Need Help Designing a Dream Room


The company I work for got acquired and I'm moving to the new headquarters in Charlotte. We're having no luck finding an existing home meeting our unusual needs (smaller house since we are almost empty nesters, but big listening room on the first floor), so we're building a new home. Hot dog! I finally get to design a dream room!

I'm not an audio engineer, so all I know (and it might be wrong) is that one should use the 1.618 ratio rule. Therefore, I am planning on a family room which is 11x18x29 (nothing is set though). The floors will be hardwood (my wife, who is generous, gracious and loving enough to go through this process instead of buying a perfectly fine regular house, insists on the flooring). I have very large speakers: Montana KAS's. I love many kinds of music: Jazz, blues, classical and rock.

How should I design this room? Separate electrical box? Dimensions? Materials? Rounded corners? This will open into the kitchen and eating area (separate rooms) so we can enjoy the music there as well. Thanks in advance. I look forward to your advice.
ozfly

Showing 1 response by tom_nice

Lots of good advice here already, but as I quickly scanned it I didn't see anyone advising you to read books by F. Alton Everest, "Master Handbook of Acoustics" 4th edition, and especially "Sound Studio Construction on a Budget". The latter book has tons of useful sound treatment information and ideas for construction too. He and Robert Harley agree that nonparallel walls, while they achieve their goal, are not the only, or even the best, way to achieve that goal. Since the bad effects of parallel walls are quite easy to eliminate by inside wall treatment, I wouldn't contemplate that mode of construction, which I wouldn't trust many contractors to pull off. Good luck!