Need Help Designing a Dream Room


The company I work for got acquired and I'm moving to the new headquarters in Charlotte. We're having no luck finding an existing home meeting our unusual needs (smaller house since we are almost empty nesters, but big listening room on the first floor), so we're building a new home. Hot dog! I finally get to design a dream room!

I'm not an audio engineer, so all I know (and it might be wrong) is that one should use the 1.618 ratio rule. Therefore, I am planning on a family room which is 11x18x29 (nothing is set though). The floors will be hardwood (my wife, who is generous, gracious and loving enough to go through this process instead of buying a perfectly fine regular house, insists on the flooring). I have very large speakers: Montana KAS's. I love many kinds of music: Jazz, blues, classical and rock.

How should I design this room? Separate electrical box? Dimensions? Materials? Rounded corners? This will open into the kitchen and eating area (separate rooms) so we can enjoy the music there as well. Thanks in advance. I look forward to your advice.
ozfly
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.
Kelly, I did not mean to ignore your comments. If you are serious about a visit, I would be pleased and excited. I am willing to do anything to make this a reality, including finding you accommodations and picking you up at the airport.

On the photography, I have a good number of photos during tear out and reconstruction. These have all been with my new D1X Nikon. The quality is there, but the subject matter is downright ugly. The exposed earth visible in most of my living room makes for a less formal look than I am accustomed to.

I tease with my contractor we need to mop up, and he says the has tried, but he mud just won't come up. It's difficult to maintain a sense of humor crossing this area each morning to make coffee in our kitchen. In the end it will be beautiful, I just need to keep reminding myself.
The good news is that there are a lot of great ideas here. The bad news is that I'll have to spend some serious, but fun, time following up on them and learning. The tricky part will be sharing this with my wonderful wife --- "Remember when we talked about the right room dimensions and corner treatments ... well, there's a little more to it than that ..." Oh well! Thanks for all the great advice. It'll take some time to research it but I'll follow up down the road with an update and would certainly be happy to invite you all to Charlotte for a listen once this is done.

Always happy to get more ideas, so keep them coming.
Albert, thanks for sharing that info. Your results are pretty irregular yet undeniable. I guess that you changed the impedance enough by using your "ground grid" to "detune" / alter the impedance of that area. Not many people would have thought of doing such, so that speaks highly of your creativity and willing to "tweak". Obviously, your results speak for themselves. Sean
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Once again, thanks for all the great advice. My house is now being framed and the job is being supervised by the man who built Billy Graham’s recording studio. First off, I did have to compromise to make this both a listening room and a living room. At the end, it will still be better than I deserve (I hope). Here are the specs:
Dimensions: 32.33 X 20 x 12.08 (the rear wall has a 5’ opening on the left that adds another 23’ to the length and the right wall has an 8’ opening in the center that adds another 18’ to the width). Should I open up the rear wall another foot wider?
Floor: Manufactured support beams 16” on center with no more than an 8’ span. 3/4” super dense (50 year) floor boards nailed and glued. Another 3/4" will be added for hard wood. If there is any give at all, we will screw the floor board to the joists prior to the hard wood installation. Will have large area rugs.
Left Wall: A total of 16’ of glass (six wood and aluminum clad, low e windows) and a stone fireplace in the middle. 2x6 construction, 16” center to center, with stucco on the outside. 5/8” drywall.
All Other Walls: No glass. Offset 2x4 construction on a 2x6 base with each “wall” (inner and outer) built 16” center to center. Insulated. Using 20 gauge hat channel parallel to the floor (debating whether to go 16” or 24” center to center – thoughts on this?) to which a double layer of sheetrock will be screwed. Sheetrock in the room will be 1/2” (vertical) glued and screwed to 5/8” (horizontal) which is joined to the hat channel. Sheetrock on the other side of the wall is 5/8”. Is it worth the money to go to a high STC rating for the 1/2” sheetrock facing the room?
Ceiling: Same as “All Other Walls” in construction. Will also have 3/4" of gypcrete poured over it (not on it directly). The border of the ceiling, all around, is trayed (2’1” drop – 90 degree angle to the wall for 2’, then at a 45 degree angle for another 18” to reach the final height of 12’1”).
Built-in: About 15’6” wide and 8’ tall. Jutting out to 30” deep in the center (48” wide) and then dropping back to 2’ deep for the base unit with shelves above at 1’ deep. Height drops to 7’ in two equal increments from the center unit. All wood with some glass in the middle (is there a less reflective option that lets infrared pass?). My amps will be in the end base units with a mesh in front (rather than a door) and, probably, a remote fan pulling air through 4” vents in the back.
Acoustics: No pressure zone. Standing waves in the 12-105 Hz region (adding an active takes it to 210 Hz). First order standing waves are within 3db at 87 Hz & 140 Hz (plus 227 Hz which should be outside of the region). They are within 6db at 56 Hz, 174 Hz and 197 Hz. These are really good results compared to the calculations done by changing increments on any of the dimensions up to two feet. Using conservative absorption coefficients, reverb times are 1.5 seconds at 125 Hz and between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds between 250 and 4000 Hz. Reflection levels and delay times compute well – though the final proof is in the pudding.
I was not able to slope the ceiling or walls though that would have improved the acoustics (this was one of the design tradeoffs).
Any additional ideas? Comments on my questions (24” vs 16” on the hatchannels and the rear wall opening width)? Electrical design to come – have not yet met with the electrician (will try to stay away from romex, use 10-12 ga wire, use separate grounds). Thanks in advance for your comments or questions.