Most important fundamentals in your built/modded listening room?


Situation: We will be doing a basement renovation soon. At the moment, I don't have a full go-ahead to turn this room into a listening room. The room will be multipurpose for another 4 years (when the last kid goes to college). I am not working with $100k and an architect. This is about laying the groundwork for later adjustments.

Room:
  • The room is a rectangle: 27 ft. x 17 ft. x 8 or 9 ft.
  • (I say 8 or 9 foot ceilings because right now the rafters come down to 8 feet but the floor above is at 9 feet.)
  • Walls are unfinished, the ceiling is unfinished.
  • Two outside walls are concrete.
  • The floor is concrete.

There's a lot of literature out there, including a great article by Harley about building a listening room. https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/building-a-listening-room

But for now, as I said, I'm looking for ways I can PRE-PLAN fundamental elements of the room so that later it can be tweaked even further.

QUESTION: What would you suggest should be done that is fundamental to the build out of the space?
  • Wall construction?
  • Dimension modification (cannot make ceilings higher)
  • Electrical?
  • Other things?
Thanks in advance for your tips!
128x128hilde45
There was a recent article in Stereophile from Kongens Lyngby of Denmark where ceiling height wasn't the biggest concern regarding room modes.  That being said, I would focus on wall, floor and ceiling construction as being as stout as possible including double walls of sheetrock and sealing all cracks and voids.  Electrical should be pretty straightforward with dedicated electrical runs.  I helped my brother build his recording studio and it sounds very good with double wall construction and concrete floors with a floating wood floor above. 
https://www.gossardstudios.com/
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Sheetrock is well-known to be fairly resonant, behaving like a struck drumhead. Go to the website of Acoustic Sciences Corp, and check out their wall-damping and isolation products, particularly Wall Damp.

I've been in a room constructed with the ASC products (the Portland, Oregon music room of Audiogon member folkfreak), and was mighty impressed. Rapping the sheetrock walls with my knuckles produced a faint "tick" sound; a regular sheetrock wall makes a "tonnnk" sound.

Wall Damp installed between two sheetrock panels creates constrained layer damping, greatly reducing the sonic signature of the panels.