Starting Point - Bob's new room and Alexia's new home

Bobvin

Bobvin

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OK, with wifey and I now 'mostly' moved into the new home, and having committed to getting Alexias, I'm starting to look more seriously at my listening space. The space was built out to be a "media room" but not with any consideration of acoustics or anything like that. The home we bought was a former "street of dreams" home so it had all the fancy stuff of 2007, and the man cave / media room craze was just about to die out.

Now, I'd really prefer not to tear this place up and begin again, 'cause its quite attractive as it is. But how it is going to sound is a big unknown, and there are some serious issues to contend with. Of course, I'll only begin to tackle the issues once I have the speakers properly setup so I can get some good ideas what'll be needed.

First of all, the room does not "close" as the stairway from up above comes into the space and sealing it off will require a creative act. I have some ideas, but you can see with the stairs flowing into the room the way they do it won't be easy.

Second, there will be a wall of glass behind the speakers. A large window and two doors. There are currently some shades but of course those won't have much impact on the sound. I have some TubeTraps that will go into the corners, and I plan to put a large diffusor in front of the center window. There are a lot of products to choose from. My current tube traps are 16" and I may need to go to 20" depending on how things measure out in the future.

Third, the left side of the room is the space that held the screen and beneath that is a nice cabinet that was the place for the front surround speakers for the TV. I plan to convert this to album storage and hopefully can use the shelf space for components. I will need to get an electrician to wire in some dedicated 20amp circuits, near that space and also in the floor—with the expectation I will someday go to monoblocks.

Fourth, the right side is all about the bar scene. There is a microwave, a small wine cooler, a sink with granite counter, cabinets for glasses and liquor. There is even a dishwasher! This will be tough to treat acoustically. Next to this is a column of whole-house sound components and media distribution. It can all go as far as I care, it isn't wide enough to hold 19" components.

Finally, the back of the room opens to the upper floor through the stairs, and then to the other side it opens to the "guest wing" hallway which leads to three bedrooms on the lower floor, including the guest suite. I am hoping to do something with the space and build in a small wine cellar, which will allow me to put in a sliding door and close off that side of the back of the room.

I expect sound is going to travel through the house in a big way, even if I come up with a way to close off the stairs. The walls won't have any insulation, or the ceiling, so when the Alexias are singing it'll be obvious. Hopefully up in the master suite the sound won't be too bad. But this, and the other challenges, may convince me to remodel the space. If I can get by without that expense, it would sure be nice.

So... the projector will go soon, and the screen. I have a couple sound panels from ASC that have art-prints on them that will go nicely, but there really isn't a place to put my SpringTraps. Bass trapping will probably be done with additional Tube Traps. Too bad, those SpringTraps are seriously effective.

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Awesome space you have there Bob!

__________

Do you have kids?

Do you watch movies and/or listen to music while the wife is upstairs or sleeping, sometimes?

When you clap your two hands together, how that feels? ...Walk all around that space and keep clapping your hands together.
Then, ask your wife to clap her hands (loud enough), while you are upstairs, and go to the the master bedroom.

One step @ a time, and two subs are better than one. :)
 
Bob...Congratulations to you & your Wife on the purchase. New beginnings are always exciting! You have some challenges ahead, but that is half the fun. :woot:

Personally, I would make do with what you have to begin, implement & progress from there.

Short of bricking your window in, glass is not such a bad thing behind your loudspeakers or setup. It is manageable with heavy Roman blinds. (Two layer with blackout). You could even put roller shades behind them. On top of that canvass awnings on the outside may be an additional option.

As for the stair case, the sound will travel outwards but your subs will maintain sufficient pressurisation within. The staircase will be a reflection point but that can be managed with a customised dividing wall or panel or screen such as an Acoustic Revive or even ASC traps to begin with.

Deciding whether to ditch the kitchenette or not can come later.

Given the beautiful timber finishes you already have, some Vicoustic panels could compliment nicely.
 
Congrats Bob. Beautiful room. It's all coming together. I know how exhausted you must be. Moving is stressful. But in a few months from now, you will have forgotten all about that and be enjoying Alexia bliss! :)
 
Mike said:
Congrats Bob. Beautiful room. It's all coming together. I know how exhausted you must be. Moving is stressful. But in a few months from now, you will have forgotten all about that and be enjoying Alexia bliss! :)
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That's when you'll start to come up with new ideas for that room. I'd think about putting you gear on the wall that the screen is on now. The shades on the doors will act as acoustical treatments. How big is the guest room back there? I know you said that you don't want to do any serious remodeling but... You could take out the wall that the screen is on and open that room right up. That would give you plenty of space between your listening position and the kitchenette, which might help with the overall sound as well. The guest room could become a nice little bike workshop. :)
 
The dimensions are 29'2" X 16'7" X 9'7".

The glass doors open to our lower deck, but there are doors to the deck in the hobby room to the right (through the door next to the media stack) and in the bedroom on the opposite side of wall where the screen is.

No kids, just two cats. No TV watching in this space, and the Alexias need no sub-woofer support.

Step 1) Put in a nice wool area rug. That'll begin to reduce the slap echo that is gnarly right now.

When the space under the shelf is repurposed to album storage I can make the front of the drawers have absorption/diffusion as necessary. Likewise, I can modify the glass doors of the liquor cabinet, possibly the door faces beneath the sink. I will likely pull the little wine cooler with its glass door that interferes a wee bit with putting a tube trap in the corner.

Along with a big diffusion panel I'll have custom made to be movable for in front of the large window, I could put Vicoustic panels on the ceiling and space above the component shelf.

i had done enough tweaking in my former room to learn to move cautiously one step at a time or you can mess things up. But this time I'll get some measurements to guide me.

