The acoustic performance of a new type of fibre-less sound absorber, the Micro-Grooved Element (MGE), is studied in this paper. The transfer impedance and the absorption coefficient of micro-grooved and Micro-Perforated Elements (MPEs) are measured, modelled and compared.A MGE is a double layer element that involves inlet/outlet slots and facing micro-channels engraved onto the mating surface of the layers. The main advantage of these elements is that, by means of a simple technological process, thin micro-channels with depth of less then 100µm can be easily engraved. This allows the MGEs exhibiting higher absorption coefficients compared to traditional MPEs with 300−700µm diameter of perforations. Moreover, due to the presence of surfaces surrounding the micro-channels, the MGEs show reduced resistance when exposed to high level of sound excitation. In this perspective, the performance of a MGE is more stable than the one of a MPE provided with the same porosity.A number of different MGEs with varied internal geometries has been tested at different excitation levels. The acoustics of the micro-channels is treated in details, the impedance end corrections are determined and the non-linear effects are accounted for. The linear behaviour of MGEs is described by adapting the models for slit-shaped perforated elements (SSEs). The quasi-and non-linear behaviours are expressed as a function of the Shear number and Strouhal number by curve fitting the experimental results.