Basement listing room

How badly is your basement listing?

How badly is your basement listing?

It makes turntable leveling a challenge.

Have you verified it with a level? Gotten estimates to repair?

Have you considered a new wife/partner that would negate the no tower speakers in the family room problem?

Ok seriously.

There will be people better qualified than me to comment but it appears you have good space down there but you do have to address acoustic issues with all the concrete, lower ceiling, duct work ect. 

I don't think it will be a problem to do you will just need a little planning and maybe some material you wouldn't normally need since it is in the basement. 

Plenty of people have listening rooms in the basement.

Will

Check out my virtual systems. I have 2 rigs in the basement. Love it. Concrete is your friend. You can add softer rugs and things. 

Are we really talking about acoustics, materials, ducting and all the rest, for a system running a receiver? With wires from another room?? Really???

Get back to me when we got our priorities more in order.

Don’t hold your breath.
On second thought, please do...🤦

Don’t hold your breath.
On second thought, please do...

I will donate a beautiful "Do-Not-Resuscitate" medical bracelet if that will help.

Wonder if they make headbands....🤔

Seriously, if your budget allows look into separate components for each system.
Your towers deserve a higher quality amp and pre, or integrated before doing room set up and treatment.
See miller?
That’s how you respond without coming off as a complete tool.

Space B is a nice size for most tower speaker. You should build a solid wall right on the dotted line. Carpet the floor and use sound deadening tile on the ceiling. The speakers will go on the 18 foot wall. 

Use the Parasound to drive the towers. You will need a front end for it. Sounds like all you need is a streamer/DAC which should be able to talk to your upstairs system over your home network. Once you have it set up and furnished you can deal with room acoustics if you are so inclined. 

thecarpathian

+ 1 to each.

I'm of the same opinion. Share the Preamp/receiver,  in another room?

That doesn't work for me, either.  Will it work? yes.  Will it be easy to work on, NO! Never understood zones, unless it was an office space with cubicles, or maybe a "KIDS" zone. Everything is unbreakable, HIGH up and out of reach.

What does an inexpensive SECOND receiver cost? Or better yet get a Zpre3 or 2 preamp and use the A21 with it. Talk about sweet. Just need a digital source or two. You would have to add a phono stage if you want to do that.

250-600. on the preamp. I picked up a Zpre3 for 295.00. WONDERFUL little preamp... Sub out, remote sub control, remote, Really cool little pre, I use mine with a C20 Mac, (CRAZY good combo) in the tape loop
and a Nord 3 (separate) amps in one enclosure. NC500s.

 A 2.5 analog system. Two mains, 2 bass bins (a 12k class D amp and an active OXO), and 3 lowrider Subs, all PE 1200 DSP plate amps.

Buddy I can get the room HIP hoppin', if you know what I mean. That downstairs system will back out sheetrock nails. We set the rock with nails. then screw it off. The set nails backed out of the sheetrock one night, playing REAL LOUD! (KIDS) 5 years ago...

Surround upstairs, Super stereo downstairs. You could get going for the preamp alone, add subs as needed.

Have fun, and figure a way....

Regards

oops, yeah meant to change it that the Parasound ought to be just fine in the basement system.

By "that" he meant turntable.
I second building a well insulated wall.

If it were me I would get a streamer DAC that has a volume control and move the A21 and the towers downstairs.

For less than the cost of finishing a basement plus setting up a second audio/video system, you might be able to find a different set of towers with a higher Wife Acceptance Factor and even better SQ than the ones you have. Then you wouldn't have to deal with typical basement issues such as low ceilings, humidity, or hard surfaces.  Not to mention the possibility that even after all that work and expense, you won't be happy with the room acoustics. AFAIK, nobody offers refundable in-home trials on finished basements.

I had a small basement room around 13x15 with a drop ceiling.  I sounded great!  So you can do it.

I would place polyethylene plastic against the concrete walls and use standard 2x4 studs. Fiberglass insulation. Then another vapor barrier.  Then your sheetrock.

For the 24' wall, use 2x6 and even double sheet rock for a solid wall.
Use 12g wiring or even 10g--won't cost much more if you are doing the work.  High grade AC outlets as well.  Do it right from the start.

Drop ceiling worked well for me.  (I suspect this acted as a bass trap in my small room-a good thing)

Place speakers about 1/3 out from the front 18' wall, your seat at the 2/3 point from that same wall.  Later add some DIY  room treatment and b amazed!

Being "sent to the basement" isn't all bad, but to set up a proper room you have some work to do, IMO.  I had a system in my basement but it wasn't set up right and equipment was in need of repair.  I started over, so here are my experiences. 

I would not share systems.  It is easier to optimize both systems that way.  On a side note, I blew up a nice 50W class A amp once because I left the speakers on down stairs and tried to drive 4 at once.  First and only time I had smoke in all my years of audio experience.  

