Cody_Mack Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 Beginning planning for new audio room. We moved into what could be our dream home, but it still doesn't have that perfect room for audio. I have a room, but the biggest problem is that it is on the second floor; albeit it is the only room on the second floor. The room definitely has potential although it is an odd shape. It is actually an 'L' shape but it is large enough that I can close off part of it and end up with a large rectangle. I could easily do a 16' x 26' or maybe even a 17' x 27', although the ceiling is only 9'. Anyway, before I do anything, spend any money, I need to know if I can isolate the sound transfer through the floor and the walls, from the living area below. I listen at moderatley loud levels most of the time. If I am not able to achieve the desired sound attenuation, then it may not be worth my time/expense to go any further. I am looking for an architect/sound engineer to help me out; tell me what I can/cannot achieve. If you know of someone in the Houston/Katy TX area please let me know. Or offering your proven expertise here is appreciated. Now here is an interesting solution that someone here at work suggested: use active noise cancellation, or ANC! WTH??? Anyone heard of this? How can that be a good solution, for hi-fi? Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akdave Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Congrats on the dream home and good luck with the room buildout! I've just been researching this myself as I have very limited access to professionals in my area to consult. I found what I believe is a decent website to start here: http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/soundproofing101/4-elements-of-soundproofing-for-construction/ Floors will definitely be a challenge. I will hopefully be in my room in a couple of months and will do some sound testing (decibels in room vs floor above, etc.). So at this point I can't tell you if my project has been a big success or not. You can see parts of my build in my thread here. I used insulation between the joists, soundboard, track to decouple the dry wall and two layers of drywall on the ceiling. I don't know about active cancellation. I'll be interested to follow this and see how it goes for you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akdave Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 PS - I would think you could find a decent company in the Houston area that specializes in this too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrappydue Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Not sure how much money you have but the erskine group does top notch installs and soundproof stuff. I just visitors a buddies house and his room was amazing. Although in the basement but once the door closed it was pretty hard to hear much outside. Bass you will never stop. However the other stuff can be reduced a lot. I think last time I did research they said figure 30$ a square foot to treat any surface to a high degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody_Mack Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 Thanks Dave for the input. Your build looks nice. I have contacted one guy in Houston that works for a large cinema company and he allegedly has the expertise I need. Erskine Group probably way out of my price range. And I am not looking for a full-blown theater; my first love is 2-channel music with movies and TV after that. So I will spend the majority of money and effort in getting the music setup right and the theater portion fall where it may. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivervalleymgb Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 My next to the last HT room was the easiest. Bonus room over a three car garage. 2x4 side walls with cellulose, false wall for the projector screen with 1' of fiberglass, wall against the house was 8" cellulose, ceiling was 14" cellulose. room was 22'x42" with a large bath and open kitchenette at the rear. Something about the sloped ceilings made it very easy to equalize the sound. Anyone building a new house with cellulose, make sure that the insulator uses adhesive! Otherwise it will settle and lose both the energy and sound insulation properties. I always prefer fiberglass to cellulose for sound insulation, but this room worked very, very well! Always easiest to design pre-construction. My latest room build is going to be inside a separate garage building with existing 2x6 fiberglass insulated walls with 16" cellulose in the ceilings, designed for K-horn mains, Belle center, La Scala rears, and Heresy fronts. New walls inside (2) will be 2x6 with fiberglass. Interior treatments will be added as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivervalleymgb Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 I should have also noted that the 8" between the main part of the house and the room over the garage contained decoupled studs. Most of the sound came into the house from the stairwell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artto Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Active noise cancellation won't do $hit for what you would be trying to do, especially at the lowest frequencies. Active noise cancellation is more useful for canceling *some* ambient noise, more typically middle frequencies, where our ears are most sensitive. When you're on the "second floor" with your sound room there will be a lot of mechanical vibration ~ sound transmission, through the structure itself. If you were building/designing everything from scratch you could most certainly isolate any sound transmission ~ at great cost. Trying to retro fit an existing structure for the same level of sound transmission loss would be even more expensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 (edited) See http://www.avsforum.com/forum/19-dedicated-theater-design-construction/1509173-soundproofing-master-thread.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=9#post24147893 for additional ideas on soundproofing. I agree with Art on the active cancellation idea: there is way too much structure-borne sound transmission of varying phase in each floor structural member that will preclude the injection of out-of-phase cancellation energy into the floor and support structures. Absorption and decoupling seem to be the only viable approaches. Acoustic refraction using acoustic impedance mismatching materials is another way, thus avoiding the use of mass only--as in the use of sand and lead, etc. Edited July 16, 2014 by Chris A 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Bass you will never stop This is essentially true, particularly with the sound room being on the second floor. Some people would try a "floating floor" for the sound room, just above the regular floor. Google "floating floor," and best of luck -- you'll need it. Beware the word "soundproofing." Contractors tend to use that word to refer to preventing the transmission of human voice frequencies, or to reduce plumbing noises. I don't know what the correct term would be for what you would want -- "increasing transmission loss, 15 Hz and up?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 (edited) Here's a small tip: don't put your subs on the floor. I have three subwoofers in my condo; two small ones in the bedroom (for an even soundfield with the mattress in the middle of the room) and a larger one in the living/listening room. All of them are on low tables (end-type table or bedside table) and are sitting on one-inch-thick neoprene pads. That way, they project sound into the air, but not into the floor and the rest of the structure of the place. I get plenty of bass reinforcement, but the neighbours do not, which is the idea. I've never had a noise complaint, although I do turn up the volume occasionally. The sound may even be more clear, since the raised position reduces the floor reflection that floor-mounted subs would produce. Edited September 13, 2015 by Islander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grtomo Posted April 20, 2018 Share Posted April 20, 2018 If you have the time and think it'd help to compare a few different soundproofing options, online directories can often be a big help. For example, in your situation you might benefit from something like this: http://www.iqsdirectory.com/soundproofing/ Best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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