Can a garage serve as listening room?

A round of applause for judyazblues!

I'd be very carful about a listening room in the garage.

The poor transmission of sound could be exhausting and muffled.

Several years ago I turned a full-walled 10.5' x 12' 3rd garage stall into a recording studio for my younger daughter. To soundproof the room, I removed the original 1/3" drywall and added mass-loaded rubber sheeting overlaid with two layers of 1/2" drywall. I framed in a wall just in front of the roll-up garage door and applied the same treatments. Not only did the room become isolated from almost all outside noise (it also worked the other way) but the room response flattened out tremendously.

When she left for college I considered tearing it out, but ended up using it as a small dedicated 2-channel analog room. Just one chair, one rack, two speakers, lots of LPs and me. I only wish that I had added a window for a little natural light, but otherwise it's great.

Thanks Peter, I encourage anyone who really wants a dedicated room to try to make it happen as it's such an important factor and really can make such huge improvements in the sound. Good luck guys.

Based on the year of construction, the concrete floor may have a 1/4" per foot sloop to the door. If it does, light weight concrete can be installed to level the floor out. The steel door can me treated with insulation which is sold at one of big box hardware stores. Electrical issues may need to be addressed. Also changing the the garage to habitable space, as it relates to the Building Code (s) is another issue. If you avoid the code, add a smoke detector.

Good Luck

I am in the process of converting mine to a dual AV.. 2 channel room. I will keep you posted....PT

Elegal,

Well it was my garage :-) now its my music room, serves as my home office too. The speakers are my Sammy

Sammy Review

Lissnr , Very nice job too

Good Listening

Peter

You can definitely do what Peter did ( Nice job!!!) as I also did mine too... A tremendous amount of work but we both followed similar paths with fairly similar results though mine started as a 13.5' x 19' and the finished interior ended just a bit less than that after all the sheetrock/ walls and insulation...So, yes it can be done to very satisfying levels if you want to take on the project. Good luck.

OMG Peter, that is a beautiful room. Is that really your garage? Are those speakers Tidal Audio?

Nice big room seems to be small than coz yomamma's so big!

Certainly, Here's what I did with mine

Good Listening

Peter

You can do it, but just don't expect to plunk the system down in there and get great sound. You will have to address the "sound" of the room with acoustic tuning. A garage typically has very little soft material like your couch, chairs, carpet, etc. That being said, I can get great sound by accident in my commercial garage/workshop. Especially with live music cranked up. Not much soft in there, but alot of junk everywhere to break up the surfaces. Huge metal door... no problem. Actually sounds better with the door down. It's nothing like the presentation I get at home, but still enjoyable/involving. You may find that a garage situation chages your preference in listening habits, music, and even components. Less sitting down and being caressed by her voice and more rocking out. You're your own garage band!