Hello everyone,

just moved into our new house from a previous tiny apartment. Therefore the rooms are not fully furnished. It's mostly bare walls and tile flooring. We have no immediate plans to put more furniture or other accesories in the room.

The problem or my question now, the echo, especially in the living room, is terrible. You can't watch TV or have a conversation without getting a headache from the loud noise and echo.

I was searching online and found noise reduction panels from SCG, that can be installed on the wall and/or the ceiling.

Do these panels actually help? How many do I need and maybe there are other, cheaper solutions?

I can't be the only house owner having this problem....

Rugs make a massive difference and are cheap enough to scatter around.

Pictures (or a nice Persian carpet) on the walls, indoor plants and of course furniture also help scatter the sound.

Do you have curtains/drapes? They also help.

To be honest, by the time you've spent $$$ on noise reduction panelling you might as well have bought some actual furniture

It will not look pretty, but stick some of this around where you think the speakers are pointing, and the wall where you think the bounced back sound is hitting.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/pdp-i5370063053-s22822570704.html?c=&channelLpJumpArgs=&clickTrackInfo=query%253Aacoustic%252Bfoam%253Bnid%253A5370063053%253Bsrc%253ALazadaMainSrp%253Brn%253Af4528222d57706325d3577f24eeac495%253Bregion%253Ath%253Bsku%253A5370063053_TH%253Bprice%253A259%253Bclient%253Adesktop%253Bsupplier_id%253A100252740780%253Bsession_id%253A%253Bbiz_source%253Ah5_internal%253Bslot%253A4%253Butlog_bucket_id%253A470687%253Basc_category_id%253A7518%253Bitem_id%253A5370063053%253Bsku_id%253A22822570704%253Bshop_id%253A3936364%253BtemplateInfo%253A107882_D_E%2523-1_A3_C%25231120_L%2523164363_J%2523&freeshipping=1&fs_ab=2&fuse_fs=&lang=th&location=ปทุมธานี&price=259&priceCompare=skuId%3A22822570704%3Bsource%3Alazada-search-voucher%3Bsn%3Af4528222d57706325d3577f24eeac495%3BoriginPrice%3A25900%3BdisplayPrice%3A25900%3BsinglePromotionId%3A-1%3BsingleToolCode%3AmockedSalePrice%3BvoucherPricePlugin%3A0%3Btimestamp%3A1767956543676&ratingscore=4.774647887323944&request_id=f4528222d57706325d3577f24eeac495&review=71&sale=595&search=1&source=search&spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.4&stock=1

Pictures on the walls

It cost me 350 Baht to buy these parts at HomePro a few years ago.

5-meter (16f) wide room.

On 1/9/2026 at 2:53 PM, Crossy said:

Rugs

Rugs. Yes, these are the best solution.

It is possible to find a few cheap rugs, for not much money, at places like Lotus, when they are on sale.

Very cheap. And then just spread them around, at random, on the floor.

I also employ those black acoustic absorbing squares which I use to cover one of my computer tables.

Or, just begin collecting cats, the ones with the thick fur.

The coats of cats will absorb annoying echos to a surprising degree.

It's very unfortunate that, in Thailand, rugs and carpeting is so relatively high price.

And, I think that odd-lots of carpeting, at deep discount, is unheard of here.

I purchased some rugs at Lotus for about Bt.99, and fairly good sized ones.

If you buy six, then this represents a fairly cost effective solution, IMHO.

On 1/10/2026 at 7:36 PM, sometime said:

Pictures on the walls

That makes a very minor difference as I have some major paintings in a large living room that has concrete floors and walls. What has made a big difference was using a material that is designed for insulating compartments from car cabins to reduce the noise of high performance engines, it's a sound dampening material and I've placed them underneath my speakers and it's improved my sound about 50%. Available on Lazada.

On 1/9/2026 at 2:49 PM, CLW said:

I can't be the only house owner having this problem....

I know you're not the only one having this problem. We moved into our new-build on Christmas Eve and have exactly the same situation.

