Sound absorbing materials are used in building to dissipate sound energy into heat by viscous and thermal processes. Sound absorbers increase the transmission loss of walls, decrease the reverberation time of rooms and attenuate the noise generated by internal sound sources. Porous absorbers (fibrous, cellular or granular) are the most used materials in noise control applications, since their high performance-to-cost ratio in the frequency band of interest. However, when cleaning and health reasons are of concern, microperforated panel (MPP) absorbers can be preferred. MPPs, consisting of many minute (sub-millimetric) holes in a panel, are tunable absorbers in a prescribed frequency band, which main shortcomings are high manufacturing cost and limited absorption frequency band. Production cost of MPP can nowadays be drastically cut down by means of modern techniques. Absorption frequency band can be considerably enlarged by designing multiple-layer MPPs (ML-MPPs). The aim of this article is to review the high potential of ML-MPPs as a modern, clean and healthy alternative of porous materials for sound absorption.