I don't know the background behind this, but in the lower left is an illustration of 'passive porosity'.
I agree that perf metal might work well, but the acoustics could be problematic.
Edit: OK, Google knows about 'passive porosity:
https://archive.org/stream/nasa_tech...ge/n7/mode/2up
http://www.google.com/patents/US6616218
It even points back to where I found the chart:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post391013