New House: Audio room/Office


In my current house I have a bit of a love/hate, or maybe dislike, relationship with where my stereo system is, in our living room.

What I like is that is it a good size room that is very open. (I also like to mute TV a lot while listening to music, though that is another issue that doesn't need addressed here.)

What I dislike is that our living room doesn't look as nice as it could because of the dominance of the stereo system and we (I) work everything around it; I am also restricted in how far I can move my speakers from the back wall, as they are coming too far into the living room.

We are considering building a new home, not because of my stereo. :) In contemplating what we'd like in a new home we have discussed making one room my office and putting my stereo in there; I work from home so I could enjoy my system through the day.

We do not have an unlimited budget so I am concerned of not having enough room and struggling to make the system sound good. At "best" the floor plans we have considered gave me a room of about 15x13, and that slightly modifying the plans we were looking at.

I would love to hear tips, advice and thoughts on this. It would be very unfortunate to plan on this and then be unhappy.
brianmgrarcom
Setting up a listening/audio/office room in a new house is certainly a viable thing to do. I did just that when our current house was built (check out my system listing here on Agon).

My solution was for the office (12X12) to house the equipment and run in-wall wires from there to 4 other rooms of the house (including outdoor deck)during construction so I have 5 rooms to chose from total when I want to listen.

I also keep a complete second lesser but more WAF-oriented system in the main family room that can tickle my fancy as well (see photo of this in my system listing also).

I also had the office made more soundproof so as to be able to play louder there at night without disturbing anyone. To do this, the builder insulated the inside of the walls and ceiling during construction and I used a solid wood door rather than the typical grade hollow ones most builders use by default.

It has worked well. I have 5 rooms I can listen in as needed by simply putting in speakers to fit each room. There is always a place where I can go to listen regardless of what all the family might have going on in the house and it makes for a nice variety of listening environments to chose from in general as well.

If I did it again, I might go for a slightly larger office if possible, but I have a much larger room right outside the office I can mix in that helps compensate.
Robert, 10x12 is a common room size in plans. It is great you made it work. In thinking on this, in light of some of Newbee's comments, I beleive I need to make it so there is no wall behind me, simply open to the rest of the house.

Newbee, moving the speakers in and out isn't an option for me; I agree it would be nice to get the components from between the speakers, but it can be costly. Thanks
Think about building an acoustical isolated closet to put the equipment in, especially if a turntable is in the picture.
What a nice looking home. I really like that log cabin style. Good luck with the new place.