Building a New Listening Room on a Budget

I was really... really lucky when we bought our house... I accidentally chose a house with a near perfect listening area. My high audio guy says he has never heard one as good... and he has decades of experience installing many $200K systems. So, let me tell you what I think are some of the features which helped it.
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First it is a daylight basement. The room is not a room but an area within a large area of an open plan and the system is set up against a wall that behind it is underground and is a solid concrete... dead silent. Also twenty five feet or so, left or right it is also underground... Dead silent. The downstairs is a sprawling Z shape with the audio system in the center of the Z.  Isolation is created by it being down stairs and the living area is upstairs. The center audio area is 25’ by 35". Behind me is my library... open passage 15’ wide...then goes off another 15’ feet away from the audio room. To my left in the center is a hallway away to a couple other rooms. The space is rife with bump outs (bar... closet under stair)... only the wall with the speakers is straight. The ceiling is 8’ or whatever is standard. Above my seated head is a lowering of the ceiling by a foot... perhaps for the air conditioning... it is finished. I am not saying this to help you duplicate it. But that the key is quiet and asymmetry in all places except the fromt wall.
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Also, my partner is disabled and has real sleeping problems. The bedroom is upstairs and on the other end of the house, so I can turn my system to any volume and it does not ever wake her.
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Carpeted floor. I think the behind me being open and a long way to the back outside wall is an asset as no reflection.

Put dedicated lines on all three walls near your expected system location. You are sure to decide to move it at some point. It is really cheap to do now. If you are sure... put two outlets. Make sure the electrician wires them on adjacent breakers... putting them in adjacent breaker boxes can cause a ground loop between the outlets.
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If this site has PM. I’ll be happy to send you some photos, them may make it easier to understand.
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If I was building a room, and didn’t know better... I would have built a "room".. but a sprawling area is much better!

10K, or WAY less, I’d say. 1 20 amp dedicated and an outlet every 4 feet @ least two different circuits on the SAME rail at the mains.. Three total 1 20 dedicated..

I’m not much of a studio look kind of guy.. I use HEAVY retractable curtains and I’m working on Spring bass traps.. Mainly to cut down on the studio look of clutter. I would stay away from foams most of them are OK at best acoustically. Square traps are the better of that type of bass trap..

Sure nice when a plan comes together. 35 year on mine, I’m just now able to finish the work after adding 4 rooms AFTER work.. Very little help.. Just me my hammer my saw...NO NAIL GUNS either. Double dip galvanized nails too.

Sheet rock was 5/8 fire rock on the lids and 1/2 on the 2 x 6" wall studs.. I had help on the lids a kid help me.. Everything else I bucked up.. I was a BIG guy back then. I worked in the nude too.. Just a nail pouch and work boots..:-)

I glued and nailed the T&G 3/4 ply too, NO NOISE in that room..

The second room has a built in 128CF bass traps on one end of the room.. I’m droolin’ to finish that one.. open the traps and WALA perfect room almost.. lol It’s also my indoor work shop too..
GEAR everywhere. :-)

Enjoy..

On that kind of budget I would do only the few things that make a huge improvement for almost no additional cost: 

IF you sheetrock anything, 5/8" blocks sound about 15dB better than 1/2" but costs almost nothing more.  
Use a solid core exterior type door. You can buy architecturally designed interior doors made for sound abatement, but they can cost a small fortune and be hardly any better than an ordinary solid core or exterior door. The exterior part matters because you want weather stripping. This one thing right here costs very little but makes a huge difference. 

ONE SINGLE 20A line.

That's it. The only construction I would do is if your layout makes it cheap and effective to add an interior wall for sound control. The space between could then become a bass trap. But you have to find someone who understands acoustics and balance that with your floor plan and use.  

Honestly from everything I have seen going from planning to construction and then ongoing system improvement, I know everyone loves to go on and on about the room but my experience is you get a lot more bang for your buck from things like Synergistic HFT, Townshend Podiums, Cable Elevators, and wire, than anything you can do to a room for the same amount of money. 

So not saying don't spend money on the room. Those few things I mentioned are huge. Mega. But anything beyond that, if it means not having money to do these other tweaks, then you have shot yourself in the foot, committed own goal, and put the cart before the horse.

Thanks to all for your responses.  Very helpful!
Ruminating on a few things:
- Stupid question:  Can 15A components be plugged into 20A outlets without a power manager?  I have a Niagara 7000 and know that it is fine with 20A or 15A, just not sure about plugging in directly to these outlets.
- The room is in the basement, partially underground.  Two walls are outside walls, brick covered with studs and drywall.  One of these walls will have an egress window, the other will have only dirt behind it.  The other two walls will be barriers between inside rooms of the house, one of them being our family room, and the other being the utilities room.  I'm thinking to insulate both of these walls with rolled insulation.  I could spray foam them at higher cost but wondering if it would have any benefits?  Ceiling will also have rolled insulation unless I hear of a better way.  BTW, above this room is the walk-in closet of our master BR.  I do not want my wife to complain about the noise at night.  At least it's not directly below the sleeping area but we all know how annoying it can be to deal with noisy neighbors in apartment settings.  That low rumble that persists.  Don't want that.
- 5/8" rock is a great suggestion.  I already requested this with the builder.  Sheetrock guys will probably curse me.  
- In my current room I have the equipment rack to the side of the speakers rather than between them.  I have heard this produces better sound but not sure I can attest to this.  I do have the option of running it this way in the new room as my speaker cables are 16 feet long.  Not sure if this is important to consider but thought I would elaborate.

Thank you!

Peter

A lot of good tips mentioned here I wished I knew before I got started on my room on a budget. I particularly like the idea of using thicker insulation, carpeted flooring, the 5/8" sheetrock is a great suggestion, run plenty of cables, use a more insulated heavy duty door with foam seal all around to keep more sound in. For the walls, if you can meet the ceiling at a 45 degree angle it would eliminate a lot of in room corners that is usually responsible for excessive bass.
Wall treatment is a must in a dedicated room! more parallel walls to deal with than in conventional living rooms. Stay away from acoustic foam or use very sparingly, a dead sounding room is the last thing you want.