Sound absorbing materials integrated in design elements are important for room acoustics and sound-oriented interior design. Especially in the lower frequency range, obtaining high sound absorption is challenging and often requires large and expensive absorber elements. In a current research project, a new approach to sound absorbers is investigated. It aims at an efficient, thin and inexpensive solution for absorption in the low-frequency range. The principle of operation is based on membrane absorbers incorporating an increased density of vibrating modes in the front panel. In this study the sound absorption performance of different configurations of membrane absorbers is investigated. Several sets of experiments were conducted in a reverberation chamber. The results show that the absorption performance of the membrane absorbers is highly dependent on the sizes of the back cavities and the front panel materials. An effective solution can be obtained by accurately selecting these parameters.