An acoustically treated structurally reinforced sound absorbing panel having particular application for use at the inlet cowl of a jet engine to reduce engine noise leaked into the environment. The sound absorbing panel includes a sound receiving chamber having a honeycomb shaped core manufactured from corrugated metallic ribbons. The sound receiving chamber is sandwiched between a metallic backskin at one side thereof, and a metallic face sheet at the opposite side. The face sheet is perforated so that incoming sound waves which represent the engine noise enter the sound receiving chamber within which they are channeled towards and reflected between the metallic backskin and face sheet. An acoustic attenuation medium having a plurality of short metal fibers that are held together by a sintering process is diffusion bonded to the perforated face sheet so that the reflected sound waves which are channeled through the sound receiving chamber are transmitted through and attenuated by the acoustic attenuation medium.