Listening room in Attic or Living room???

hello do you really need to park your car or cars in your garage? If not convert your garage into your music room.

My basic question before I consider remodeling the Attic space is whether the low, sloping attic ceiling/walls can be treated acoustically to obtain an ideal listening environment. My best quess is that the finished room would have a 7 foot ceiling height but sloping side walls 6 feet at top then and additional 6 ft to the three foot high vertical part of the side walls. So the effectve room dimensions would be about 12 feet wide by 17 feet long. The listening position would be in the long room dimension. Does anyone have any experience with the acoustics of an attic room with sloping side walls? Is this a terrible situation which I should abandon in favor of a basement room with regular walls or stick with an open living room with one side wall out?

go with the basement

FWIW, I have my listening room in my attic area. It is totally 400 sq. ft. & the listening area is 19' X 17'. There is a little alcove about 11' X 7' that I share w/ my wife - this her hobby area right next to window where she needs more light for sketching, painting, stitching, etc. We mutually agreed that we did not want my "ugly" speakers (no matter which brand they are, they are misfits in her living room as a living room, according to her, is traditionally devoid of speakers) in the living room. I was happy w/ that decision 'cuz I would be able to control what goes & what does not go onto the walls for the best acoustics. So, now, we are both happy - she has her living room furnished just as she wants & I have listening room w/ all the acoustic treatments I need!

My attic room has "coffered" ceilings - straight wall for 6'3" & then slopes upwards to the ceiling for 2-2.5'. Ceiling height is 9' in the listening area & 8' in my wife's area (due to the roof sloping down). I own Green Mountain speakers & from Roy Johnson's user manual, "coffered" ceilings are one of the best to have sound-wise. It helps to "throw" back the sound into the room + there is much less parallel walls so the room effects are less intense. My acoustic treatments are several ASC tube traps only. No panels on the walls. The sound in this room is explemplary, if I may say so. Many friends have come over & exclaimed the same. I did not know what this coffered ceiling was going to do to the sound when I 1st began (but I had no choice) but now, I prefer it!

I disagree w/ the others re. consulting Rives. They are not worth your hard-earned dollars, IMO. Of course, the decision & money is yours & you can still choose to use them. What you really need is to get hold of some room measurement software (ETF or that German software touted in Stereophile), a mic & your computer. This can very easily do the job w/ infinitly less money than Rives. Apply some common sense, do a lot of research on which building materials are best for sound. There is a book on acoustics available at Amazon.com or Barnes & Nobles that talks ad nauseum on building a room for best acoustics. Get a hold of this book. If you are lazy, you can call Rives to do your job (& pay them some astronomical fees!).

IMO, if YOU want good sound, YOU better know what it takes to get it! If somebody else does the work for you, YOU will never learn. YOU need to train your ears to ascertain the weaknesses & strong points of your system (& others) so that YOU can grow as an audiophile. Of course, this is just my opinion. YMMV.

BTW, just checked my notes: the book I'm referring to is called "The Master Handbook of Acoustics"- by Everest. My notes also inform me that partsexpress.com has the best price on it.
Just FYI. FWIW.