Building Listening room from the Ground up

[Garth]

If you are building a listening room from the ground up who is the best source be it a web site a book a person or company who has done this before and got it right .. It would be a underground room on 3 sides cement floor walls and ceiling one door no windows . Yes I have read most of the web sites most are fixing problems of rooms a few on ratios . Is a solid room the right way to go the ratios are simple enough but how far off these ratios should you go for none parallel walls and ceilings. This would be a new build into a hill side thick walls and ceiling to support a 4 to 6 car garage. I would need a cement box but the interior can be any material I have and would like to use thousands a of board feet of Cedar Maple and tons of Black walnut one inch and live edge 2 and 3 inch thick Black Walnut. The wood I all ready have I have other buildings I can use on if need be it is on its third year of air drying.

Any help would be great

[Letsmakeadeal]

Sounds like you may have a wide open budget...From what I learned, having conducted a lot of research for my own room project, this is your guy..$$$ Dennis Foley AcousticFields.com

[Garth]

thank you I have seen this site seems like a option alright

[Alrainbow]

No matter who you choose time needs to be taken to hear there work. Some speakers require certain requirements to sound well.
Best of luck

[david k]

Garth, what you have is a dream near perfect scenario for a listening room! You can get wonderful sound and a beautiful environment bypassing all the acoustic paraphernalia that so many end up tearing out in the end. All issues can be dealt with upfront in the construction with little or no impact on whatever decor you'd want, I can help you out with information.

david

[BadBob]

First of all, you should move this thread to the Room Acoustics & Treatment topic.

As for your room, I would suggest you choose an acoustician first. They will all have somewhat different approach/suggestions. Some will say a room with unparalleled walls will be very difficult to model, others say its the best way to start. If you can, at least speak with some folks who have used your acoustician—not all acousticians understand audiophile demands as different from commercial applications/noise abatement/etc.

For my room, I chose Dr. Bonnie Schnitta of SoundSense. She visited my space and then said to let my designer put together any plan, that she could work with the plan and make the room sound good. No matter if you start with an existing space or build-to-suit, there will always be physical constraints and peaks/nodes related to whatever room dimensions you end up with. In my case there was a wall that had two glass doors and a large glass picture window. Bonnie said she could work easily with one reflective surface, but discouraged other flat reflective surfaces in the room.

In my case, with an eye towards a high WAF (because I like having my wife spend time with me in the room, and because we occasionally entertain business clients) the decision was made to hide as much of the treatments as possible behind fabric walls like you see in many home theater setups. While I like the diffusors of, say, SMT, I didn't want all the products visible, preferring a more traditional look of a well appointed room.

Most of all, keep in mind feature creep and the high cost of construction these days. I tend to think of dollar values in the same way I did when I was young, meaning I tend to grossly underestimate what things will cost in today's dollars. As an example, custom acoustically lined drapes for my room ran about $27K. Granted, there is a lot of drapery in my room, but those kinds of numbers add up very, very quickly.

Be mindful of your budget.

[Alrainbow]

Is there any importance in type of speakers or there size being first in concept.l?? I know for me and I know little in this the room was built for for them as they needed certain requirements to meet

[david k]

Yes but not the exact speaker, basically it's a question of speaker size and and type. There is such a thing as too big a room too!

david

[Alrainbow]

As in mine lol. I had asked s few about mine and how big and how far to sit back. While I make no claims my room is perfect and I'll bet most here is better. I did perform the ratio needed for the sound to develope. I had them Ina smaller room and they sounded very different

[MylesBAstor]

A buddy of mine just bought a mansion out in Long Island with a huge completely unfinished basement. He hired Norm Varney to come in and basically design a cost no object listening room and separate HT room. The grand unveiling should be in June or July.

Here are some pictures that Nrom posted of the work in progress.



Cut the floating floor to make three isolated sections; one for each speaker and one for the listening area.



Ceiling hangers going up for dedicated 2 channel listening room.



Resilient walls going up for dedicated 2 channel listening room.



Besides floating the floor, walls and ceiling, we're floating the double-wall framing at the top and bottom plates.



