3D Printing Sound Panels That Actually Work!

Bad audio can ruin any space, so I tackled the echo in my office with custom 3D-printed sound panels. These hexagonal panels combine striking designs with sound-absorbing materials to reduce reverb and improve audio quality. Watch as I design, print, and assemble these panels using the Prusa XL, Polymaker filament, and some creative solutions. Do they actually work? Let’s find out!

Thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video!

Products used in this video: (affiliate links)

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Skillsharing
2:36 - Options
3:32 - Other 3D Printed Options
5:12 - Inspiration
6:05 - Designing Our Part in CAD
7:16 - Slicer Tricking
8:58 - The Filament
9:26 - 3D Printing
9:49 - 3D Print Results
10:18 - The Sound Deadening
10:56 - Cutting Material
11:11 - Assembly
12:13 - Installation Begins
12:48 - Pets Break
13:12 - Installation Continues
13:45 - Final Result
14:41 - Outro

Some of the links provided are AFFILIATE LINKS. Affiliate links give the MandicReally a small advertising fee for every purchase made via those links. This does not cost you anything more than if you purchased them normally, but helps support further video production.

#mandicreally

[MandicReally]

Bambu & Prusa Mk4 sized version NOW AVAILABLE!

[UncleJessy]

I continuously struggle with audio and loving the look of these printable acoustic panels!

[GrayeWilliams]

I've been 3D printing sound panels for a few months and found the same issue: you need absorbption as well as diffusion. With a mixture of laser cutting, 3D printing, and thinning out my t-shirt collection I've found similar results. Love what you've done here, I'm going to have to give it a try, just at a smaller final product. I'd give my left kidney for a Prusa XL for the size.

Serious, Josef, my left kidney. It's be an incredible office decoration.

[Garage]

So you gave me an idea. You mentioned trapping, captureing, and stopping sound waves. 3D printing enables structures and designs that are very difficult to execute any other way. What if you 3D printed sound panels which have complex overlapping stepped surfaces? For example, cone structures shaped sort of like Christmas trees with various branch diameters that overlap neighbors. Sound waves bounce in, but then when they try to reflect back out, they hit a branch above. Like Tesla valves for sound waves essentially. I wonder how effective this could be.

[thenextlayer]

Nice man! I did the same thing, but wrapped in fabric, instead of infill on the front. Yours, as usual, look much better ;) Good work.

Also, CONGRATS on 50K bro!

[hardwareful]

Honest impression from someon listening with headphones? The processed audio is worse than the unprocessed one. It's hrd to describe what's going on exactly, but it sounds like a flanger tracking the speech trying not to get caught. Truly awful once you hear it.

[Eric_In_SF]

FYI, the sound isn’t “trapped” in your foam. It’s actually hits the foam and it’s converted into heat at a micro level. So technically it’s converting the sound into heat energy

[helmanfrow]

Let's be clear. You didn't 3D-print an acoustical product; you printed a decorative holder for an acoustical product. The acoustical properties come from the Rockwool. The 3D-printing is entirely incidental. I mean, it looks nice but contributes nothing to the dissipation of acoustical energy.

[Eric_In_SF]

FYI I think it’s important to mention that although you did your research it’s clear you don’t quite understand everything. Dispersion panels work very well when they’re installed correctly. They aren’t gonna do anything when 80% of your wallet is still flat and exposed. They need to be placed in a critical area where reflections occur to then scatter the reflections. So the theory is correct but the application is incorrect

[asm]

This is a great idea. One thought if you wanted to save on fabric, you could just make a fabric cover for the grille and 3d print a panel for the back that you could add a french cleat or a integrated hanger for other wall mounting options.

[MakersMuse]

This is such a sick idea, and good timing too. Our cats have decided that foam tiles are delicious and fun to tear off the walls 😂😭 need a new solution

[McFlyOrPie]

Well, I think you have it easier with sound. Mainly because of that, super smooth, radio talk show, nature documentary, voice of yours.

[ColinJReed]

i just watched this with my son and he wanted to let you know that this is amazing

[capraaudio]

This was a really cool video! I'm glad you came to actual audible results! 3D printing and audio are a combo that should be explored more. I've designed several headphones on Printables with an emphasis on audio quality and I'm disapointed that its basically just me, Headamame and Ploopy making interesting 3d printable headphones.

[GromM-]

I was literally just toying with this idea the other day and looking around online for some. found some diffusers that are really sweet and because its 3d modeled the person who designed them was able to do all the sound testing in software and has different versions to target different frequency ranges its super interesting but they were very time consuming prints these are much less due to the hollow design for the filler material so im gonna give these a shot.

[gracenoterecordings]

These came out great! Built something similar out of wood and used speaker grill cloth for the front. Will have to try 3D printed ones soon. Looking forward to seeing the other office projects!

[limestone_xyz]

great video, keep us posted on the ceiling stuff!
Also I love how apparently everyone is an acoustics engineer when someone does a video on that matter 😂

[TitanDAZ]

I really like this idea! This is a nice mix of materials! Definitely need more of them printed. Hexagons are the bestagons!!!!

[Paul_Me_Once]

Nice concept, you could totally just put Rockwall on the walls and print the very pretty hexagonal sound defusing face to cover it, saving a considerable amount of time and filament.

You could even make it so the hexagonal pattern locks together and just stitched to the lining material.

[tonieprawda]

you need to cover 30% of all 6 surfaces to hear a big difference. Right now it sits on about 15% of one wall, so it is about 2% coverage. This is why you do not hear a difference. If you would like to have more impact also - make them thicker, and/or mount them not directly on the wall, but with a gap. Also to max their effect mount them in the place of first and second reflection in the first place. If you talk to the monitor - wall behind is ok, then spots on the sides and the ceiling, then the back spots