room design help


I give up, im no longer going to keep trying to have my sitting room as a hi fi room, the plan is to build a wooden garden hi fi room, im a carpenter so i should be able to do it myself, also i have plenty of space.
Now for my request, could anyone help with
ideal dimensions
any links to similar projects
hints for ceiling, floor and wall treatments
willie
willsandbills

Showing 2 responses by cjsmithmd

I built a new house a few years ago and had real fun doing a dedicated audio room.

Dimensions are 20w x 30l and 15ft ceiling. Lots of places can give you 'ideal' dimensions for any size room.

Best thing I did was put the room on the ground floor with a poured concrete floor and radiant heating (no sound of heat system, no baseboard etc.) under carpet. I did not put in a baffling system for the air conditioner; on the other hand I don't spend a lot of time indoors with the system in the heat of summer. When the ac is on in summer I do have some increased background noise. Oh well.

I also used 3/4" wall board. I used standard spacing 16" on the frame but have since heard from folks who used a 12" spacing claiming better results.

I did not put in sound proof windows. My builder felt I might not need them and I think he was correct. I do have one window near my a/c compressors which might benefit but I doubt I'll do it (never say never)

I also put in a dedicated a/c panel, hubble outlets and lines. I did not use any fancy in wall wiring (budget consideration). Lighting is all separate from audio. This was a very good idea. System is dead quiet, no hum, no hiss, no line noise... you get the idea.

As you are a carpenter you might think about integrating room treatment into your design. This is one thing I will do the next time I build a house. :)

You might want to contact Rives Audio (www.rivesaudio.com) for assistance. Consulting with a sound engineering firm like this is another thing I think I would do differently.

Live and learn.

One final thing: the doorway between your audio room and house is a critical choice. I lucked out finding a huge double door at a salvage sale. A poor choice here will be heard! (pun intended)

Have fun!
Warnerwh, you are right of course. 15ft was a typo. It's actually 12ft - the other dimensions are 33l and 21w to be exact!

What I wanted to say, and others have already done, is that there is a lot of good free help out there to assist in the constructions of a dedicated sound room. But had I to do it all over again, I would have allotted 10-15% of the total cost to a consultant (Rives as the example).

cjs