"panel fabric" such as that sold by Guilford of maine, has a few properties that make it well suited for permanent panels, such as those installed in sports complexes, churches, concert halls etc..
property # 1 - I think they are all made from polyester or similar - the material does not absorb moisture from the humidity in the room - so it will not sag over time.
Property # 2 - they have good fire retardant capabilities. this would be important in say a school or daycare center, but it equally important in your home...
Property # 3 - panel fabrics are often 66" wide
I'll explain further the concept of a false (or fabric) wall...
There is often a desire not to have a room filled with acoustic traps, corner traps, diffusors, and other acoustic fixers that wives generally do not want to look at.
for this example, Imagine that you have a 15x20 finsihed room.
to help you imagine it
lets use these dimensions:
+----- 20 -----+
15 **********15 <-lets discuss this wall
+----- 20 -----+
You draw up in a cad program that you want to have huge bass absorbers against one of the 15 foot walls. the picture looks similar to what Glenn posted above...
You're wife objects saying it looks like a freak show and she doesn't want it.
now, if you don't really need all 20 feet in that room, the back 15 foot wall can be moved into the room by say 2 feet.
so your new room (on paper) looks like this:
+------18-----+-2-+
15**********15**15
+------18-----+-2-+
on paper, you've made the 15x20 room 2 feet shorter, it's now 15x18.
however, the middle wall we just added, isn't going to be a traditional wall of 2x4s and drywall.
it's going to be a wall made entirely out of fabric (you'll have a frame behind it so the fabric is pulled tight)
now as far as sound is concerned, you have a 15x20 room, but your eyes see a 15x18 room.
you would then use the 2 foot space behind the fabric wall to install the same arrangement of traps that was in Glenn's picture.
anyhow thats the idea. People who enter the room don't notice the wall is fabric becuase it looks like a wall, not a 2x4 panel hung on a wall (even if thats what is behind the fabric - they can't see that)
It doesn't have to have 2 feet behind it, it could have 2 inches behind it.
I used 2 feet, because at that depth, you have enough room for some serious bass traps, but you could certainly adjust this. For example your side walls could be brought out 2 inches, and you could put an inch or two of rigid fiberglass on the sides to control 'early reflections'
building something like this has an assumption - there can't be any windows or doors on that wall (not without getting really fancy in how you do things)
now adding fabric on top of commercial traps, is going to add cost...
however many commercial traps are nothing more than fiberglass covered with fabric in some kind of frame. if you are building the false wall all you really need behind it is fiberglass - no need for a finished panel. Fiberglass is cheap.
so hopefully that helps you understand what I meant by a fabric wall.
My example was an extreme one - designed to accomodate a lot of insulation behind it...
A more typical application of fabric to a wall would be with a product like wallmate(
http://www.wallmate.net/)
the
brouchure shows the product in use, and how it's setup...
Personally I see advantages to doing something like that, but I also see advantages of ordering from GIK or Realtraps - I'm not trying to steer you in any one direction - just make you aware of what directions are available.
- Jack