Primacoustic London 8 Review: What a Room Kit Fixes
Buy the London 8 if you want a finished looking room kit with mounting hardware included and your main complaint is flutter echo, harsh reflections and vocal recordings that sound like a small hard room. Skip it if your complaint is boomy or uneven bass, because thin wall panels of any brand do very little in that range and the money belongs in corner absorption instead.
A tidy, well made first reflection kit that will not touch the problem most home studios actually have.
Primacoustic London 8 Acoustic Room Treatment Kit, Grey
~$450
A room kit built around four Control Columns and eight Scatter Blocks, with the mounting hardware in the box.
Check price on AmazonSpecifications
| Kit contents | Four Control Columns and eight Scatter Blocks |
|---|---|
| Colour | Grey |
| Intended use | Wall mounted broadband absorption and surface scattering |
| Mounting | Impaler style hardware supplied with the kit |
| Approx. price | Around $450 |
Specifications above come from Primacoustic's published kit description as listed on the Amazon product page. Treat pricing as approximate, since Amazon pricing moves.
What it does well
- It arrives as a designed kit rather than a pile of panels, with the mounting hardware included and a layout that makes sense.
- The panels are properly finished, so a shared or visible room does not end up looking like a foam cave.
- Broadband absorption at the first reflection points is the single most effective thing you can do for stereo imaging, and this covers it.
- Scatter Blocks break up flutter echo between parallel walls, which is the slap you hear when you clap in an untreated room.
- Primacoustic panels are glass wool rather than open cell foam, which behaves better across the midrange.
Where it falls short
- Wall panels of this type do very little below a few hundred hertz. Low frequency absorption depends on thickness and air gap, and no thin panel of any brand changes that.
- If your room sounds boomy, uneven or has notes that disappear, this kit will not fix it. That is modal behaviour and it needs corner traps and depth.
- At around $450 it is considerably more expensive than the equivalent area of rigid mineral wool or fibreglass board bought loose.
- The Scatter Blocks are small. Real diffusion needs depth measured against the wavelength involved, so treat them as surface breakup rather than as diffusers.
- Nothing in the kit is a substitute for measuring your own room and putting absorption where the reflections actually are.
What owners report
Published owner reviews are consistently positive about build quality, finish and the mounting system, and consistently mixed about how much difference the kit makes. The pattern in the mixed reports is easy to read: owners who bought it to fix a harsh, echoey recording space are pleased, and owners who bought it to fix boomy low end are not. Both outcomes are exactly what the physics predicts.
Absorption is a thickness problem. A panel absorbs efficiently down to roughly the frequency whose quarter wavelength matches its depth, which is why a panel that works beautifully at 1 kHz does almost nothing at 80 Hz. That is not a criticism of Primacoustic, it applies to every thin panel sold. It is the reason the corner is where the money goes first: every axial mode in the room has a pressure maximum in the corners, so a trap there works on all of them at once.
Do this before you order
Run your room dimensions through the room mode calculator and the acoustic treatment calculator. Between them they tell you whether your problem is modal, in which case you need depth in the corners, or reflective, in which case a kit like this is the right purchase. Read acoustic treatment versus soundproofing too, because the most common expensive mistake in a home studio is buying one when you needed the other. Neither absorption nor scattering makes a room quieter from the outside.
If the answer comes back modal, foam bass traps versus broadband panels covers what actually works in a corner, and Rockwool versus Owens Corning 703 covers the DIY route that gets you far more absorption per dollar if you are willing to build frames. The tradeoff is real: the kit costs more and looks finished, the DIY route costs less and looks like what you built.
Who it suits
- Rooms where the complaint is flutter echo, harshness or recordings that sound small and hard.
- Shared or visible spaces where a foam covered wall is not acceptable.
- Anyone who wants a coherent kit with mounting hardware rather than sourcing panels and clips separately.
- Someone treating a room they do not own and needs a tidy, removable installation.
Who should skip it
- Anyone whose complaint is boomy bass or notes that vanish at certain positions. That needs corner absorption with real depth.
- Anyone hoping to stop sound leaving or entering the room, which requires mass and sealing, not absorption.
- Budget builds, where the same money in rigid mineral wool and simple frames covers far more wall area.
- Rooms that have had no measurement or mirror check yet, because panels in the wrong places are decoration.
Alternatives worth considering
Auralex LENRD Bass Traps, Pack of 2
~$107
Corner traps address room modes, which is the problem most home studios actually have and the one wall panels cannot touch. If you only have money for one purchase, corner absorption changes more than first reflection panels do.
Check price on AmazonRockwool Rockboard 60 Mineral Wool Rigid Insulation, 2 Inch, 4 Pack
~$123
Rigid mineral wool is the material inside most commercial panels. Building your own frames takes a weekend and gets you several times the absorbing area for the same money, with the option of a deeper air gap that extends the useful range downward.
Check price on AmazonATS Acoustics Sound Absorbing Acoustic Panel, 24 x 48 x 2 Inch
~$80
Two inch fibreglass panels bought individually let you cover the reflection points you actually found with a mirror, rather than paying for a kit layout that may not match your room.
Check price on AmazonKeep reading
- Acoustic treatment vs soundproofing
- Foam bass traps vs broadband panels
- Acoustic treatment calculator
- Room mode calculator
- Best acoustic treatment panels
- How to treat a room for recording
This review draws on published specifications, manufacturer figures and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We have not tested this product ourselves, and we say so rather than implying otherwise. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Frequently asked questions
Will the Primacoustic London 8 fix boomy bass?
No, and this is the most important thing to know before ordering. Thin wall panels absorb efficiently in the midrange and high frequencies and do very little at the frequencies that make a room boom. Boominess is modal behaviour, and it is treated with depth in the corners where every mode has a pressure maximum. Run the room mode calculator first: if your problem is modal, corner traps come before wall panels.
Is a room kit better than buying panels separately?
It is tidier and more expensive. A kit gives you a coherent layout, matching finish and the mounting hardware in one order, which has real value in a room that other people see. Buying panels individually or building your own from rigid mineral wool gets you more absorbing area per dollar and lets you put coverage exactly where a mirror check says the reflections are.
Does acoustic treatment make a room quieter for the neighbours?
No. Absorption changes how sound behaves inside the room and does essentially nothing about sound passing through walls, floors and doors. Blocking sound needs mass, sealing and decoupling, which is a construction problem rather than a panel problem. The treatment versus soundproofing comparison sets out which one solves which complaint, and it is the mistake that wastes the most money in home studios.
Where do the panels go?
At the first reflection points, found with a mirror. Sit in your normal listening position, have someone slide a mirror along the side wall, and mark every spot where you can see a speaker in it. Repeat for the ceiling and the wall behind the speakers. Those points are where absorption changes the stereo image most. The acoustic treatment calculator works out how much total coverage the room needs.
Are Scatter Blocks real diffusers?
Not in the strict sense. Genuine diffusion requires depth on the scale of the wavelengths being scattered, which is why proper diffusers are large and deep. Scatter Blocks break up flutter echo and stop a wall behaving as a single flat mirror, which is useful, and they should be understood as surface treatment rather than as engineered diffusion.
Working out your own room and signal chain? The Home Studio Build Planner is the paid version of these pages: 8 printable worksheets you fill in with your own numbers, plus the full PDF, $29.