Our living room was also very bad. We mounted the TV on the wall so the kids would be happy but hadn't put any furniture in the room at that point. A corner sofa, a coffee table and some comfy chairs were added soon after and the TV sound became normal again.

All the above advice is good (rugs, curtains, furniture).

I would go slightly further. I have a dedicated study in my new house where my computer desk will go, and my hifi. The room is 5m x 4m and the hifi initially (predictably) sounded awful so I'm starting to tune the room to eradicate the problems. The issue with hifi (or TVs) is sound reflection. I assume you have hard tiles on the floor - so do we, shiny ceramic ones that reflect the noise very well. So, imagine you are sitting in your chair watching the TV (or listening to your hifi). The sound from the speakers comes straight across the room to your ears. So far, so good. The problem is that a lot of the sound goes out in a cone from the source and reflects. In the first instance, it reflects off the floor and then up to your ears. The problem with this reflection is that it took a slightly longer path (down, then up again) than the sound that came directly to your ears in a straight line from the speakers. This reflected sound is therefore slightly behind (out of phase) with the original sound so makes the sound muddled. This is also occurring to some degree from the side walls, and possibly from the ceiling.

BTW, like my ceramic floor tiles, glass is unfortunately a good reflective surface so windows or patio doors, for example, may add to your challenge. In the UK, thick velvet curtains were the standard sound-absorbing answer but I appreciate they are not necessarily the way to go in Thailand.

If you place rugs on the floor at the point of first reflection between your ears and the speakers, this reflection will be muted. I have a laser pointer and it's very easy to shine it at the floor from seated head height and see where the reflected beam then hits the speakers. The point on the floor that it reflects from is exactly the point you need to address. The same can be done with the side walls. If you don't have a laser pointer, think how a snooker/pool player would determine the angle. The ceiling is the last point of reflection but is usually the least significant. Dedicated hifi buffs do put suspended sound absorbers on the ceilings - and I may well do this in my study - but please don't imagine I'm suggesting this for your living room! 😄

Lastly - and I'm not advocating this for you - rockwool insulation is the main component inside many sound-absorbing panels. I had some left over rockwool from the ceiling insulation in our house and experimented by putting some of this on the floor in my study at the point of first reflection. Big difference. I put more on the back wall behind the speakers and sub-woofers. Another audible improvement. These give me ideas for more permanent solutions.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

On 1/9/2026 at 8:49 AM, CLW said:

Hello everyone,

just moved into our new house from a previous tiny apartment. Therefore the rooms are not fully furnished. It's mostly bare walls and tile flooring. We have no immediate plans to put more furniture or other accesories in the room.

The problem or my question now, the echo, especially in the living room, is terrible. You can't watch TV or have a conversation without getting a headache from the loud noise and echo.

I was searching online and found noise reduction panels from SCG, that can be installed on the wall and/or the ceiling.

Do these panels actually help? How many do I need and maybe there are other, cheaper solutions?

I can't be the only house owner having this problem....

The general acoustic solution for echo/reflections is hard face shall reflect towards soft face; i.e. a carpet on the floor will damp reflections from ceiling and partly from hard walls. Never damp ceiling if you want sound to be distributed in a room; i.e., sound from TV-speakers or sound bar. Ceiling insulation plates are for sound not to be distributed, for example in a food hall where you don't want sound distribution from talk by the tables – we had a case where the architect has damped the ceiling in a smaller theatre, making it useless, as two third of the audience couldn't hear the performers on the stage.

The SCC panels work quite well – I've used them on the wall behind my TV-furniture – in a professional audio view you shall damp the wall behind speakers (sound source). As you don't want to change your living room to an acoustic perfect studio control-room, just a smaller rug or two on the floor can do wonders. It is easy to move around for both best acoustics and pleasant room view – and if you wish a clean room, it can be rolled aside, or just taken away – even a soft rug (or two) of 60-+100 cm x 150-200 cm can make a difference. It's a cheap and easy solution to test for a start; HomePro and others are selling soft rugs in a variety of designs for around 400-500 baht.