volume divided by its total absorption — so a large, hard, high-ceilinged space needs far more absorptive area than a small carpeted one to reach the same result.
Pin down three things: the volume in cubic metres, how the room is used, and the reverberation time you are aiming for. An open-plan office, a restaurant and a music room all want different targets, and a regulated space such as a school under BB93 has a set figure to hit. A reverberation calculator turns these into a rough absorption area, which you then refine against measured data.
Should acoustic panels go on the walls or the ceiling?
Both work; the right choice depends on the surfaces you have and what else the room needs. A ceiling is often the largest uninterrupted surface and sits opposite a hard floor, so ceiling panels can deliver a lot of absorption efficiently. Walls put the treatment nearer ear height, where it tackles the reflections that most affect speech between people.
Where you cannot use either — a fully glazed room, or one with services running across the ceiling — hanging baffles add absorptive surface within the volume itself. The walls-versus-ceilings trade-off comes down to available area, sightlines and how the absorption is distributed, so aim to spread it around rather than cover one surface completely.
Finish and aesthetics
Once the acoustic job is defined, choose the finish: the wood species and colour, the slat width and spacing, and the backing behind the slats. Appearance is largely free to choose — but be aware that the acoustic backing and any air gap behind a slatted panel change how much it absorbs, especially at lower frequencies. The look and the performance are linked through the build-up, so a finish is never purely cosmetic.
Fire class: does the space need a Euroclass rating?
In regulated or public buildings — escape routes, schools, healthcare, tall buildings — the wall and ceiling linings must meet a reaction-to-fire class under BS EN 13501-1. The Euroclass scale runs A1 to F, with smoke sub-classes s1–s3 and flaming-droplet sub-classes d0–d2, so a specification might call for something like B-s1,d0.
This matters for wood because untreated timber typically achieves around Class D; reaching Class B generally requires a fire-retardant treatment or specific construction, evidenced by a test report. If your project sets a fire class, choose from a fire-rated range and confirm the classification is proven, not assumed — here too, the finish and the fire performance are not separable.
Insist on tested data — then get a sample
The single most important habit is to buy against evidence. A credible absorption claim traces to a named ISO 354 test report for that exact construction, quoting the αw (0 = fully reflective, 1 = fully absorptive, Class A being αw 0.90–1.00) at the stated mounting — because the same panel tested tight to a wall and with an air gap behind it will absorb differently. A number with no report, or one lifted from a different build-up, is not proof.
Treat 'proven, not promised' as your filter: ask which ISO 354 report and mounting a figure comes from, and check the αw or NRC applies to the panel you are actually buying. Then order a sample — seeing and handling the real finish, backing and slat before you commit is the cheapest step in the whole process.
Frequently asked questions
Will acoustic panels soundproof my room?
No. Acoustic panels absorb sound to reduce echo and reverberation *inside* a room; they do not block noise passing between rooms. Stopping sound travelling through a wall, floor or ceiling is about mass and construction under Approved Document E, which absorptive panels do not satisfy. If your issue is noise from an adjacent space, panels are the wrong tool.
How many acoustic panels do I need?
It depends on the room's volume and the reverberation time you are targeting, not on a fixed count. Because RT = 0.161 × V / A, a bigger or harder room needs more absorptive area for the same result. Use a reverberation calculator for a rough figure, then confirm it against the panel's measured data and, for a regulated space, an acoustician's model.
Do I need fire-rated acoustic panels?
Only if the space is regulated. Escape routes, schools, healthcare and tall buildings set a reaction-to-fire class for wall and ceiling linings under BS EN 13501-1. Untreated timber typically reaches around Class D, so if a higher class such as B-s1,d0 is required you need a treated or specifically constructed panel with a test report to prove it.
What should I ask a supplier before buying?
Ask for the αw from a named ISO 354 test report, and check the mounting it was tested at matches how you will fit the panel — because an air gap behind the panel changes the result. Confirm the figure applies to the exact panel you are buying, not a different build-up, and order a sample to check the finish in person.