Limitations on validating slitted sound absorber designs through budget additive manufacturing

•Slitted sound absorbers have primitive yet acoustically absorptive structure.•Samples composed just of inclined slits cannot be measured in an impedance tube.•Perforation and zigzags open up an inclined slit network of a cylindrical sample.•Absorption predictions are compared with measurements made on 3D printed samples.•Budget additive manufacturing yields geometrical imperfections in the samples.