Acoustic Panel Air Gap - Should you leave an air gap behind your acoustic treatment?

Leaving an air gap behind your Panel can help improve it's performance into the lower ranges. This video breaks down the science behind how air gaps effect sound waves.

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"Should you leave an air gap behind your acoustic treatment?

Leaving an air gap behind your acoustic treatment can help increase overall absorption and extend it’s effective range into low frequencies. This effect is extremely helpful when you’re trying to get as much bass trapping in a room as possible, so it’s often recommended to people that they mount their panels “floating” a few inches from the wall for the best performance.


In many cases, a better question is whether the performance gained from this spacing is worth the additional space taken up in the room. In most cases if there is such space, you’re better off using thicker panels in that same space, even if the air gap has to be a bit smaller.

These performance gains are actually more about the distance from the front face of the panel to the wall behind. This is why the benefits are so great for thinner panels. For a 6” thick panel, the front face is already 6” away even if the panel is flush mounted, ie, further away than a 2” absorber spaced 2” out from the wall. So it’s less critical for thicker panels.

Why do we space acoustics panels with an air gap?

Porous absorbers work by acting on sound velocity. Because of this, acousticians refer to this type of absorber as a velocity absorber. When sound strikes the panel the vibration from the air molecules are converted into a miniscule amount of heat.

But when a soundwave reflects off a wall or ceiling, at the reflection point, the velocity of the sound is zero, because it has to stop, change direction, and establish a new velocity in a different trajectory. When we move the front of the panel further from this zero-velocity point, we improve the performance of a velocity absorber.


In order to absorb lower frequencies for cleaner bass response the panel either needs to be thicker or spaced off the wall to cover more of the wavelength. The Bass frequencies are going to have longer wavelengths to cover with the high velocity area of the wave further from the boundaries of the room.

How Far Should I Mount my panels from the wall?

A good rule of thumb is that whatever your panel's thickness is, that’s a good distance to float the panel. Any further can help even more but we quickly reach a point of diminishing returns, that is, the small performance gain isn’t worth even more room space being taken up.
Depending on what issues you’re trying to solve or how much space is in your room, you might find that no air gap is the best option.


GIK’s 242, 244, and Monster Bass trap already have an air gap built into the panel. Having a built in air gap gives you more absorption potential per panel per dollar without the need for additional hardware or complicated mounting techniques.

For placing treatment on the ceiling, GIK offers our Ceiling Cloud Mounting Brackets that work with any of those GIK products that have a built in air gap and lowers them into the room an extra 4 inches. Floating your panels off the ceiling gives you the benefit of extra bass absorption without taking up any extra standing room.

For something like the Soffit, adding any air gap provides very little improvement because it’s already so thick, so in most cases it’s best to leave these right up against the wall.


If you’re still struggling to get your frequency response under control, visit the GIK website, for tons more tools, videos, and articles as well as our free acoustics advice form."