room design help

Using the "golden ratio" for room dimensions seems quite popular and I feel it has merit. It is 1 : 1.618. Also, I want to add that IMO it shouldn't be a very large room. A large room looks nice and impresses friends but it eats up a ton of power and requires big speakers, both of which limit your equipment options substantially. My future room will be 14x22 and no more.

A local hifi friend of mine has experimented a HUGE amount with room treatments and he has settled on DIY Corning 703 absorbers. You can buy it for about $10/lbs direct from a Corning distributor (check you yellow pages) and it does seem to work very well. I am going to make some bass traps for my system soon this way. Good luck! Arthur

I built a new house a few years ago and had real fun doing a dedicated audio room.

Dimensions are 20w x 30l and 15ft ceiling. Lots of places can give you 'ideal' dimensions for any size room.

Best thing I did was put the room on the ground floor with a poured concrete floor and radiant heating (no sound of heat system, no baseboard etc.) under carpet. I did not put in a baffling system for the air conditioner; on the other hand I don't spend a lot of time indoors with the system in the heat of summer. When the ac is on in summer I do have some increased background noise. Oh well.

I also used 3/4" wall board. I used standard spacing 16" on the frame but have since heard from folks who used a 12" spacing claiming better results.

I did not put in sound proof windows. My builder felt I might not need them and I think he was correct. I do have one window near my a/c compressors which might benefit but I doubt I'll do it (never say never)

I also put in a dedicated a/c panel, hubble outlets and lines. I did not use any fancy in wall wiring (budget consideration). Lighting is all separate from audio. This was a very good idea. System is dead quiet, no hum, no hiss, no line noise... you get the idea.

As you are a carpenter you might think about integrating room treatment into your design. This is one thing I will do the next time I build a house. :)

You might want to contact Rives Audio (www.rivesaudio.com) for assistance. Consulting with a sound engineering firm like this is another thing I think I would do differently.

Live and learn.

One final thing: the doorway between your audio room and house is a critical choice. I lucked out finding a huge double door at a salvage sale. A poor choice here will be heard! (pun intended)

Have fun!

hints for ceiling, floor and wall treatments - Auralex.com.

Also - search the archives. There's lots on this subject.