Vicoustic Home Theater Acoustic Treatments Overview & Comparison

Vicoustic is a company out of Portugal that specializes in acoustic treatments for both residential and commercial applications. You’ll find their products in home theaters, audio rooms, recording studios, offices, and restaurants in over 70 countries around the world. While there are many companies in the business of offering acoustic solutions, Vicoustic is quite unique. 

They have an overarching goal of developing beautiful acoustic solutions that work better than others while using either recycled materials or making them recyclable.  As a matter of fact, since their inception, they have recycled over 250 tons of plastic bottles and over 60% of their products are made from recycled materials, which is impressive!

At Audio Advice, we have installed many Vicoustic solutions and our customers have been thrilled with the audio improvement and great visuals of the Vicoustic offerings.

The final acoustic characteristics of your room are influenced by many aspects, but for this article, we are focusing on how you can treat an existing room. We have A Guide to Home Theater Acoustics that covers broader topics such as room dimensions and other physical properties. 

We feel the acoustic treatment of your home theater or audio room may be the single biggest thing you can do for the best audio performance. The strategy for your room will depend on many factors, but the great news is, Vicoustic has a beautiful solution for every application. And the even better news is, most home theater rooms are rectangular and will benefit from similar types of acoustic products. 

With Vicoustic having so many offerings (over 30) a quick visit to their website usually has people scratching their heads as to which products to choose. We have taken that work away for you and picked what we feel are the best value models for almost all possible applications. Plus, all of these are very easy for the DIY person to install themselves. At the end of the product overviews, we will cover the various mounting options.

We have found through years of experience, the best sounding rooms use a combination of absorption and diffusion panels, and in some cases, bass traps. Vicoustic has wonderful solutions for each of these categories.

Sound Absorption

Most rooms we see have too many reflective surfaces. When sound bounces off the walls and arrives at our ears at a different time, it makes it far harder for our brains to pick out the small details in the sounds. The worst example of this is a room with all hard surfaces and no furniture. We have all heard how that type of room is just an echo chamber. 

When you tame the reflections, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to understand the dialog and hear the softer details that draw you more into the movie or music. 

The best place to start is where the sound might first bounce off the wall, which is usually the sidewalls near your main left and right speakers.  You can even sit in your main chair and have someone walk down the sidewall with a mirror to see where these start.  Anywhere you can see your speaker in the mirror is where you need to think about treating.

Our two favorite Vicoustic products for sound absorption are their Flat Panel VMT and Cinema Round Premium.

Flat Panel VMT

This is a great panel for absorption made from Vicoustic’s VicPET Wool. This is a special material made from mostly recycled plastic bottles. Our favorite version is their roughly 2’ by 2’ by 1” thick panel.

These are designed to absorb the upper mid and higher frequencies that cause those annoying echo effects.

You can place these on the walls and ceiling. Their best use would be on the side walls where your speakers' first reflections hit and in between your speakers for stereo use. They are lightweight enough you can simply use velcro to attach them to your walls or use any of their other mounting options.

Cinema Round Premium

This is our favorite panel of all. It absorbs frequencies starting in the lower midrange all the way up in a very linear fashion. Their shape is convex with them being about 3” deep at the peak of the curve. This is one of the best panels we have ever seen from a linear absorption perspective making them perfect for both home theater and home audio use. Plus with their curved design, groups of four of these look really interesting when you rotate them as you mount them.

We normally use them first on the side walls for first reflections where they work just fantastic. They can also be used on the rear wall and ceiling and on the front wall in some stereo applications.

Our favorite combination is to use these on the side walls for the primary reflections and use the Flat Panel VMT on the front wall.

Diffusion

Believe it or not, there can be such a thing as too much absorption in a room. So what do you do when you have a wall surface that is very reflective, yet you do not need to make it totally absorptive? One great option is to use a diffusion panel. Diffusion panels are made out of raised geometric sections that break up the sound in such a way that you will never have reflection issues, yet, they keep the room from having a “dead” sound as we like to call it.

Vicoustic makes a few types of diffusion products, some made from real wood that is quite beautiful but with a fairly high price. The Multifuser DC2 is their best value product we love for diffusion applications.

Multifuser DC3

The Multifuser DC is made from high-quality expanded polystyrene that is molded into a very cool geometric pattern. These actually will diffuse frequencies all the way down to 125 Hz and up to about 5000 Hz. When properly placed in a room, these can make a huge improvement in how well you can understand the dialog track or hear subtle musical details.

We like to place these in the middle of the back wall of a home theater or audio room.

So if you are following along with our suggestions, you can see how you would add these to a combination of Cinema Round Premium on the side walls and Flat Panel VMT on the front.

Combination Absorption and Reflection

A perfect way to treat more areas of your room for absorption but not cause the sound to be too dull is to use a product that does both. You have areas on the panel that are fully absorbent and other areas that are reflective giving you that combination you need to cover more areas. Many companies in the acoustic space make something like this, but we have not seen any that work as well as the Vicoustic options nor that just flat look as cool!

Wavewood Diffuser Ultra

These are made using a high-density polystyrene and wood finish. They absorb, diffuse, and scatter the sound focusing mostly on the middle acoustic frequencies.

We like to use these with the Cinema Round Premium panels on the side walls to cover a larger area. They also are so light, they can be used on the ceiling as well for a really cool look.

Bass Traps

Bass traps are made to help reduce the bass peaks that can sometimes occur in a room due to its dimensions. Every room has some bass standing wave problems, some just have a lot more than others. Bass traps are somewhat of a debatable issue as we have found many to take the life out of a room. 

