Room Ceiling Height for 2 channel listening - is taller always better?

I built a new house with a custom room.  I used online calculator as a guide and did 18 wide 26 long 11 height. I talked to an acoustic company and they recommended 13’ ceiling or higher which I could not make work with the house design. I tapered the ceiling and 1 wall 6” to avoid parallel walls.  All corners are 2’ 45 degrees. The goal was to avoid standing waves and it did, the bass response is very even throughout the room. But lots of reverb/echo.  A hand slap takes almost a full second to die down.  My next project is proper treatments to tame the reverb without over damping.  To answer your question - yes go taller but you may want to talk to an acoustic expert before you hang the drywall. I wish I would have as it would of saved time and money and avoid another construction project. 

Room height must be balanced with length and width, but the golden ratio is not the way.

The science has been done at the School of Acoustics, University of Salford. They ran a hundred thousand simulations and found that most rooms are bad, a third are OK, and about 2% are good. The classic ratios were all bad, IIRC.

Rigidity is your friend. Otherwise the walls flex with the bass signal, out of phase, and highly distorted. I’m with Mike Lavigne on Quietrock 545, which I used. It’s more than an inch thick, 5 layers of drywall, and a layer of sheet steel. But it’s damned expensive. Plywood is a minimum. IMO

Good luck!

I worked for a large building materials manufacturer for years, we provided acoustic solutions and designed acoustic materials, acoustic room solutions, we had a testing lab and even an anechoic chamber.

Don’t get too hung up on the 2X4, 2X6, 2X whatever.... Only consider that if you are trying to keep sound from entering adjacent rooms. If that is what you are after, I would build a staggered stud (look it up) wall, maybe even use a resilient channel or "hat" channel to isolate the drywall from the studs, calk around everything and fill the cavitity with fiberglas. You don’t need to use anything expensive, just use a plain fiberglas. R-11 ill work fine.

Sound is controlled by absorbing it (insulation), blocking it (that is why people use drywall and double layers of drywall) reflect it, (room dimensions, hard surfaces, diffusers).

The key is using a combination of these to achieve the desired results. In a large room the sound will reverberate and you will get unwanted "noise" created from it. that is when you want to use absorptive materials like curtains, carpet or even absorptive panels. Thicker acoustic wall panels will absorb lower frequencies better than thinner panels (think low frequency - large sound wave needs thicker material to absorb it) so size and thickness are important, you don’t want to just buy panels and hang them randomly, you could do more harm than good. A large room is ok if you can control the sound in the room. People use bass traps and diffusers to make the sound react differently in the room. Hardwood with rugs is a good idea because you can move rugs around and try different areas, types.

Also... spray foam is not a good "insulator" of sound it is much denser than a typical fiberglas batt and could actually reflect sound more than absorb it. Use a combination of methods and play with varying types. It may take a while but you can get a good result. (minus testing the room for reverberation and calculating the amount, type thickness of material you need, that can get pretty expensive).

 5 layers of drywall, and a layer of sheet steel. 

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WOW. Some dedicated people here. I thought Dry wall was sheetrock? I learn something everyday..

Outside wall, thermal mat, 30lb felt, 5.5 of insulation with fire blocks, sound board, 3.5" of air space (this is the actual sound proofing the air space), vapor barrier, sound board, 5/8" fire rock. Seal all the drilled holes with expanding foam. Top and bottom and drilled holes between studs they all need to be sealed. Some like to use construction adhesive on the floor to pinning and drywall to sound wall. I used screws and galvanized double dip sinkers ONLY. I drove every nail in this house by hand and never used green sinkers or guns including the roof and my kitchen cabinets.

From the drywall out has nothing to do with the drywall in. What is in the wall is for the neighbors or the people in the rest of the house.
When you taped and finished the room. The acoustic treatment NOW begins for your sound system. Funny how that is too. I've seen guys only sheet rock half way up with exposed insulation and a vapor barrier the other 1/2 and it sounds great. When you do all the walls it fails the clap test. Rock the ceiling and it sounds like an echo chamber with concrete or hardwood floors.

I like heavy floor to ceiling acoustic theater curtains.

I like suspended acoustic panels with lighting too. 8 X 8 of panels in front of the listening position at about 10 feet in height. 

Warehouse set ups are the most fun, 220/240 480 3 phase is nice too. The bass is a little tricky though. :-) Home made 14" sonotube bass traps. The guy must have had 30 of those things 12 foot tall with 1-4" holes. Panels for walls open back.

I gotta' find a warehouse, I would love a conservatory type environment if it wasn't so hard on the finish and the electronics.. No static issues.. LOL

Orchids, Century plants and for the clean up carnivorous plants, for smash and grab wannabes. Dip weeds..

Merry Christmas Every ONE.. My Vanilla is almost ready to put bows on. One more shake, I wish you could smell the different kinds.. The ones with the 50 year old Cognac/Kettle one and Madagascar A stock vanilla beans. The ginger bread with goat buttermilk and black molasses. What a combo.. You should see the silly dog.. Summersaults for ginger bread.. LOL The rabbit, kale and carrots, go figure.

Regards

@exsedol88 

I am currently building a room in my basement. My room is smaller,15x161/2x71//2 when finished. I had the room designed by an acoustician. I am using safe and sound rock wool for the insulation and 2 inch rigid fiberglass panels inside the room. There is NO drywall inside the room. I’m told I will need zero extra panels inside the room. The room walls are partially concrete and partially out in the open. The open areas are 2x6 with a sandwich of drywall and mass loaded vinyl on the outside. I also used liquid nails  when building the walls to add to the rigidity. I agree with consulting a professional. Good luck!