Need Help Designing a Dream Room

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

albert: i've absolutely no doubt that your sound room will rank among the most sonically pleasing i'll ever get the chance to experience. oh, i did tell you, didn't i, that i'm planning a little trip to dallas to participate in one of your tuesday night get-togethers, just as soon as you've got things all cranked up and dialed in? i have never heard anyone take more care than you in designing and overseeing your new soundspace. ozfly would be wise to emulate you. BTW, where are all those digital pics of the construction process you've taken with that whizz-bang new nikon? -kelly

ps- the chord electronics url in my last post won't work unless you leave the period off "htm" sorry. -fks

Albert, an "rf cage" can only be achieved by doing what is called a "screen room". This is a room that is COMPLETELY covered in a tightly meshed conductive screen that is grounded, much like some "avid" ham radio operators do when building a "ground grid" in the yard around their house. In order for this to work properly, you would have to do the floor, ceiling, all walls, doors, windows, etc... Shielding certain areas between adjoining rooms or the floor above a basement MIGHT help if there were nearby devices producing low level RF, but since RF propogates by "floating", anything less than "blanketing" the room with a some type of ground shunted "shield" is just about useless. The RF will simply "float" around, above, below, etc... the shield and find its' way into the circuitry and wiring. Sean
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My previous floor was Terrazzo, and it's design employed metal strips embedded in the stone as a decorative trim, separating it into large squares. Under this floor was a network of what looked like chicken wire. I assume it was nailed to the original sub structure to provide strength, much like rebar in a foundation pour.

I had a huge problem with a particular radio station getting into my phono. I tried literally everything. Ferrite shields, moving cables, swapping cables, attaching and removing every ground from every piece of equipment. Even running dedicated grounds for the stereo only.

I could pick up this station so clearly that I could make out announcements. Finally, in a test where I went under the house and attached a ground rod to the metal in the floor, the problem was totally eliminated!

I could literally turn the radio station on and off by removing and reattaching this single wire to my floor. No other ground in the system had this effect, nor could they eliminate the problem. This experience leads me to believe that a ground should be attached to ANY metal installed in the floor of a dream room, least it become a nightmare room like I had.

Your definition for a RF cage is probably more accurate than the application I just described, none the less this trick does the job. This should be applied to one's dream room regardless of the name used to describe it's ability to potentially clear RF signals from the music.