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Acoustical Treatments Because the room matters

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  #11  
Old 03-30-2018, 04:42 AM
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Hello!

I'm going through the exact same journey at the moment. I'm custom building a home and right now am designing it from ground up. I am building a 2 channel room. The HT room will be roughed in and I will likely do that later on after I move in.

Room Size: 17 feet wide x 23 feet deep x 10 foot high. Floor will be a concrete slab, and one of the walls will be concrete too (it's in a basement).

The main thing I am going to focus on is soundproofing the room. Not because I care as much about sound coming out of the room, but more or less sound coming into the room.

You will come across many, many solutions for doing this. One thing to keep in mind is the STC. This is the sound transmission coefficient. Measures how well a material traps sound. Basically anything below 40 is terrible, 40-50 is ok, 50-60 is good, and 60+ is excellent.

The quieter your room, the better it will be.

The ideal room construction scenario is a room within a room. Here is it how it is constructed and this has a STC of 73 btw.

Double studded, with 2-3 inches in between the set of studs.

Double drywall 5/8 inch thick with green glue in the middle. This should be done on both sides of the wall.

Insulation should be put in both sets of studs. Quietbatt is one material, amongst many.

If you add Quietbatt to both sides instead of standard fiberglass R13, the STC goes up to about 75 or so.

If you really want to go crazy, you add horizontal bracings between the studs (three levels of bracings, say at 3 foot, 6 foot, and 9 foot), then cover both layers of studs with plywood and nail it in every 6 inches or so. Then add the double dry wall with greenglue in between.

As you can see, you can go nuts with this. It all depends on how crazy you want to get and your budget.
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Last edited by docmd2010; 03-30-2018 at 04:45 AM.
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  #12  
Old 03-30-2018, 05:06 AM
bruno2009 bruno2009 is offline
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Default Planning to build the ultimate "Listening Room"

Hi - thanx. Now that’s some input. I am just putting together information for the building phase... after it will come to the interior... I will have someone look at acoustical room treatment.

From what I understand a rectangular room is best and the „golden triangle“ is the ultimate... will see what that this does to the budget... just about everyone has told me to put 90% into the room and leave the stereo system as it is... as it is nowhere near it‘s capacity for the room is the limiting factor & will always make the biggest difference in sound quality... so I will stick with my system and go deep into room acoustics/planning...
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  #13  
Old 03-30-2018, 06:26 AM
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Originally Posted by bruno2009 View Post
Hi - thanx. Now that’s some input. I am just putting together information for the building phase... after it will come to the interior... I will have someone look at acoustical room treatment.

From what I understand a rectangular room is best and the „golden triangle“ is the ultimate... will see what that this does to the budget... just about everyone has told me to put 90% into the room and leave the stereo system as it is... as it is nowhere near it‘s capacity for the room is the limiting factor & will always make the biggest difference in sound quality... so I will stick with my system and go deep into room acoustics/planning...


Agree. Room is far more important than speakers and electronics. These are my thoughts as well. I have lower end speakers sound miraculous in an amazing room. Likewise, I have heard world class loudspeakers sound absolutely terrible because of the room.

Spend tons of time researching it. Talk to people. There are lots of soundproofing companies out there that will give you advise. Call them up.
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  #14  
Old 03-30-2018, 10:03 AM
Rex Anderson Rex Anderson is offline
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There are so many factors in designing and building a room that will not have problems. A good reference is Dr. Floyd Toole's book, "Sound Reproduction: Loudspeakers and Rooms". Third edition recently came out.

Hiring a good acoustician with a proven track record is a good idea. You're not building a recording studio or control room, but the principals of small room acoustics still apply.

You need to consider HVAC, power distribution, lighting, acoustic treatment, isolation from the rest of the house and outside the home (keep sound in the room and prevent outside sound from coming in).
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Old 03-30-2018, 10:33 AM
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Originally Posted by Rex Anderson View Post
....
You need to consider HVAC, power distribution, lighting, acoustic treatment, isolation from the rest of the house and outside the home (keep sound in the room and prevent outside sound from coming in).


Exactly. And that is where the audio consultant earns his keep. The audio consultant can give you stand alone plans for that room where all those considerations are taken care of. Then your Architect just has to "add" that room to the rest of the house.
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Old 03-30-2018, 01:43 PM
bruno2009 bruno2009 is offline
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Default Planning to build the ultimate "Listening Room"

I‘ve read many articles stating that the better material for the walls is a wood construction opposed to brick and morter... this would be good as it makes planning the statics for construction easier - considering a wooden construction (walls) is not as heavy... thoughts ?
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Last edited by bruno2009; 03-30-2018 at 01:47 PM.
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  #17  
Old 03-30-2018, 01:51 PM
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Originally Posted by bruno2009 View Post
Building the ultimate audio listening room. . . . .
I am planning a room size from somewhere between 30 - 60 squaremeters (too big might not be ideal, nor too small). . . . .

Glad to hear your thoughts and advice...
Since you have the intelligence to go metric, I would make the room a rectangle using the golden proportion of 1.618.

4 meters high
6.4 meters wide
10.24 meters long

equals 65.5 meters square. That a really nice room and your system will drive it.

SIZE MATTERS!

Are all four walls going to be stone? Why? That may cause an acoustic problem.

Last edited by GaryProtein; 03-30-2018 at 01:54 PM.
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  #18  
Old 03-30-2018, 01:59 PM
bruno2009 bruno2009 is offline
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Hi - see above. At first I thought stone but statics say wood would be the better choice constructionwise... as I‘ve read that the acoustic characteristic of wood is also of advantage I‘ll probably go with a wood construction... also may have to reduce size a little - will keep the proportions equal to the „golden proportion“ though...
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Old 03-30-2018, 02:05 PM
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Quote:
If you really want to go crazy, you add horizontal bracings between the studs (three levels of bracings, say at 3 foot, 6 foot, and 9 foot), then cover both layers of studs with plywood and nail it in every 6 inches or so. Then add the double dry wall with greenglue in between.
If you're going crazy, the drywall/plywood combo should be 5/8" drywall --3/4" plywood -- 5/8" drywall with the screws and green glue.

It is important to remember that just because a material is good at preventing sound from leaving or coming into the room (transmission through walls), that does not mean it will make the room sound any better with regard to frequency effects INSIDE the room. Those two characteristics are INDEPENDENT of each other.
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Old 03-30-2018, 02:29 PM
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Originally Posted by GaryProtein View Post
If you're going crazy, the drywall/plywood combo should be 5/8" drywall --3/4" plywood -- 5/8" drywall with the screws and green glue.



It is important to remember that just because a material is good at preventing sound from leaving or coming into the room (transmission through walls), that does not mean it will make the room sound any better with regard to frequency effects INSIDE the room. Those two characteristics are INDEPENDENT of each other.


Gary. Agree with this. Interesting combo with drywall/plywood/drywall. Will have to look into it.

For my project I think most of what I’m trying to achieve with construction is a quiet room. Room acoustics will be separately addressed with room treatments after construction is complete.
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