Author Topic: Suggestions on new music room build please.  (Read 5448 times)

Offline gamve

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Suggestions on new music room build please.
« on: January 30, 2011, 02:00:29 PM »
My music room is feeling decidedly claustrophobic due to a lack of storage. I'm in the process of gathering materials to build a dedicated music room out in the backyard with  attached rooms for media storage, a workshop/storage area, somewhere to park my motorbikes and a double carport.
I've done some reading on the net re room sizes/design, but it is a pretty comlex subject and all I have really done is confuse the crap out of myself.
Has anyone in the group built a dedicated music room from sctrach? and can you give me some pointers on the following.

1. Ideal room sizes for a good starting point. The room can be a decent size with higher than normal ceilings, plenty of room in the backyard and besides I hate mowing the lawn  ;D I will probably be using a 3 watt amp with 100db @ 1m sensitivity speakers (Tannoys Corals etc).

2. Floor type. What is the best bet? Can do concrete slab on ground construction or a suspended timber floor. A floating floor would also be possible if required. Im guessing carpet or large rugs would be OK for floor coverings.

3. Wall ceiling construction. I have a large quantity of 75.0mm polystyrene cladded/bonded with aluminium on both sides availible. This could be used for outside walls then a stud wall frame. Whats the best way to do the internal walls

4. Any adviced on dedicated mains feed to the area. I guess separte circuits for analouge, digital other workshop power and lighting etc.

Please whack your suggestions in. Appreciate all ideas
Cheers
Graham

Offline flemo

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Re: Suggestions on new music room build please.
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2011, 06:00:46 PM »
Hi Graham,

I went all out and built a heap acoustic panels and bass traps after reading a lot of info on US based forums for room treatments. 

What I learned from that experience, which seemed to cause some angst on that other forum was:

- Not all rooms need treating - some rooms can actually be quite good acoustically depending on your existing furnishings and room design.

- Less is more - yes once you've killed the room you'll know you have too much product in there.

- Understand what the faults are you're trying to overcome - you can't fix it if you don't know where it's broken.

- Before spending a single cent on any treatments have the room measured / tested by a professional who is not trying to sell YOU any products - this is the old classic where a salesman measures your room acoustics and tells you what YOU need because he's a saleman!

Just my opinion mate, let us know how you go.

Cheers, flemo.

 


Offline ozcal

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Re: Suggestions on new music room build please.
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2011, 06:06:55 PM »
Agree very much with Pete.
We tried some of Pete's panels and bass traps in my room and ended up only getting a good result from the bass traps. Even one panel killed the sound stone dead.
Listening with my ears :)

Offline kajak12

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Re: Suggestions on new music room build please.
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2011, 08:15:43 PM »
Agree very much with Pete.
We tried some of Pete's panels and bass traps in my room and ended up only getting a good result from the bass traps. Even one panel killed the sound stone dead.

interesting people never thought about room treatments as i dont know anything about it i tune from the inside imho if its right or wrong unless i hear better i wont know
still discovering the link between electronics and audio reproduction.so much to learn and so little time

Offline treblid

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Re: Suggestions on new music room build please.
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2011, 11:57:29 AM »
1. Ideal room sizes for a good starting point. The room can be a decent size with higher than normal ceilings, plenty of room in the backyard and besides I hate mowing the lawn  ;D I will probably be using a 3 watt amp with 100db @ 1m sensitivity speakers (Tannoys Corals etc).
Make sure the room isn't a cube (same breath width height)... :p Once it's a cube form it's really hard to fix.. :(

2. Floor type. What is the best bet? Can do concrete slab on ground construction or a suspended timber floor. A floating floor would also be possible if required. Im guessing carpet or large rugs would be OK for floor coverings.
YMMV, for some reason carpets and floating floor don't work for me as they "echo" alot (easy test is to strip the room bare of everything and just yell or clap the hands, my place has a concrete slab and I suspect that's the problem. For some strange reason porcelain tiles works better.

Agree very much with Pete.
We tried some of Pete's panels and bass traps in my room and ended up only getting a good result from the bass traps. Even one panel killed the sound stone dead.
+1.. I got most of Pete stuffs.. The bass traps work pretty well (but I lose some bit of "depth" coz my listening room is very small), and the panel seem to suck the mid range (or something) out, get a bit of clarity, but that's it.

interesting people never thought about room treatments as i dont know anything about it i tune from the inside imho if its right or wrong unless i hear better i wont know
Me thinks yours is fine enough as it is... Getting any better and it will be too scary...