Best Soundproof Blankets 2023: Do They Really Work?
As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Have you ever thought of starting your own YouTube channel? How about your own recording studios? Or do you, in fact, just have really loud neighbors?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then chances are that you are in the market for some Soundproof Blankets!
But what are soundproof blankets, and what kind of soundproof blanket should I buy?
For the answers to this question, you will need to enlist the aid of this buying guide.
In case you’re still surprised at the terms such as acoustic sound blanket or soundproofing with moving blankets – this article is still for you, even though you might not have an idea what we’re talking about at first.
At A Glance: Our Top Picks for Soundproof Blankets
In this guide we will be taking a look at the reasons one may need soundproof blankets, what to look for when purchasing them, and some of the best soundproof blankets that you can buy right now online.
IMAGE | PRODUCT | |
---|---|---|
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
|
What are Soundproof Blankets Used For?
The short answer to this is: nearly everything that requires noise reduction!
To go into more detail: A soundproof blanket has a variety of uses and styles depending on your individual needs.
This can be anything from creating soundproof recording studios for artistic endeavors, making a sound barrier for a noisy workshop, or blocking out street noise in a loud neighborhood.
Soundproof blankets are also known as studio blankets which are often used to soundproof house rooms and turn them into home studios – which is, again, ideal for streamers, video recorders, and even musicians.
The styles and material that these acoustic blankets are made up of will depend on the kind of effect you get.
The thick, but cheap, moving style blankets will help to get rid of higher decibel noise, while the quilted, acoustic style blankets will tend to the lower, bass-level tones.
Most soundproof blankets are made of a fiberglass or polyester material, which allows it to absorb and bounce off sound while also providing a sort of insulation to the room that you decide to put it in.
Examples of Uses for Soundproof Blankets
Do Soundproof Blankets Block Sound?
Much like anything used for noise-canceling applications, soundproof blankets will not absorb 100% of the noise in the space that you put them in.
Instead, these soundproofing blankets muffle, or “deaden”, the sound to a much more manageable level.
The change will still be very noticeable, as the sound will be bounced off these blankets and be reduced, in some cases, up to 80%.
For greater effect, try pairing these blankets with some other noise-canceling product like soundproof curtains in order to make your home or working space as noise free as possible.
Things to Look for When Buying Soundproof Blankets
Design
As mentioned briefly above, there are different designs for soundproof blankets that each have their own amount of noise-deadening capability.
The design that you are looking for will be based on your needs for the location that you place them in.
For example, if you are in a work space that needs as little noise as possible then you will want to buy a soundproof blanket with acoustic capability that will block out even the lowest of tones.
If you are looking more for something for your home, either to help you study or sleep, then a cheaper moving blanket for soundproofing can do the job for you.
There are also quilted and non-quilted designs to be on the look out for.
A quilted design usually aids in absorbing both sound and temperature, while non-quilted designs can provide noise-canceling at a cheaper cost overall.
Also, if you have a specific object or part of your room in mind that you’d like to soundproof, such as a door – then you’d want to look into door sound blankets to find the best one for the job.
Down below are a couple of more factors that will show you how to properly find a soundproofing blanket that will fit your needs.
Thickness
It probably comes as no surprise that a thicker blanket can absorb more sound, as the sound will have more layers to pass through to escape into the room.
This makes a thicker soundproof blanket ideal for most situations, however thicker blankets can also be heavier and harder to hang onto a surface.
Grommets
Grommets are used to hang sound blankets on walls and rods, but not all soundproof blankets are going to have them.
Soundproofing blankets that do have them are generally easier to hang up and manage, as the can slide along any sort of rod that they are placed on to move them as need be.
It is recommended that, should you buy a blanket without grommets as part of their design, that you install these items yourself.
For this job, you will want round, sturdy iron grommets, which are strong enough to support the weight of most soundproof blankets and allows them to be easily hung on rods or hooks.
Price
When it comes to acoustic blankets, cheaper is not always better. Generally speaking, the cheaper the blanket, the worse the sound-absorption.
With that said, there are a few cheaper blankets with great noise-canceling capability that may be worth to keep an eye out for, unless you don't mind spending the extra.
Other Factors
In addition to the above, there are a few smaller factors that you may want to consider before purchasing soundproofing blankets:
Best Soundproof Blankets 2021
Now, most people know the general use of moving blankets: to keep items from shifting and bumping during travel in the back of a moving truck and prevents damage furniture or the vehicle.
While this is the primary use of moving blankets, a lot of brands can be used for soundproofing purposes as well, as is the case with the blankets from Cheap Cheap Moving Boxes.
These moving blankets are thick and heavy, with each individual blanket coming up to a weight of nearly four pounds. This hefty weight will help these soundproofing blankets to absorb outside noise, with sound having to travel through the thicker layers, but will also make these blankets harder to hang on walls.
