Portable Vocal Booth Review: Vocal Booth To Go’s SPB63
The key to quickly becoming better to sing is the freedom to practice it. When you’re a kid, you can be carefree to sing whenever, wherever. But as you become an adult, society, your neighbors in short, will often misjudge you for every little thing. And as an adult, people become more vocal about reprimanding you when they hear you creating a ruckus.
So if you got stuck living inside a place surrounded by thin walls and your neighbors’ rooms, it can shackle you from freely practicing your heart out. Thankfully, portable vocal booths have become available for people in that kind of situation to take advantage of.
We’re All In The Same Boat
For the past few days, I’ve been talking about these portable booths. There’s a reason behind that. My friend is looking for one, and he’s going to be in the same situation as you I assume in the future.
He has an acoustically treated room in his current apartment, but he needs to move out in a few week’s time. He’s moving out because of work and practical reasons. As he is afraid that he might move again, we’re primarily focusing on portability. And that’s why I’ve been scrubbing each and every product I see. And I’m sharing to you guys what stumbles upon me as impressive.
For Today’s Review
I’ll be talking about the SPB63 Sound Booth. This one’s a class of its own. Its performance is professional grade. The same goes for its price. With a whopping $4,500 price tag, it’s almost the same as getting a small room in your house acoustically treated.
At this point, this is on a level where only two kinds of people would buy this:
- Audio gear equipment rental business owners
- Singers living in a multiple dwelling unit or a densely populated apartment should look into purchasing this product.
The question now is, why?
Amateur singers living in a permanent residence who have $4,500 in their pockets should perform an acoustic treatment on a room in their home instead. You can use acoustic panels and other low-cost soundproofing equipment if you lack a few bucks to obtain this.
You can opt for the cheaper models, which should be enough for regular singing practice and nonprofessional grade recordings. This product can fit two people in it; better get a smaller version of this booth instead.
I know that the price is rather astronomical. I know very well that most of us get a $2,000 up to $3,600 paycheck every month. If something’s worth more than our monthly pay, we should heavily consider buying that item. And I implore you to check my reviews on other mobile isolation booths, which should not hurt you badly financially speaking.
However, it doesn’t hurt to know why this bad boy has a price tag three times more expensive than the latest iPhone 11 Pro Max. If you’re ready, then let’s take this thing apart.
SPB63 Sound Booth 6 x 3 with Soundproofing and Door
As mentioned, this product can let two persons use it at the same time. However, note that it’s only six feet wide. It can get a bit cramped inside. But for a single person, it’s actually the ideal size, allowing you to have your recording gadgets, including your computer, to be readily accessible and viewable while recording.
It’s sound-absorbing layers or blankets can block out more. It can reduce noise by 45dB. Basically, it can block out a normal conversation just a few feet away from the booth. Standard portable and audio recording tents can usually block around 10 to 15dB.
Placing it inside a modern apartment, which will have party walls that should be more than one inch thicker than usual, will almost guarantee that you won’t hear your neighbor while recording and vice versa. It will silence the noisy street outside, and you can be sure that nobody won’t catch a single word you’re saying.
Some Technical Details About The Soundproofing Layer
I did say that it can block out at least 45dB. However, that’s only for high-frequency sounds. At the midrange, which the average speaking voice pitch is around, the booth can block out at least 35dB. It’s still enough to eliminate regular conversations.
The clincher here is that it can only do little when it comes to lower note signals. What I’m getting at here is that when your neighbor starts to ramp up some of his disco mixes on high volume, the bass thumps can quickly get through the booth and can be picked up by the microphone.
Portability and Weight
With its thicker walls and sturdier frames, moving it around can be a pain. You’ll need two people to set it up fast. You can do it by yourself, but inspect that you’ll burn up a good hour to get this ready.
Everything weighs around 400 lbs. (181 kgs.) It comes with three duffel bags. If you want to transport it around with ease, you’ll need a trolley—the fold-able one they use in warehouses for convenience.
However, if you’re not going to use it for a business, you’ll never need to think about this concern ever again until you plan to move out of your apartment.
About Lighting Inside The Booth
This product comes with a LED strip, which is sufficient for you to see everything inside the booth. It’s much better to use this strip inside than a regular bulb because it doesn’t heat up much. Note that you’ll be spending a lot of time inside it, and you’ll be cut off from your room’s air ventilation. The booth also isolates and insulates the heat inside. It’ll feel like a sauna if you use a regular high wattage bulb.
It Comes With A Mat
Aside from the soundproofing walls and roof, this product also comes with one-inch foam floor mats. Apart from giving your weary feet some comfort, it also adds more soundproofing “points” to your booth. This is to make sure that your neighbor downstairs won’t be disturbed by your performance.
What Are My Final Thoughts About This?
I believe you already have an inkling of what I’m going to say here, but I’ll state what’s on my mind. It’s a one-time big-time purchase. Only buy this if you’re starting a business or you’re in the exact situation like my friend, which I described before.
I’ll continue to delve deeper into products that can help you practice and record in silence. If you just want to practice without disturbing other people, you can check out my BeltBox review. If you’re going to create a crisp and clear record on a budget, check out my portable isolation booth article. And if you want to learn more about mobile acoustic booths, keep yourself posted with the site.
Acoustically treating a room is not equivalent to a portable “soundproof” booth. The company’s acoustic vocal booth is around $1,200. That is the appropriate apples to apples comparison to acoustically treating a room. Soundproofing a room involves a LOT more than acoustically treating a room. There are a lot of sites claiming soundproofing a room runs around $2,500. But when you look closely they are really acoustically treating the room with a little sound deadening to reduce sound LEAVING the room. Soundproof rooms for recording keep sound OUT.