Need Help Designing a Dream Room

Ozfly, there are two completely different issues being discussed. Reflection treatment and good building procedures. The two do effect each other, but flimsy construction is not the correct way to control overly dynamic or flashy musical reproduction.

Light weight construction allows various materials to move and vibrate, competing with your speakers. This not only effects bandwidth, but the solidity of the imaging and soundstage as well.

Secure, solid walls will reinforce bass frequencies rather than allowing them to "pass through" to other areas. If the bass is too much with good solid walls, bass traps are the proper cure, not transparent walls.

I plan on building my room as solid as possible, and then treat the interior walls with several acoustic materials. Below are two sites that provide some of the material I plan to use on the ceiling and the two long walls. This is in addition to RPG panels, Tube Traps and mechanical isolation devices.

If you consider that using the Whisper Walls treatment, you can avoid the expense of tape, bed, texture and paint. Removing the contractors expenses for these materials will offset the expense of this acoustic treatment. These materials are designed specifically to improve listening. Again, best of luck.

http://www.owenscorning.com/around/sound/acoustic.html

http://www.soundcontrol.com/whisper.htm

Lots of good advice here already, but as I quickly scanned it I didn't see anyone advising you to read books by F. Alton Everest, "Master Handbook of Acoustics" 4th edition, and especially "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget". The latter book has tons of useful sound treatment information and ideas for construction too. He and Robert Harley agree that nonparallel walls, while they achieve their goal, are not the only, or even the best, way to achieve that goal. Since the bad effects of parallel walls are quite easy to eliminate by inside wall treatment, I wouldn't contemplate that mode of construction, which I wouldn't trust many contractors to pull off. Good luck!

ozlfly: i quite agree with albert about the importance of a sound foundation (pun intended) before applying acoustic treatment. two of the best rooms i've listened in have quite different foundations. the first applied construction much as albert has suggested but uses dual stud walls; this system employs room-within-a-room construction with two 2x6 decoupled stud walls, each covered with double thicknesses of 5/8" drywall and each wall lined with acoustic dacron "insulation." a 2" air void between the walls adds to the sound isolation in both directions. the second "foundation" is comprised of brick laid inside two-foot thick stone exterior walls (not practical, agreed, unless you've bought a cottage in the cotswolds). check out the chord audio listening room (in kent, england--no, not the cotswolds) for an example of a "brick interior" sound room:

http://195.40.133.90/website/main-gallery.htm.

i particulaly like the way the ceiling is treated. don’t know how it sounds but it sure as hell looks great. again, have fun, you lucky..... :^} -kelly

Kelly, I regret that I cannot apply one of these more complete solutions in room acoustics to my own space.

I have no doubt they are more advanced than what I have planned, but I believe the improvements I outlined will make a tremendous difference. The key word here is affordable. The people who are doing my acoustic did the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center here in Dallas. Obviously, my budget is poor compared to that masterpiece. Still, the acoustic work ( beyond the mechanical work outlined in my post) , will run another $15,000.00.

It would be nice to be able to do everything just perfect, and I would if budget permitted. I am certain that room construction and acoustics play as big a role in musical reproduction as the hardware we audiophiles pile in after the fact.

It is certainly less expensive to get the room right than spending for equipment in a never ending attempt to apply a band aid to the situation later.

Here is a link to an article by RE Greene with some formulas for bass frequency reflections within a room:

http://www.avguide.com/how_to/index.html

You lucky dog. Charlie