[EDS_]

Four room options:

1. Downstairs carpet over slab floor. 11'11"W x 15'4" L x 10'5" H.

2. Upstairs carpet over plywood over 2x12s. 13'8" x 13'8" x 8 H.

3. "" 13'8"W by 17'L by 8' H.

4. Upstairs loft. 15'W x 23'2"L x 9'6" H. From an acoustic perspective this room is huge as it opens to a large portion of the house below.

[Carlman]

I just went through a room decision for 2-channel and one thing I learned is that you should go with where you have the most acoustic control.  The downstairs room sounds best to me.

When a room opens into other rooms, the sound got really jarbled with latent echoes coming back into the listening area.  However, that's with all hardwoods, and somewhat sparsely decorated.  I found the bigger room was going to be a lot more expensive to treat and get right than the smaller one.  Plus, the wife had a lot of 'say' in one room and not so much in another... that made a huge difference.

Also, the size of the room is somewhat dependent on the size of the equipment.... how many subs, what size speakers, what kind of amp(s).. etc.

[Bwanagreg]

Also, don't forget the video properties of the room (heresy, I know   ). If one room has better light control than the others you will be much happier choosing it in the long run.  If you want to go large screen, especially REALLY large screen (i.e. front projector) at some point, this is an important consideration.

[EDS_]

Thanks guys.

The little room downstairs has booth excellent light control and would be best from an audio perspective.

It'll be fun to figure this out.

[John Casler]

Four room options:

1. Downstairs carpet over slab floor. 11'11"W x 15'4" L x 10'5" H.

2. Upstairs carpet over plywood over 2x12s. 13'8" x 13'8" x 8 H.

3. "" 13'8"W by 17'L by 8' H.

4. Upstairs loft. 15'W x 23'2"L x 9'6" H. From an acoustic perspective this room is huge as it opens to a large portion of the house below.

If your sole consideration is "unbeleivable BASS" second floor rooms are generally best since the SPLs of the bass waves actually make the floor move, adding an incredible tactile sensation to all exlposions and heavy bass passages.

This is assuming a standard, wood floor and joist system of floor suspension and adequatly powered Subwoofer.

It can be better than "bass shakers".

But again, this is only a chief consideration if "BASS" is a top priority.

[EDS_]

Thanks-John:
I'd like to keep the bass faily accurate becasue I think we will listen to music a fair amount in this room.

[John Casler]

Thanks-John:
I'd like to keep the bass faily accurate becasue I think we will listen to music a fair amount in this room.

Actually it won't affect accurracy much since it it only the very large waves and pressures that cause this, usually they are almost subsonic.

While there may be a slight reduction in SPLs of these frequencies (very slight) the tactile sense makes up for it.

The higher and shorter lengths don't have enough power to move the floor (mechanical transmission) , but may have the sleeve or pant leg flapping, hit you in the chest (airborne transmission) impact most are already familiar with.

In any event it is purely a "single" consideration and one that most really miss when they switch from a second floor room to a ground floor. (They wonder what happened to their woofers, when it is actually the interaction of the room )

If possible you might want to just set up the amps and speakers in each room in a "quicky" try out of each to see which one you like best, since the room sizes and wall surfaces also seem quite different.

Enjoy!

[EDS_]

Thanks again John---great points as always.