Floating floor poured for a dedicated 2 channel listening room.

[BadBob]

Cost no object indeed! I look at that project and can only imagine, having just invested a sizable sum to complete my room, how quickly the invoices are adding up. And where I am certain other folks might view my expenditures as foolish, or at least wonder if the cost/benefit ratio is even mildly realistic, I look at the above and have some of the same reactions.

That said, God Bless America. Nothing exceeds like excess. And to the fellow who can afford it, good on you. The contractors will all benefit, as will the folks who serve the contractors. We all do our part to keep the economy moving :-)

[MylesBAstor]

I think Jacob Heilbrun of TAS documented the building of his sound room too. That was a cost no object room.

[Alrainbow]

Those ISO clips are expansive to. For my place I used genie clips about 200 of them with half track like his walls but for me was on the ceiling. I wonder what the walls will be. ?? It just finish but layers after the insulation

[Garth]

Garth, what you have is a dream near perfect scenario for a listening room! You can get wonderful sound and a beautiful environment bypassing all the acoustic paraphernalia that so many end up tearing out in the end. All issues can be dealt with upfront in the construction with little or no impact on whatever decor you'd want, I can help you out with information.

david

That is a kind offer and any help is good.

My situation is a new Highway that is going thru part of my property has cut off my driveway and will need to be rerouted . This has made a new building a garage with a room under it a option . Due to the layout of my property a raised at the back garage may be the best option. I am at a point I can not build it till the highway says where the driveway will be . I would like to get a room size and inside dimensions for the cement walls allowing for any if any inner wall . I was hoping someone had a pre made set of plans that have worked out well in the past. I am not building around anyone speaker as things change I do not switch speakers often Ohm F to Infinity QLS to my Martin Logan CLX with four subs Decent I . It would be a two channel room this is not a cost no option build but not a budget room I would like to get the room size and shape right and the material it is built out of right as well as the electrical . If the room is the right shape and size room treatments will follow as needed.

This is all dependent on building permits which are not easy in my area .

[JackD201]

Hi Garth, for ground up builds I would go for a firm that is equally good at architecture as acoustics. My recommendation would be Walter-Storyk Design Group. The wallet killer is isolation/sound transmission. If this is not an issue then costs go down dramatically.

[Bill Hart]

MylesBAstor - Myles what is the flooring material that is being used over the concrete slab?

[MylesBAstor]

I don't know Bill.

[Bruce B]

Hi Garth, for ground up builds I would go for a firm that is equally good at architecture as acoustics. My recommendation would be Walter-Storyk Design Group. The wallet killer is isolation/sound transmission. If this is not an issue then costs go down dramatically.

+1 for Walter-Storyk

[Garth]

thanks for the link

[rbbert]

Coincidentally, there is a blog at stereophile.com discussing Jason Serinus' move and new listening room construction.

[Garth]

I will check it out

[david k]

That is a kind offer and any help is good.

My situation is a new Highway that is going thru part of my property has cut off my driveway and will need to be rerouted . This has made a new building a garage with a room under it a option . Due to the layout of my property a raised at the back garage may be the best option. I am at a point I can not build it till the highway says where the driveway will be . I would like to get a room size and inside dimensions for the cement walls allowing for any if any inner wall . I was hoping someone had a pre made set of plans that have worked out well in the past. I am not building around anyone speaker as things change I do not switch speakers often Ohm F to Infinity QLS to my Martin Logan CLX with four subs Decent I . It would be a two channel room this is not a cost no option build but not a budget room I would like to get the room size and shape right and the material it is built out of right as well as the electrical . If the room is the right shape and size room treatments will follow as needed.

This is all dependent on building permits which are not easy in my area .

Do you have a limitation on ceiling height because that will determine the other dimensions. I wasn't thinking about a speaker specific room just wanted to know the type and approximate size of speakers you like, for example the Ohm F works better in a smaller volume but the ML with 4 subs & QLS like larger room volumes. There are online calculators that can calculate the room dimensions the materials, finishing, floor design and electrical can be worked on with your architect, most of it is straightforward.

david

[Garth]

No ceiling height is not a problem unless it is over 2 story height