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Advice on dedicated room

Hi everyone ,

I am going to start building my dedicated listening room in the basement soon and need some input. My ceiling is just under 8’ so would 2x4s be adequate for strength or would 2x6 be better? Second , I read an article where Robert Harley was building a new room and used the ISO wall system from acoustic sciences and was wondering if anyone here has used it and liked it. I will at the least use 2 layers of drywall and green glue. Lastly my space available is 15’x16 1/2’. I know that is too square and I can shorten the 15’ direction if needed but if we’re to put a 45 degree angle on two corners ( one corner is needed for access to another area) would that negate the “too square” aspect? Thanks for your input 
ronboco
chorus
976 posts
 
When the OP says 'I am going to start building...' I take it to mean he is at the stud stage with pretty much all options open.

Moving might be best but lets assume that is not an option. 


Is there are reason that both side walls can not be tapered in at the speaker end? Or will the speakers wall be on the shorter of the two walls?

The ceiling could also be tapered for additional asymmetry. 

Get your dedicated lines installed now too.
ronboco OP
840 posts
 
@ chorus 

I have concrete on three sides with the two opposite concrete walls probably extending out an undetermined amount. I haven’t started anything yet so all options are open. I have a dedicated sub panel that serves the main floor home theatre that I will also use for the 2 channel room.  
@sensesundertime 
I consulted with one company that I believe was going to design Helmholtz in the room. I didn’t go with them because they said it would cost 50k when done. Far too much for me but I will still look into it. Thanks 
hleeid
219 posts
 
Agree 100% with millercarbon:

This small a room will also make it more important than ever that you use a distributed bass array and Townshend Podiums and Pods for isolation. The DBA will make your small room sound huge, and isolation will greatly diminish the rooms impact on the sound by energizing it less. Money spent on these will far outweigh a lot of much more expensive acoustic treatment.

I have had nothing but excellent results with a DBA in 4 different rooms (two of them smaller than yours).
Though I have yet to try isolation podiums or pods, I also got great results isolating with springs under each of my mains and also under each of my 4 subwoofers.

@artemus_5 +1:

Or set up the system in the corner facing diagonally into the room and leave the size as is.
I have a 15’ x 15’ exact square room set up very similar to figure 2 at: DECWARE - Article about Setting up a Listening Room without Treatments
If not for experimenting with this diagonal placement, I probably would have given up on the room.
Very noticeable improvement over anything I tried regarding "traditional" speaker placement.

Lots of great advice in this thread.
Great thread too! I’m sure a lot will benefit from the many great contributions.

OP - Best of luck to you on this journey!


clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
We are all agreed you need to make the room more oblong.

Why not build a separate storeroom on one side for records, books, equipment, whatever.
Build about 5-6 feet wide reducing the 16.5ft dimension.
Clear all the crap out of your room.
I did this when I built my room.  I have art on the walls in place of loads of LP racks and a great open feel.
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