Initial planning for a dedicated audio room

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Duke

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Re: Initial planning for a dedicated audio room
« Reply #20 on: 12 Jun 2008, 01:12 am »
Earl Geddes' book, "Premium Home Theater: Design and Construction" is a superb source of acoustic, psychoacoustic, and construction information. 

Paraphrasing Earl here, in any such project, the most important phase is the very beginning.  This is where the biggest and most irreversible decisions are made, and this is also where your knowledge and experience is the lowest - so any improvement in knowledge at this early stage is a very good idea.

Forty dollars and a few hours well spent in the planning stage can save you thousands and give you much better results.  While it's great that Earl is posting chapters online, I suggest buying the book outright so that you have it all readily available. 

http://www.gedlee.com/Home_theatre.htm ; four chapters online at this time.

Duke
« Last Edit: 12 Jun 2008, 07:57 am by Duke »

bassboy

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Re: Initial planning for a dedicated audio room
« Reply #21 on: 12 Jun 2008, 04:59 am »
Gedlee - thanks for making these resources available, I'm sure many people appreciate it besides Duke and I.

TerryO - thanks for pointing me to that, I think I saw it before but haven't had a chance to study it in detail as I surely will now.

Duke - I appreciate your advice and was already thinking the same way.  Due to my desire to do this right and not screw it up by rushing into it (and other things like stupid 2 week long, out of province weddings that MUST be attended this summer) I probably won't even start construction until springtime.

Having said that, I've been doing a bit of research and reading and I'm not much smarter yet but I'm generally slow so I'm actually right on schedule.  I was going to give a quick update here soon anyway, so here goes.

This is a particularly painful uphill battle (even at this stage) due to the fact that all the main players are busy people who think my audio hobby is incredibly stupid and a huge waste of time and money (although I am frugal).  I have not hammered out a stone clad agreement wrt exactly how much space I can use, the guy that needs to be consulted about that finally got done with crops and is now very busy entertaining international houseguests for a prolonged period.  But 20 x 20 feet still stands as an absolute minimum.  I finally cornered my brother and MADE him discuss building code and proper construction techniques such as where the vapor barrier goes, the hows and whys of proper ventilation and heating and cooling, the pros and cons of non heated concrete vs wood floor, pole based construction vs other methods, etc.  So now I have a basic idea of how things go together  and I don't see any major issues or roadblocks yet except the fact that he does not want to help at all and I've never framed anything in my life.

It will still be awhile before I have a working plan that I can submit for approval (or more likely a good laugh) since I want to do this right.  Lots of research to come. 

lonewolfny42

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Re: Initial planning for a dedicated audio room
« Reply #22 on: 12 Jun 2008, 06:53 am »
http://www.gedlee.com/Home_theatre.htm

(Duke....your link wasn't working... :thumb: )

Duke

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Re: Initial planning for a dedicated audio room
« Reply #23 on: 12 Jun 2008, 07:58 am »
Thanks, lonewolf! 

The problem was a semicolon included in the link; I went back and put a space between the link and the semicolon and it works now.

Duke

JLM

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Re: Initial planning for a dedicated audio room
« Reply #24 on: 12 Jun 2008, 10:05 am »
The concrete slab floor with rat/frost walls (or something equivalent) are most probably a code requirement.  Your post were put 5 - 6 feet into the ground to avoid frost heave and surrounded by concrete to avoid rot/vermin.

My suggestion for siding was made based on it being inside a pole barn.  Pole barns aren't meant to be fully weather/vermin resistant (at least for more than a few years).  What you're proposing would be nicer and certainly more sensitive to weather/vermin attack than whatever else the pole barn was meant to protect.  Code prohibits untreated wood framing within 8 inches of the ground and siding within 6 inches to protect from weather/vermin.  So while you may be able to back off roofing/siding the room for a while, some of these "real world" issues can't be avoided.  The idea of building it separately outside the barn does make sense if you'll need the space inside the barn.

Building a toilet room could easily cost thousands (more foundation/walls/ceiling-roof, fixtures, routing water, 2nd water heater, avoiding freezing of water lines, septic tank/drain field or sewer line with possible lift station.  Total cost would exceed the basic cost of your sound room.

Like Duke said, invest in the up-front planning.  That's where most construction projects fail.  Folks race towards half-baked concepts without fully knowing what they're doing or appreciating how much the "devil is in the details".  Again bigger is better, avoid squares or parallel walls, stiffen the walls, add portable treatments as needed afterwards, and build conventionally (without shortcuts).

kenreau

Re: Initial planning for a dedicated audio room
« Reply #25 on: 12 Jun 2008, 09:22 pm »

BTW: Both Mike and Winston have served as judges in every one of "The Puget Sound! DIY Speaker Contest"

Terry -

Thanks for the Ma and Livigne room build posts.  I really enjoyed following those back in the hard copy PF days.  Do you know of anyone in the Portland area with a similar s.o.t.a. purpose built room? 

Also - slightly off subject, but I would be very intersted in hearing more about the "The Puget Sound! DIY Speaker Contest".  Winning design, entrants, etc.  Is there anything posted online?

Thx,
Kenreau