As Abstract7 mentioned, the Master Handbook of Acoustics is a good reference about room acoustics, sound proofing and sound absorbing materials. Another good book, Sound Studio Construction on a Budget deals more specifically with building and setting up rooms for different purposes. They cover home listening and home theater setups, mostly for the acoustic purposes. For the sound proofing that you are looking for, they cover that for different cases in sound studios, in building a drum isolation chamber, and voice over booth. The book points out a lot of interesting things about sound transmission through different materials, insulation, concrete, airspace etc. The book does a good job of explaining the goal of each type of room and how to acomplish the goal through room shape, treatment, placement of equipment, diffusers, absorbers etc. I think it would be a good starting place for you since you are starting from scratch, it will give you a lot of good ideas for your design.
Building a new listening room. Help ?
I have searched the archives and I have not found a thread that helps me out yet. I have a section of our basement that I can turn into a listening room/office without getting too much grief from the wife. The rough dimensions (before adding wall materials) is 7 feet high (low duct problems) by 13 feet wide, 16 feet long. Only one small basement window in the back that can be covered. I want this little room to have big sound, big bass. I also want to soundproof so I can listen at high volume. I assume that building a room that is not coupled with the existing structure (other than the concrete walls (on 2 sides) or the floor (concrete as well) is a good way to start. I have no problem creating odd shaped, tapered walls so that it is not just a shoebox. I would prefer it to be subtle if possible, so it is still usable in the future. I assume wall treatments will be necessary, but I would like to keep them subtle if possible too. Given the outer dimensions is it possible to get down to 25 hz? I will be running 2 pairs of Infinity Kappa 9's powered by 2 600 wpc Sunfire Signature Stereo amps (running 1200 wpc into each of the 4 Kappa 9's at 4 ohms). This will be a 2 channel set-up only BTW. What resource (including yourselves) would help me in doing this little project? Books, sites, software, the works...