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
Dweller, regarding your comment about laying tile.  I have carpet over plywood subfloor, and it really absorbs the 60-90 Hz region.  That range is down about 12 dB at its max.  I've thought about pulling up the carpeting, putting down ceramic tile over the subfloor, then using rugs over the ceramic tile as needed.  Do you know if  ceramic tile is a good choice or is something else better for the purpose of reflecting bass frequencies?  Do you know of any published references on flooring for listening rooms?
@brownsfan - Sorry I don't have expert info in this area. All I know is my friend had no bass in his room with a plywood floor and a huge cavity underneath. I have profound bass in houses built on a concrete slab. My suggestion for tile is an educated guess but I've got strong feelings it would make a difference.
Dweller, my guess is the same as yours.  I'm guessing that ceramic tile will be more reflective of low frequency information than carpeting over plywood, but I don't really want to run an expensive experiment without supporting data.  If I were to custom build a house, I'd be going with carpeting over a concrete slab.