[tonyptony]

Hi everyone. I need advice on what to do with an existing media room.

I’ve been looking at houses down in Florida, and my dream of finding an affordable house with a 13x20 or greater, dedicated space (not a family room or great room) for my audio system appears to be something of a fool’s errand. However, I have found an absolutely wonderful house in a wonderful neighborhood that happens to have an existing 13x16 media room. It has separate dedicated lines for electrical and lighting, and has angled corners. Very nice. But it is a very “live” room. With the door closed I read on the order of 26 dBA ambient noise, but when I talk or clap my hands the reverberations are plain to hear.

What I don’t want to do is make the room any smaller. I was actually thinking of rebuilding the room, since I want to replace the 15A dedicated circuit with a 20A anyway I figured I’d take the walls down, get the electrical work done, and then put new walls back up. The question is - is there a wall product I can use that won’t cut into the room space but give me better acoustic  control than whatever is in there now? I know about the Wall Damp technique, but that (if I understand it correctly) would require a double layer of wall board with the damping material between them. I’d rather not do that if I had an option that could keep the interior space maximized. Thanks.

Here’s a pic of the room.

[S Clark]

From that vantage point, it looks ok, perhaps even promising.  Build some corner traps, add some diffusion, and see how it sounds. 

[poseidonsvoice]

Hi!

The way I addressed maximizing the amount of low frequency damping/bass trapping (with minimal absorption of the midrange and treble/top end) was to build the bass trapping into the circumference of the ceiling and have an FRK/FSK foil facing into the room. I used Owens-Corning 705 FRK to be exact (4 in thick).

Like this:




Of course I added front corner traps since that’s where the maximum low frequency reflections will occur from your main speakers.

If you want to know more details you can click on my systems page and/or pm me.

Best,
Anand.

[tonyptony]

Thanks. Helpful info, Anand.

[youngho]

The question is - is there a wall product I can use that won’t cut into the room space but give me better acoustic  control than whatever is in there now? I know about the Wall Damp technique, but that (if I understand it correctly) would require a double layer of wall board with the damping material between them. I’d rather not do that if I had an option that could keep the interior space maximized.

What do you mean by acoustic control? It sounds like you're talking about absorption, but then you mention a technique used for isolation.

[JLM]

Was ambient noise measured with air conditioning, washer, dryer, and dishwasher running and/or with occupant footfalls, traffic, etc.?  If not, not very impressive. 

Regarding acoustics suggest loading the room with furnishings, then measure your speakers in the room before contacting GIK.

In my 8ft x 13ft x 21ft dedicated room used staggered insulated stud walls, insulated/lined flexible ductwork, and insulated exterior fiberglass door (very good).  But the air tight, in contact with insulation recessed cans transmit everything from above even with 12 inches of insulation in the ceiling space, so recommend wall sconces.