The other thing that has happened only recently is the advent of home theater processors and receivers that can measure the characteristics of your room and remove the bass issues electronically. 

If you use a good type of bass trap and do not go overboard, they can give a more effortless quality to your lower end. The smaller your room is, the more you will normally benefit from adding bass traps.

Super Bass Extreme Ultra

This is a modular system that not only acts like a bass trap but also adds some other benefits. 

The corners of your room are great spots to put bass traps, but they are also a position where you can get some odd midrange reflections. We love the fact the Super Bass Extreme Ultra is designed to be placed in the corner but also works somewhat like the Wavewood in that it absorbs and diffuses a pretty wide range of frequencies. The front of them looks very similar to the Wavewood Diffuser as well.

They have a really interesting method of absorbing the low frequencies while maintaining a compact size. There is an internal membrane that will sympathetically vibrate in the range of 75-100 Hz which then passes the air through a layer of high-density foam that absorbs the lower frequencies. This is right in the range where most bass issues occur in a room.

The front of the panel absorbs and diffuses middle frequencies to break up reflections in the corners.

We like to stack these in the two rear corners of the room first, then do the front two corners if necessary. Two per corner is usually enough.

If your room has some really bad bass standing wave problems and you have no way to correct them in your electronics, these might be the best thing to add after you tame the main reflections in your room.

Planning Your Room

The great part about the Vicoustic products is their modular design. You can start small and add as your budget allows, or do everything you need all at once. For many people, simply one box of Flat Panel VMT or Cinema Round Professional divided up for each side wall near your main speakers will make a huge difference. 

To make things easier, we have created good, better & best packages for both home audio and home theater rooms. We then modified them for small to mid-sized rooms under 500 square feet, as well as larger rooms. Our Vicoustic Packages page will show you the suggested products and where to put them. You simply click on each product in the package and it will take you to a page where you can select the color and add the number of boxes you need to your cart. Please bear in mind these are all priced out per box with 2-8 pieces per box, so in most cases, you just need one or two boxes. 

If you are working with one of our home theater designers on a custom home theater, they can also provide some insight as to the best products for your space. 

Finally, for very elaborate projects, we can work directly with Vicoustic acoustic engineers & designers to run a complete analysis of your room and design a solution, but there is a charge for this service. Please contact us to learn more.

Installing the Panels

Adhesion

For 90% of the installations we perform for our customers, we simply use construction adhesive to attach the panels to the walls. We like the brand Gorilla Glue Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive.  If you can not find it, Loctite Power Grab is another option. We have a full video on How to Install Acoustic Panels to get you started.

Usually, you will be hanging a group of panels.  The only tool you will need is a long level, plus a glue gun for the adhesive.  We find using some kind of chalk to mark the wall is the best method as you can just rub it off.

• Find the location for the first panel that will be in the upper left corner.  Mark where the upper left corner needs to go.
• Run a wavy small bead on the back 4 edges of the panel, keeping it about 3” away from the edges.  Leave a gap at each corner so the bead is not continuous to allow for air to escape when you push it on the wall.  Put an “X” shaped bead in the center.
• Carefully push the panel on the wall just slightly below and to the right of your marked spot, being off in each direction by about 1” to ½”. 
• Hold the panel on the wall for about 20-30 seconds so it will grab.
• Get your level and hold it on the side or top of the panel as you slowly push it to line up the upper left corner with your mark.  Check and make sure it is level, then press down firmly on the panel and hold it there for about 30 seconds.
• Then press firmly all around the panel to seat it on the wall.
• You can now move on to the next panel in the group.
• Do the same thing, pushing it on the wall just slightly off, hold it up for 20-30 seconds.
• Put your level against the already mounted panel and use the edge of the mounted panel and the level to make sure they all line-up.
• Repeat for your other panels in the group.

Bear in mind for the Wavewood Diffuser Ultra the backside is recessed in comparison to the front.

The light weight of the Flat Panel VMT even allows you to use Velcro to hang them on your walls.

VixFix

Another method, although it costs far more (almost $90 per panel) is their  VicFix Magnetic mounting system. These are large metal discs you can glue to the back of some of the panels, then attach a small magnet to the wall. This system allows you to fine-tune placement easier but is not cost-effective in our mind.

VixFix J Profile

In some cases, this method can be very easy and comes with bass traps. You just mount a J-shaped channel on the wall and the panels snap into place and hang on it.

VixFix Base

This is a panel that can mount to the back of many of the products that allow you to use the VixFix J Profile to hang them on the rail. The downside is this can get to be almost as expensive as the VixFix magnets, but it does make things very easy.

Our Advice

Use Gorilla Glue Heavy Duty Construction Adhesive or the Loctite Power Grab construction adhesive, measure carefully and you will be good. This product gives you about 5 minutes to get things perfectly lined up, then you just put pressure on the panel for 2 minutes and you can move on to the next one. This will save you enough money in many cases to add another level of acoustic treatment to your room!

Conclusion

We hope this article on these great acoustic products from Vicoustic will inspire you to make your existing home theater or home audio space sound even better. Most people are completely shocked at how much their sound and enjoyment improves with the right acoustic treatment

What you may not have thought about is how good of an investment it is. Many of us change our components over time as technology improves or we just want something better. Once you install good acoustic products, there is no need to change them. The laws of physics will not change over time making your acoustic plan a one-time investment that will last as long as you are using the room. 

If you have any questions on acoustics, home theater, or home audio in general, give us a call at 888.899.8776, chat with us, or stop by our Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina showrooms.

Recommended Products