A flame retardant nonwoven fabric for sound absorption, using para-aramid fibre and polyester fibre as a substitute for conventional materials (such as glass wool, flame retardant foam and flame retardant polyester fibre) was investigated. A combination of nonwoven fabric and paper was studied, and the resulting sound absorption qualities and sound permeation loss were compared. By attaching para- aramid paper with less than 30cc/sec/cm(2) of permeability to nonwoven fabric, the sound absorption performance at over 2000 Hz was better than that of glass wool. We named this material " Flame Retardant Nonwoven Fabric for Sound Absorption" RUBA (R). (c) 2005 Springer Science+ Business Media, Inc.