I live in a 70s apartment building in Milan and I hear a ton of noise from my neighbors, especially in the evenings. I was thinking about putting acoustic panels on the walls before painting, but I'm not sure if they actually make a difference or if it's just a waste of money. Does anyone have direct experience with these panels?
Double drywall with an air gap and rock wool inside really does make a difference, whereas panels alone are pretty much useless in a situation like yours. In my case I had to deal with a similar problem and I figured out that what actually matters isn't absorption (panels do that fine), but sound blocking, which requires mass and thickness. If you add double drywall to your main perimeter walls you'll spend a bit more and lose a few centimeters of space, but you'll significantly cut down the noise from neighbors, especially the bass which is the most annoying thing in the evening.
Polyurethane or melamine panels work better if you put something heavy behind them (drywall, rock wool), otherwise they only absorb high frequencies and the bass goes right through. In a 1970s building with thin walls, the real problem is that noise comes from shared structures, so panels alone won't solve much - you'd be better off sealing the front door (drafts and cracks let a ton of sound through) and maybe adding a thick rug or heavy curtains, which cost way less. If you really want to do a decent job, consider putting rock wool between the panel and the wall, because just the panel risks being a total waste of money.
The real challenge with spaces like yours is that neighbor noise comes through mainly via the walls, and here thin panels alone don't do much. Whoever told you to add mass behind them is right, but here's the part people often underestimate: panels absorb sound that bounces *inside* your room, they don't block it when it comes from outside. That's a huge difference. If you're hearing the bass from their stereo or heavy footsteps, what you need is to break the direct connection between the wall and the inside of your room, not just cover it with foam.
The system that actually works involves a layer of insulation (mineral wool, thick cork), followed by a heavy layer like drywall, and then an air gap between that and the original wall. Decorative acoustic panels, honestly, you add those afterward if you want to improve the internal acoustics - to reduce echoes and reverb in the room itself. But on their own on the wall, even if they look good, they don't stop noise from the building next door.
What worries me in your case, given that you're in a 70s building, is that before doing any work you should check the wall condition. If there's rising damp or condensation issues, adding insulation layers can make things worse by trapping moisture. It's worth doing a quick inspection first, maybe with a flashlight. And if you decide to do real acoustic insulation, do it on at least a whole wall: doing half a wall creates weird sound behavior that can end up being more annoying than before.
On the perimeter walls of such an old building, it's complicated. The noise you hear from neighbors travels mostly through the structure, not just through the air, so standard acoustic panels you hang on or mount to the wall do little if they stay thin. Anyone who suggests adding mass behind them (drywall, rockwool) is right, but then the expense goes up and you eat into your interior space.
What really matters in a situation like yours is creating a true mass-air-mass barrier. If you want tangible results, you'll need to think about a double wall with an air gap, fibrous insulation (rockwool or similar) and at least two layers of drywall. Without this construction, even the most expensive panels won't stop the low end ranging from 50 to 200 Hz - which is exactly what bugs you in the evening (voices, music, TV).
It depends on your budget and how much the noise bothers you. If you're thinking of a light, minimally invasive solution, panels alone are mostly placebo. If instead you're willing to redo a wall (at least the most exposed one), then yeah, you'll hear the difference. In between those two, there's not much middle ground.
What the others are saying is true. I'm in a similar situation to yours, and I did a lot of research before spending money on this. The key thing is that neighbor noise in an old building like yours comes through both the air and the structure itself, so putting a decorative acoustic panel on the wall doesn't stop anything significant. It only dampens echoes inside the room, it doesn't actually isolate you from outside noise.
If you really want to do something useful, you need to think about building a room within a room, with multiple layers: drywall, an air gap, heavy insulation material like rockwool, maybe drywall again. It's a serious expense though, and it eats into your space. A simpler alternative is to seal all the cracks properly, the outlets and the gaps around your windows, because noise gets in that way too. And the windows themselves: if they're the original ones from the 70s, replacing them with double-glazing would make a noticeable difference just on its own.
The panels you find in online stores, those decorative acoustic absorbers, won't actually solve your neighbor noise problem. They're really more useful if you want to improve the room's acoustics for listening to music or watching movies properly. If your goal is to isolate from outside noise, spending that money on panels without doing everything else is just throwing money away.
It depends on how much you're willing to spend and how much the noise really bothers you. If you're just talking about acoustic panels stuck to the walls, honestly it's a waste of money - structural noise from neighbors in a 70s apartment building travels through walls and floors, those little panels won't do anything about it. It only makes sense if you do a proper job like adding a double wall with drywall and dense material behind it, but then you're talking serious money and you're also losing space. Maybe before you invest that much, try the cheaper solutions first: thick carpets, full bookshelves against the shared walls, heavy acoustic curtains. If even that's not enough, then you think about more serious work.
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