Damn, I'm really getting a jones to hear my music again. It'll likely be another couple months until I have repurchased all that was stolen, and of course waiting to learn how whole the insurance payment will make me. It is indeed a journey.
 
Bobvin said:
The dimensions are 29'2" X 16'7" X 9'7".
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Nice dimensions.

No kids, just two cats. No TV watching in this space, and the Alexias need no sub-woofer support.
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I know some people (I included) who could write a book about this subject.

Step 1) Put in a nice wool area rug. That'll begin to reduce the slap echo that is gnarly right now.
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Definitely. ...That was part of the plan right from the beginning.

Along with a big diffusion panel I'll have custom made to be movable for in front of the large window, I could put Vicoustic panels on the ceiling and space above the component shelf.
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Sounds like a very good plan.

i had done enough tweaking in my former room to learn to move cautiously one step at a time or you can mess things up. But this time I'll get some measurements to guide me.
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Just like a pro.

Damn, I'm really getting a jones to hear my music again. It'll likely be another couple months until I have repurchased all that was stolen, and of course waiting to learn how whole the insurance payment will make me. It is indeed a journey.
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Meanwhile get something inexpensive (second-hand ♪) and easily resalable, without loss. ...No fuss no muss.
 
Has anyone used or have experience with RPG Diffractal products? This is what I'm considering using to build a nice diffusor to be placed in front of the large glass window. RPG makes many other acoustical products—has anyone used them?
 
Bob, I love your new room ! It looks like it might be a little lively right now. But I think it has great potential !

I hope you get it setup soon, I know you miss your music :panic:
 
Bobvin said:
Second, there will be a wall of glass behind the speakers. A large window and two doors. There are currently some shades but of course those won't have much impact on the sound. I have some TubeTraps that will go into the corners, and I plan to put a large diffusor in front of the center window. There are a lot of products to choose from.
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Nothing can beat the SMT transparent WIng diffusor in this application IMO:

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You can barely even see it !

Here is how it looks from the side:

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Elberoth said:
Nothing can beat the SMT transparent WIng diffusor in this application IMO:

You can barely even see it !
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Adam, thanks for this, I did see something like this on the RPG site. Not sure if the somewhat blurry look would be too good though after a bottle of wine!:bonkers::bonkers: The diffusor that is to the right, next to the sax, is more along the lines of what I'm thinking, with maybe a 4ft verticle section topped by a 2ft horizontal, or something different like an RPG omnifusor. The shapes above the verticle panels in the picture are great, but I think it would be too much for me.

And I believe I saw your room on another audio-blog. Extremely nice. You seem to have cycled through some gear too!
 
I would go with sth that does not limit the view/sunlight, but it is a personal thing. Here is a another view:

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All products on the first image in my previous post come from SMT - this is a Swedish company, but I believe they also have a distributor in the US.

Those diffusers can be had in a non-transparent for as well - painted or veneered:

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Bobvin said:
And I believe I saw your room on another audio-blog. Extremely nice. You seem to have cycled through some gear too!
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That is 'cos my second name is Joe ;)
 
Bob, what a gorgeous room! Definitely a great space to listen to some tunes!

re: room treatments. I'm looking at RPG Diffractals as well, in particular for the front wall behind the speakers. Elsewhere, was thinking Vicoustics mainly.

For the staircase, there are noise isolating curtains. Not sure how well they work, but something to look into. Jeff is your best resource for things like this.

Congrats again on the room - it's beautiful!
 
With a large window behind and between the speakers, I was considering diffusion. But as I read through the Wilson manual (heh, heh, the rat bastards who stole my speakers didn't get the hardware or manual—good luck assholes) they seem to discourage using diffusion behind and between the speakers. But I see lots of examples of this in many rooms, and in many cases I see folks putting a large diameter tube trap dead center between the speakers. (I see in Mikes room he's placed tube traps dead center and more to each side of center.)

I know I am going to want to deal with the strong reflection the window is going to throw as one of the first places I tweak the room. I was considering the Diffractals, or something very much like Adam has shown above. My plan was to create a stand to support said diffusion panel.

So who can tell me if this is a wise road to head down, or should I focus my initial treatment elsewhere? (I have some 16" tube traps for the front corners, and may need to go bigger depending on later measurements.) Unfortunately, the Spring Traps I have invested in don't seem to fit in any corners of the new space... soon to be for sale!)
 
Generally speaking the front wall is where you would want THICK absorption to help with any kind of boundary reflection in the low end. I have also seen people use both so there is no wrong or right.Overall, I see a couple spots that you might want to deal with (besides treating corners as you are talking about). The back wall is going to need some THICK trapping to help with deep nulls and peaks coming from that wall. Look for something that is thick but also has scattering/diffusion built to the front. We have panels, that can have a Scatter Plate built to the front, and I am sure we are not the only ones doing this. The other area you need to focus on is the early reflection points that are located between where you sit and the speakers. Perhaps you could use something moveable, so they can be stored away when not in use. Also the ceiling reflection point should be treated.Great looking room and I am sure it will sound wonderful!
 
A window between your two mains is not necessarily a bad thing; it has a view on the outside, and that view can make a whole lot of difference for the better.

That's at least what I see through my own window, between my two mains, and five feet behind them.
 
NorthStar said:
A window between your two mains is not necessarily a bad thing; it has a view on the outside, and that view can make a whole lot of difference for the better.
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Well, I've got a house full of windows, and if I cut a few trees I will have a spectacular view of Mt. Hood from just about every room on the main floor. But my music room will be very much the "man cave" so blocking those windows will not bother me at all.

I do like Kiwi's comment that there are some tuned base traps at the base of some of the diffusors. I didn't know base traps would help at that location? I wonder if my spring traps, laid on their sides on the floor, would have an impact placed beneath the window, or even in the back of the room on the floor?
 
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