2. misc-audio
  3. 167058-139155

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
russ69's avatar
russ69
3,474 posts
 
Electrical outlets, lots of electrical outlets. 
Post removed 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,746 posts
 
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.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
8ft is fine. At 9ft the other dimensions are exact or very close multiples of 9. It is best to avoid dimensions that are the same or multiples of each other. There are always room modes but they are much worse when dimensions are exact multiples. 8x16x24 for example, if you could make it 9 that would be better. In your case making it 9 would make it worse.

If you want to spend money the sky's the limit. If you want to save money for where it will really matter, the single most cost-effective thing you can do by far is use 5/8" instead of 1/2" sheetrock. This costs almost nothing more, but blocks sound an additional 16dB. Walls framed with different studs to inner and outer walls can get you down around -20dB. 

You can go all-out and bring it down to recording studio levels. If you want to spend as much on this one room as the rest of your house. Or you can do the super effective but inexpensive. Highly recommend super cheap. Because what happens, there is a background level when you get quiet enough any tiny little thing you notice- and it doesn't blend into the background any more because there is no background any more. So it stands out. You would never notice the noise coming around the tiny little e gap under your solid core door until the weather-stripping leaves only that tiny little place for noise to come in.

You definitely want the solid core door. With weather-stripping. Either an exterior door, or an acoustic door which will be basically the same only maybe have the seal at the bottom which could be nice. Run one 20A line for the system. Run another for lights and spare outlets.


russ69's avatar
russ69
3,474 posts
 
"...the garage as 18 outlets in it..."

Grow house.
More to discover