CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[whats6x7]

I am going to be moving into a storage closet downstairs.

I have a recessed place in my basement under my daughters room that is 8' wide 16' long.


A few years ago I put a sheet rock wall in front of it to make a storage room. We are now in the process of reshuffling the basement and I'm thinking about moving my office into there. I am going to insulate and finish the other side of the wall I built and that will give me a room that is concrete on 3 sides and an insulated sheetrock wall on the other. I am thinking about putting this . . .

http://www.foambymail.com/Pyramid.html

on the 3 concrete walls for acoustics. Sort of a music listening room/office.

What do you think? Waste of time or cool idea?

[garyfritz]

Could be cool. (Could be VERY cool. The rooms in our basement are downright chilly, even in the summer. My office is in the basement and I have to run a heater in here all winter. My fingers get too stiff to type when it's 66degF!)

But I would think covering 3 walls with foam would make the room much too dead. That stuff absorbs mostly higher freqs, and several walls of it could turn the room into a poor man's anechoic chamber. It wouldn't help boominess much at all. I'd be tempted to finish off the room (sheetrock on furring strips on the concrete), then see how it sounds. If it's too bright, add some foam. If it's boomy, add some 2" dense fiberglass spaced 2" off the wall.

Definitely stuff the rafters with fiberglass to reduce sound transmission between your room and your daughter's room.

[ecrabb]

42 - Like Gary alluded to, the foam won't do much at all to attenuate any low-frequency to your daughter's bedroom above... You'll need to use mass and isolation to do that... Double-drywall, iso-clips, and batting in the joist cavities. However, since you probably won't be listening to music like you would listen to movies in a home theater, you can probably get away with just stuff the joist cavities and/or doing a second layer of drywall.

Now, what the foam will do is make the room sound better for your listening... You don't need to cover any walls - especially if you'll have the speakers on your desk in a "near-field" type of setup. In that case, put some right behind the speakers, some on the ceiling at reflection points, and on the side and rear-walls at reflection points.

I'd suggest spending a few more bucks and getting 2" instead of the cheaper 1", too... Auralex 2" wedge panels aren't much more money and they're pretty cool looking imho...

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Auralex-Studiofoam-Designer-Kit?sku=422602

Gary has the right idea... Finish the room and see how it sounds, then add sound treatments to make it sound better.

SC

[Curt Palme]

Any room for audio or video is never a waste of time. If you need to isolate bass from other rooms, the best is to put a thick rubber mat under the woofer/speakers, or suspend them from the ceiling. Concrete can carry bass a long ways.

In 1986 we did a night club in Whistler. A smallish sound system, 2 double 15s and 4 mid high cabinets. Opening night, the place was packed, and no one in the 3 floors above got any sleep, as the concrete pillars carried the bass right to the top floor.

The place was shut down, and on recommendation of some engineer somewhere, 2 more layers of drywall were added to the ceiling, at the cost of $$$$$$. THey opened a week or two later again... and again no one got any sleep. THe company I worked for suggested suspending all woofers from the ceiling, or raising them off the floor so they wouldn't couple with the concrete, and that worked far better.

The engineer pretty much had egg on his face, and the hotel was some pissed at him.

[Curt Palme]

Any room for audio or video is never a waste of time. If you need to isolate bass from other rooms, the best is to put a thick rubber mat under the woofer/speakers, or suspend them from the ceiling. Concrete can carry bass a long ways.

In 1986 we did a night club in Whistler. A smallish sound system, 2 double 15s and 4 mid high cabinets. Opening night, the place was packed, and no one in the 3 floors above got any sleep, as the concrete pillars carried the bass right to the top floor.

The place was shut down, and on recommendation of some engineer somewhere, 2 more layers of drywall were added to the ceiling, at the cost of $$$$$$. THey opened a week or two later again... and again no one got any sleep. THe company I worked for suggested suspending all woofers from the ceiling, or raising them off the floor so they wouldn't couple with the concrete, and that worked far better.

The engineer pretty much had egg on his face, and the hotel was some pissed at him.

[garyfritz]

Fascinating. I wouldn't expect concrete to conduct so well. Sound (including bass) doesn't go *through* concrete very well -- mass is the gold standard for stopping bass -- but conducting it up 3 floors!? I would think you'd be pulverizing the nightclub if it transmitted that much bass through 3 floors of pillars!!!

[Curt Palme]

Yep, it was indeed weird. Nothing strange about the construction either. Funny thing, they were selling so much booze in the club that it was completely offsetting the refunds they had to give to ticked off customers.

[Curt Palme]

Yep, it was indeed weird. Nothing strange about the construction either. Funny thing, they were selling so much booze in the club that it was completely offsetting the refunds they had to give to ticked off customers.