Sound proofing listening room

The suggestions for fiberglass insulation between the floor joists is the first step. The next would be to decouple the floor joists from the acoustic space of the basement. This could be done in the same way that an offset or staggered stud wall would be constucted. In other words you don't want sound to hit the ceiling of the basement and then transmit into the floor joists (and upstairs floor) therby making it's way upstairs. You could do this by adding additional framing (not directly connected to the floor joists), using specialty metal decoupling strips or rubber isolators. Both ASC (1-800-ASC-TUBE) and Owens Corning make products specifically for this purpose. Of course this requires a layer of sheetrock to be installed-this is the only way to really get the results you desire. Avoid "drop" ceiling acoustical tiles in your application.

Todd you may never be able to completely get rid of the noise causing the complaints. A double ceiling may help? Alternatively you may want to look into eliminating the source of the complaints? (I doubt the Dr. Baker would be very interested in crochet). If I was relegated to the basement for my listening, hmmm...

Several interesting products and acoustic isolation ideas are available at "foamorder.com". Neoprene sheeting, acoustic foam, etc. Good luck.

This is EXACTLY my situation/problem too. As an added level of difficulty I have ductwork to contend with. And if you add all this in I will be lucky to have 7 feet of ceiling height to play with, how about you? I plan (so far) to insulate between the existing floor joists. BEFORE I do that I might spray the whole underside of the floor with some type of sound deading material (like the kind they use in cars) Then I plan on building a "room within a room" totally decoupled and not touching anything besides the concrete. Insulate that as well. Then a double layer of 5/8" sheetrock (alternating seams) I am also looking into either a double door or a sound proof door. After all that is done then I plan on treating the remaining space so it will sound the best that it can. Any thoughts?

Philefreak lets keep in touch and share pointers. This is a project that WILL get done this fall before I go insane not being able to enjoy my music at volumes that even begin to do it justice. I am interested in hearing what you plan on doing.

Regards,

Joel

I live in a concrete bunker and have the walls covered with insulation and drop carpet on top of that.The tile floors in front of the speaker have a massive oriental rug,and my ceiling has 4 in. of foam,while I have cought flack from other members on this aproach ,the foam adds a bit of life.
This has been very inexpensive room correction.
steve