This issue is amplified by the fact that these blankets lack grommets, meaning you will have to find something strong enough to mount them on.
The Cheap Cheap Moving Boxes blankets are made using polyester material which are woven in such a way that sound waves bounces off the blankets. This effect is made even stronger when layering multiple moving blankets together, providing protection from outside noise and creating a cool acoustic effect.
The moving blankets are easy to keep clean and tidy, with the blankets being machine washable. Despite this, the drab color and, honestly, somewhat weak stitching, make the soundproofing blankets look a bit untidy even when clean. The weak stitching can also lead to durability issues, with the blankets being easy to tear if not handled with care.
All-in-all, the Cheap Cheap Moving Boxes moving blankets are a pretty good blanket for soundproofing purposes, even if that isn't their “intended” purpose. Although heavy and with some construction issues, they will be sure to give your home or studio the sound protection you are looking for!
Something to note about this product, the Big Boxer Grommeted Industrial Blanket, right off the bat is the price of around $15.
While this seems pretty reasonable at first glance for a soundproof blanket, this is the price for just ONE blanket..
This means that if you have a big studio or warehouse in which you need to use this type of industrial blanket, you may need to be ready to spend a bit of cash.
What remedies this issue, if only a bit, is that this blanket has a pretty decent size on its own at 78x72 inches. This may be enough to easily cover a smaller wall for sound-deadening applications, and is perfect for absorbing sounds from certain appliances such as a dishwasher.
As is suggested in this product's name, the Big Boxer blankets include heavy-duty, reinforced metal grommets every 9 inches along the blanket's surface. This helps to make it easy to hang and move the blankets, with a wrap-around curtain rod being the perfect choice for hanging these soundproofing blankets inside a room.
This blanket is made using a combination of non-woven polyester and cotton, which is double stitched and makes it a weight of five pounds per-blanket. This massive size aides in the sound canceling benefit of the blankets, and makes them particularly effective for canceling out the noise of certain vehicles or heavy machinery from construction sites.
If you can wrap you head around a price that can potentially get pretty high, you will find a quality soundproof blanket with the Big Boxer Grommeted Industrial Blanket, which is a heavyweight among soundproof blankets.
As you can probably tell by now, the heavier and thicker that a soundproof blanket is, the more sound canceling that you will get from the blanket.
For this, you can't find much thicker or heavier than the US Cargo Control Moving Blankets.
These beast come up to eight pounds each with multiple layers of padding stitched within the blankets. These extra layers make it possible to absorb more sound waves from outside, making them perfect for applications within your home, studio, or to protect against excess appliance noise.
These soundproofing blankets are stuffed with a recycled cotton filler, which is not only Eco-friendly but provides a great filter against sound, muffling it within its fibers.
The US Cargo Control Moving Blankets have a zigzag stitching and are created in such a way that they are hard to damage. No matter how many times you move them or if you have pets or kids that like to cause trouble, it is really hard to rip or tear these heavy-duty blankets, allowing you to use them for many years.
As you may expect, there are a few drawbacks to these blankets, mostly associated with the size. The heavy, eight pound weight can make them hard to hang without having to install grommets within the blanket, and it also makes them somewhat hard to wash and dry normally.
In addition to this, there is said to sometimes be an odor that these blankets can emit that is fairly unpleasant, but this seems to be an issue that not too many people have.
Another overall great, multi-purpose moving blanket, US Cargo Control gives users one of the most durable and reliable soundproofing blankets that money can buy!
Great deals are hard to come by when it comes to soundproof blankets, as many of the best blankets will cost the consumer at least a good chunk of cash.
There are exceptions to this rule, however, as Sure-Max proves with their Moving and Packing Blankets.
At under $40 for a package of 12 blankets, you roughly get more blanket for your buck than you do with many of the other products on this list. This will give you enough blankets to cover the entirety of the space that you intend to use them in, but without spending a whole lot of cash.
These sound barrier blankets are made with a double-sided construction of cotton and other high-grade materials. The quality of the materials and the duel-sided nature of these blankets make it possible for them to protect you from noise on either side, providing great insulation against the both sound and other outside elements.
The Sure-max blankets also sport an interesting color design choice, coming in black with blue trim around the edges. While this won't provide anything special itself in terms of sound-deadening, the color palette does make these sound absorbing blankets look sleek and cool in nearly every environment that you can use them in.
As you may expect due to the price, the construction quality is a little lacking, even fragile at times, with some people complaining of loose threads and tearing after washing the blankets. Unfortunately, washing may be something you'll want to do immediately as well, with there being a strong, musky smell to these blankets out of the package.
For the price and the use that you can get out of them, the Sure-Max moving blankets are worth taking a risk on. If you don't mind putting up with a bit of a stench, then you can create a great soundproof barrier wherever you need one for an affordable price.