I would put up a wall on the dotted line,carpet the floor, install wall over the concrete, install a ceiling.  This can be drywall.  Some install acoustic insulation in the wall and ceiling.  Drywall does not completely stop sound waves by the way.  I think the 29 ft depth is OK assuming your speakers will play loud enough. 

Placement of speakers can be done using the Vandersteen method.  It is on their website.  Otherwise, place them about as far apart as you are sitting back in the room.  You might have to toe them in.  Those look like pretty nice speakers and not too bad to place. 

I would call GIK acoustics for room treatment.  If you clap your hands now it would ring quite well I'm sure.  I worked with a recording engineer named Mike and he was super helpful.  This will probably be about $2K but well worth it.

As far as equipment goes you have a good amp.  You could set up the following:  streamer to dac to amp.  A preamp is not needed unless you want to play CD, tuner or phono.  I use volume in my streamer app.  Some DAC also have volume but I prefer to leave them turned all the way up and use the streamer app.  I think the Parasound is a Class D amp but not sure.  If so, you could try a Class AB amp.  You do need good power to properly drive those speakers.

Equipment choices:  A Bluesound Node 2i is a good streamer.  $550.  If you want more expensive make sure it has a good app that works with your streaming service which is 20 a month.  The DAC is "OK" in the Bluesound so I added a DAC.  Choices include Topping, Denafrips, Benchmark, Orchid, MHDT, Schiit to name a few.  You didn't mention a dollar limit so you can buy integrated amps with streamers and DAC now.  I prefer separates. 

Subs:  Regardless of what your speaker specs say, they will sound better with subs.  However, the subs have to be properly integrated with the system.  This is why multiple subs are often used.  It helps eliminate standing waves.  Your room treatments are also helpful in good bass response.  I recommend crossing the sub over at 80-100Hz.  I would call Audiokinesis.  You can get 2 subs for $1600 and 4 for about $3200.  It includes an amp.  If you like messing around you can buy a DSP and mike and try to get rid of all the acoustic problems but when I got all the treatments and placement of speakers/subs right the benefit from the DSP wasn't worth it IMO. 

thecarpathian/jetter- I agree with you on the bracelets for millercarbon but the cost of the bracelet is worth more than any of the bogus info he has to offer. He is the only person who can buy cheap audio gear, make a $5 tweak, and all of a sudden it’s a $1,000,000 beater.
As for this post, your AV receiver is the weak link for your audio system. I would recommend getting a nice audio preamp with a home theater bypass input so you get quality audio plus you can route your 5 channel thru the Audio preamp

My system Is a basement setup.  It took some playing around with room treatments to get it dialed in.  

I have a Marantz 8805 and I agree with everyone else. The 8805 is excellent at what it does, home theater but at the end of the day I listen to music as much or more than movies and I am going to get a dedicated 2 channel system.

Oldhvymec has some good advice. Slowly building a dedicated 2ch system is a great idea. Get yourself set up with the basics,and build up from there as funds allow. Sometimes budgets force us into compromises.  I think you can set up a nice sounding system in your basement. Will it be a drop ceiling,or drywall?  We had our basement finished about three years ago.  It’s an odd shaped room,about 25’x 18’ at its widest point. This room was strictly used as TV/Movie room. I set up a 5.4 ch HT system. (Currently only running 2 subs. I’ll be adding 2 more when funds allow. I ran all wires before the insulation and drywall went up.) 
 
       Recently I set up another 2.1 ch system in the room. I set the speakers up on the 25’front wall. We have no acoustic treatments up. There is only furniture and w2w carpet. I’m absolutely shocked that it sounds as good as it does. You might be in a trial and error situation. Try your speakers on a long wall,then try them on a shorter wall. You’ll probably know right away which placement is better,and then go from there. Best of luck! 

Skimantra, Two issues. Your speakers can only be expected to load a given volume effectively. You do not want them getting lost. Space B is as large as I would want to go with most Tower speakers. Next, the development of a first class image requires perfect symmetry between the two channels. If one speaker is near a corner the other one had better be also. I do not care about the exact dimensions as long as they are dissimilar. Once set up you will have to do some sound absorption on the front and side walls. If you ever decide to add subs the front corners will be perfect. This size room is also good for bigger system's if you should ever go that way. A pair of Sound Labs 745's would do perfect here. This is your listening room. Make it the best you can and hang a sign on the door, "For Dads Only." The other space will make a great game room for everyone else. You might want to make that wall a sound wall. You use 2 X 6 Sill and cap then stagger 2 X 4 studs. Each wall gets its own set of studs on 16" centers. Other than the sill and cap there is no solid connection between the walls. This drops sound transfer at least 10 dB. 

mijostyn
Thank you for the advice. I had not really considered the volume of space... I had been reading about sound wave lengths and dimensions and had not considered that element. Appreciate the insight, as well as the staggered 2x4 stud strategy - easy enough to implement and great tip.

rocray

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I also have my listening room in the basement. I would suggest 4 subs (swarm) setup. I have 4 subs from Gingko Audio and more amazing than the bass output is the sound stage it creates, and even better in a big listening space.