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Building a listening room from scratch

Hello all,

I am renovating a 19th Century townhouse in a distressed post-industrial town on the Hudson River.

I will have the 20’ x 30’ attic dedicated to my home studio/office and audio listening area. The ceiling has a steep pitch from the 12’ high center towards the 20’ wide walls, which are 3’ high. To make the building perform to a high energy conservation standard, I have lined the walls with 5.5" of rock wool (which has excellent acoustic insulation characteristics), and the ceilings with 14.5" of rock wool. Except for the three windows situated in a gable and two dormers, and my book and record collections and the audio equipment itself, the floor is the only hard surface, of wide-plank wood. My architect says that I should not sheet rock the walls or ceiling, that I should simply cover them with fire-resistant burlap and I will have a semi-anechoic room, similar to recording studios.

What do you think of this idea?

Thank you all,

unreceivedogma
128x128unreceivedogma
whart's avatar
whart
3,047 posts
 
Some of the best sounding rooms I had were in old buildings that didn’t require a lot of treatment, e.g. a large room in an old brownstone in Brooklyn, with wide plank floors and heavy real plaster walls- behind which was lathe and horsehair.
What town are you in? We eventually moved up near Nyack to another old house but are now in Austin, TX (in an old house which is all shiplap planks though the music room has sheetrock- some of the main floor rooms are period recreated wall paper stretched over a muslin like cloth. I have a second system in one of these main floor rooms and it sounds great).
What are the inner wall surfaces (or is it the result of a gut that your architect says don’t sheet rock and simply leave the wall studs in place with the insulation you are describing?
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unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
981 posts
 
It’s a gut rehab. Left the plaster on the brick wall.  Firred in the walls by 5”, filled in with rock wool. 

In Newburgh. 
sisyphus51's avatar
sisyphus51
121 posts
 
Sounds like a nice place, 'dogma.
whart's avatar
whart
3,047 posts
 
I remember you @unrecivedogma. You had an earlier thread about moving your records. You might try what the architect suggests - or other material at some point, since fabric doesn't have to cost a lot and installing it is probably less work and less mess than sheetrock. You could probably come up with an interesting aesthetic using hanging material and could experiment with the acoustics of different materials as well. Last night, we were in a loft apartment here in Austin where the owner, who collected sideshow banners from old circuses, had a massive hanging on one wall. It was very cool. Probably made of canvas, and hand painted many years ago. There is also custom printing on fabrics that you could explore or just 'make some art.' 
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