If you want a sound studio that creates professional grade audio, then you are going to want soundproof blankets that are equally up to the task.
For that, there are few better then Audimute Absorption Sheets. Unlike other products on this list, these “sheets” are exclusively sold VIA the Audimute website, so you won't be able to find these ones anywhere on Amazon.
On top of that, these are some expensive blankets, coming up to a price that may make most people turn away at nearly $300 dollars for just four blankets. But there is a reason for this high price.
That reason is efficiency. These noise blankets have been known to reduce high and mid range noises up to 65% by themselves, which is higher than all moving blankets currently available and higher than most other high-end blankets. This makes Audimute the perfect choice for keeping out even the harshest of outside noises.
For those aspiring musicians out there, the heavy design helps to reflect sound back into the room they are used in, creating great acoustics. This will give you the best, cleanest feedback on you or your band's sound, and will help to give you crystal clear audio recordings.
For those that are Eco-friendly or worried about the potentially harmful effects of fiberglass, the Audimute blankets are made of completely recycled material. The recycled material, made of wool polyester, guarantees that your soundproof blanket is all-natural and safe... mostly.
We say mostly because the Audimute Sheets may be somewhat of a fire hazard, as they are not made of materials that are “Class A” fireproof material. This means that there is a potential danger there if these blankets are contained in hot spaces or are near open flames.
Chances are that if you are not a careless person, than fire safety should not be an issue. So if you have the extra cash to spend, the Audimute Absorption Sheets are sure to give you the sound protection you need and the clear-as-water audio that you have always wanted.
This means that, while they are workable for moving and, in this case, sound-absorption, they are not of the highest quality. This means that these noise reduction blankets are really thin, especially compared with other blankets that you can use for soundproofing purposes, which gives them a bit less sound cancellation capability.
This super-thin design also brings their durability into question. Some users, who have used them for moving purposes, claim that these blankets tend to fold under pressure and can tear easily when being used for moving heavier furniture. This brings up the question of how well they may hold up to unexpected accidents or repeated washings.
So what exactly are the positives of the Supreme Moving Blankets?
For starters is the amount of blankets that you get per-package. Every package of the Supreme blankets comes with twelve, 72x80 blankets. This is, usually, more than enough blankets to surround the circumference of most working spaces or small studios, providing every square inch with sound protection.
Second, these blankets are deceptively heavy despite being thin, which helps them to absorb more sound than they may at first appear to. Helping the blankets to reflect sound is the non-woven polyester, which is a great material for soundproofing purposes.
Thanks to the fact that these sound absorbing blankets are a bit on the thinner side, it actually makes them a bit easier to hang up, with a few well-placed nails being enough to keep the blanket on the wall.
If you would rather go the route of iron grommets, the thin design also makes it easy to quickly install these grommets on the blanket.
Sure, there may be higher-quality blankets out there, and the Cheap Cheap Moving Boxes Supreme Moving Blankets certainly has its share of issues. All things considered, however, these are still good blankets for soundproofing and you will get more than enough in a package of them to take care of nearly all your needs.
These blankets are super thick at nearly two inches thick, much thicker than other blanket. This allows it to soak up sounds of nearly every decibel range, even low frequencies.
The Quiet Quilt Acoustic Blanket includes grommets, making it easy to hang even though it’s huge! (4’ x 8’) It doesn’t weigh near as much as its cousin, the Quiet Quilt Soundproof blanket, clocking in at a mere 15 lbs (instead of over 50!).
These sound absorbing blankets are made with quilted fiberglass, as the name suggest, with an absorptive surface. This material and design ensures your blanket is long-lasting and durable vs cheap foam which will basically disintegrate as soon as someone starts touching or picking at it.
At nearly $300 dollars for one panel, these sound absorbing blankets are certainly not for someone who is looking for the cheapest possible solution. They’re most often used in industrial settings, because they need to be high performance AND durable. If you plan to have your blankets for a while (or if you’re a manufacturing plant), these could be the blankets for you.
The Quiet Quilt acoustic blanket is not a cheap moving blanket. It’s for someone who wants a durable solution or one that can be used outside. Whether you have a music studio or own a noisy warehouse, this acoustic blanket is great for reducing reverb and echo.
On the Best Acoustic Blankets
With so many different styles of acoustic and moving blankets that you can use for soundproofing capability, it's hard for us to decide on what we feel is the “best” one.
In this case, it really is a matter of what the buyer feels would be the best blanket for their individual needs.
We hope that this buyer's guide gave you all the tools you need to build a great soundproof space. There is a lot to learn about the world of soundproof blankets, and hopefully, with our help, you now have all your bases covered!
But if you’re still in doubt, we highly recommend just hanging sound blankets and giving them a try – as we believe you won’t regret your decision. On the other hand, you might experience benefits you’ve been looking for.