How to Acoustically Dampen a Room

[HipoFutura]

I'm building a lake house and am thinking about how to integrate my hifi system into the living room. The room is 32' x 19' x 7.5'. The stereo will be on one of the 19' walls. One of the 32' wall is all glass as it overlooks the water, and it doesn't have convential curtains. The floors are Brazillian Cherry with oriental rugs, and the ceiling is sheetrock. There is nothing to absorb sound! Everything will bounce with lots of echoes. How can I create dampening that will meet with my wife's approval? As far as she's concerned my "pride and joy" stereo is waste of money and takes up too much room. Don

[edgewound]

Verticle blinds or 2"-3" louver type blinds over the 32' window might help to cut down reverb off the glass.

[pmakres1]

I'm building a lake house and am thinking about how to integrate my hifi system into the living room. The room is 32' x 19' x 7.5'. The stereo will be on one of the 19' walls. One of the 32' wall is all glass as it overlooks the water, and it doesn't have convential curtains. The floors are Brazillian Cherry with oriental rugs, and the ceiling is sheetrock. There is nothing to absorb sound! Everything will bounce with lots of echoes. How can I create dampening that will meet with my wife's approval? As far as she's concerned my "pride and joy" stereo is waste of money and takes up too much room. Don

It's tough to say exactly what would be best to do without seeing pictures of the room. Obviously an all glass wall will present sound reflection problems. It is best if you can "deaden" the areas near the speakers and thus cancel early reflections. The use of acoustic foam, well placed near the speakers (preferably behind and to the sides of the speakers) can yield a dramatic improvement in stereo imaging, and "warmth". Here's a few photos of what I did with my living room system. I can provide you with details on where you can order the foam if you like. Bear in mind I built the supporting frame panels myself. If you want a good wife acceptance factor, you may wish to consider a similar approach. Also, I found this approach to be more cost effective than buying stand-up panels made for this purpose: more square footage covered for much lower cost. If your speakers are placed along the glass wall, this may not be a feasible approach. However, if the opposite is true, and the speakers are along a wall that can be foamed, it may work very well. It is a relative proposition: the speakers should be in a relatively "dead" environment, while the listening position should be in a relatively "live" environment. Your area rugs may help with floor reflections.

Good luck, let me know if you'd like ordering info-I can also give you some details on how I constructed the panels.

Peter

[spwal]

hi,

my thoughts are: if you are starting from scratch... why not build yourself a wife-evading get away? can you mod the garage or something instead to pull double duty instead? I would just get a proportional room where you can treat all the surfaces properly and listen to tunes in peace. :)

[X_X]

The room is 32' x 19' x 7.5'. The stereo will be on one of the 19' walls. One of the 32' wall is all glass as it overlooks the water, and it doesn't have convential curtains.


You should consider placing the system on the longer wall if at all possible. This will (at the very least) make the problems somewhat "symmetric".

You need something on all that glass. Why not retractable drapes?




The floors are Brazillian Cherry with oriental rugs, and the ceiling is sheetrock. There is nothing to absorb sound!

Tackle that ceiling. There are tons of solutions to that issue. Treating the ceiling could be your room's main saving grace.

Put some cushy furniture in there.


As far as she's concerned my "pride and joy" stereo is waste of money and takes up too much room.


No comment. edit.

Nate.

[Mr. Widget]

One of the 32' wall is all glass as it overlooks the water, and it doesn't have convential curtains. The floors are Brazillian Cherry with oriental rugs, and the ceiling is sheetrock.Sounds like a wonderful place to enjoy the lake... some rooms are best left alone.



my thoughts are: if you are starting from scratch... why not build yourself a wife-evading get away? I agree. Maybe you could build an out building or increase the size of a bedroom and make it a dual purpose room?

Good luck!


Widget

[Fred Sanford]

We have an A-Frame house in PA with a similar setup. I went with nice ambient sound upstairs (LR/DR have the full A-Frame cathedral ceiling, and share space with the Loft bedroom), and dedicated part of the basement to AV.

Upstairs has a Nak system & Celestion speakers, looking to exploit the sound-coming-from-everywhere acoustics rather than fight it. First move I'd make if I wanted a really good sounding room is look into fabric solutions for the ceilings, and some kind of blinds or drapery for the glass walls (you've already got low ceilings, though). Tough to do in any stealth kind of way, I'd guess. We also have a brick wall around a fireplace, another element I simply chose not to try to fight (Wife's family's house, built ~20 yrs before I came along).

Basement has a nice Marantz receiver/Pioneer LD&DVD&CD combo/Mits VHS/NEC plasma/Boston Acoustic speakers/etc. and is a cool retreat for a ballgame or movie without taking over the decor.

Since you're building it, can you recess some of the components, so they're not as apparent to the spousal unit? How much are you willing to compromise on the component choices, or are you using equipment you already own?

Good luck,

je

[HipoFutura]

I appreciate all the suggestions, guys! The garage idea is a good one, especially as I'm a gearhead and spend quite a bit of time working on my Ford (as in faster then mopar - wink, wink, nod, nod - Superbee). However, it's not the place I want to relax and enjoy music, and it's really no fun when it's thirty below outside during the winter.

I'm buidling myself a 16' x 12' home office where I'll have a smaller stereo, but I'd like to have my big system in the family room. I have already picked out the rack/shelf system which looks very sharp and should meet with the wife's approval (other than the price), so I'm hoping she won't balk at all the hardware. Speakers will still be a concern (two B380s, two L100s, and Two 2405Hs - setup in two stacks).

The vertical blinds are a very good idea. Should look nice, provide privacy, and absorb sound. While the sound absorbing panels are a great idea, I'll never get away with it - doesn't go with the camp/lake motif.

There'll be the usual assortment of furniture to help absorb sound, but all in all I expect it will sound like a cave. Don

[glen]

1. if you're building the house you might be able flush mount your speakers into an un-damped wall. In recording studios big main monitors are often flush mounted into very live walls of wood or stone flanking a large glass window into the studio space where the musicians record. The walls further from the speakers are more absorbent to reduce the later reflections that would be more delayed and more destructive to the original sound.

2. Narrow the dispersion of the high frequencies so sound that is not directed to the listening position will be reduced. Take slant plate lenses off of horns or mount foam blocks around the tweeters.

3. Absorbtive decorative wall hangings like tapestries. Classical medieval subjects might not match your room, but there are many modern and high-style designer rugs that could be adapted for use on a wall