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Acoustically Treating a Bomb Shelter

Seriously.  My house came with a 1960s era bomb shelter.  It's a total of 2,200 square feet of Cold War Era awesomeness, basically divided into two 51X21 long rectangular rooms.

It's under a pool and pool house, easily 15 feet down. Hard concrete walls. Huge metal out swing doors that could keep out Bob Dylan looking for a string bean. 

We turned one big room into a giant pantry, wine cellar, and storage room.

The other I softened with hardwood floors, sheet rock (with foam insulation) on walls and ceiling, in that it could make an excellent apartment, being 1000 sf by itself, not counting the kitchen and bath.  And has two entrances, one at each end.  Very airy with good ventilation (and expensive filters).

It's this (now) 50 X 20 room iswhere my listening area is.  Ceilings are 14 foot sloping down (the short way on the rectangle) to 12 feet.

I've divided it into three areas of roughly equal area.  One end has a power rack and tons of free weights and whatnot.  On top of the hardwood is a protective layer, hardwood, and then rubber horse stall mats.  Kitchen and bath beyond that.

The other end is an emergency bedroom, with flip down Murphy beds, etc.  Area rug where the wife does yoga.  At its end are double metal doors, then stairs, then another metal door.

The middle third is my listening area.  Speakers and subs on the higher-ceiling side, although I could flip it.  Set up in the classic 60 degree triangle with a leather couch facing the speakers.  Chairs to the side, and a table I use as a desk behind the couch.  Area rug.  Decor: think Andy Warhol meets Austin Powers.

My thought is I don't get a lot of reflection from either the right or left side, due to the width of the room, and the stuff in each room.  I suspect I mainly get reverb off the back wall.  And perhaps the ceiling, although it is sloped up to the speakers.

I'm thinking all I need is some absorption on the back wall, immediately behind the couch/table (so facing the speakers), as I sit closer to the back wall than the speakers.   Perhaps something on the ceiling about 2/3 of the way across the room.

Thoughts?  I'd like to be informed a tad before I get involved with GIK or one of those groups.

davetheoilguy
helomech
1,516 posts
 

This has to be the most interesting thread to come up on Audiogon in months. I’d love to see pics of the space.

I’d consider the big Perlisten towers for that space since they can be driven to high output and have controlled directivity. 

 

Queue Donald Fagen’s New Frontier. 
 

 

asctim
434 posts
 

That's a lot of width, AND you've also got a full 20 feet of depth so it seems pretty ideal. I would try flipping it around just to see how it sounds. It's often recommended to put the speakers on the lower ceiling end. The sound tends to propagate forward better and turn into reverb behind you, which is preferred to having it come from the same direction as the speakers. 

Either way, the wall and ceiling surfaces directly behind you and in front of you between the speakers are good attack points. Those are the earliest reflection points, and the closest parallel wall  surfaces that can create standing waves.

A crosstalk reduction scheme like BAACH would work great in there with the relative freedom from early side reflections. 

 

lou_setriodes's avatar
lou_setriodes
673 posts
 

@davetheoilguy 

Just wanted to make sure you’ve got plenty of food and water on hand at your disposal in case of a real emergency.  That should be priority No. 1, then get your audio system set up.  
 

I live in Israel in a very safe area away from any rockets landing but I have friends all over the country who have to go into / or stay in their safe rooms for extended periods of time.  

kennyc
1,188 posts
 

Acoustically Treating a Bomb Shelter

Do you mean muffle the sound of an explosion?  How loud do you play?

davetheoilguy OP
111 posts
 

@lou_setriodes 

1.  Am Israel Chi!  Go do whatever is necessary, please!  Ignore the media.

2.  For clarity, I live in West Texas.  This house was built by an extremely wealthy oil man back in the 1960s during the height of the Cold War.  Very rural.  If I ever have to shelter from bombs it’s because China Russia and the USA have decided to have a massive nuclear exchange.  All in, the shelter is as large as most people’s houses.

3.  Yes, we have plenty of food.  And about 2000 bottles of French, Californian, and even Israeli wine.  All set for the apocalypse.  Also a rather large library.

4.  We are fortunate enough here to not be preparing for said apocalypse, but rather finding something useful to do with a massive room with wonderful filtered electricity and completely silent, if oddly shaped.

 

 

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