bev Posted May 11, 2001 Share Posted May 11, 2001 Ok guys... #1. I know I've been absent lately. I've been wayyyy busy. But I've missed you! #2. I'm building a new house...and want to make sure I build the walls, floors & corners to make my Chorus II's happy....any advice? The room will be approx. 20x20'. Thanks in advance for saving my butt once more! Bev ------------------ Love & kisses on your Klipsch's!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted May 11, 2001 Share Posted May 11, 2001 Short Answer - same dimensions for length and width is a bad thing - results in standing wave problems causing floopy bass. Long answer, check these links, courtesy Stereophile... J. Gordon Holt, "In Search Of The Audio Abode---The Hi-fi House" http://www.stereophile.com/fullarchives.cgi?35 Thomas J. Norton, "Building the Hi-Fi House" http://www.stereophile.com/fullarchives.cgi?31 Ray ------------------ Music is art Audio is engineering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted May 11, 2001 Share Posted May 11, 2001 Hi, Bev! The first thing is to change the room size. 20 x 20 will be great to set up a resonance (standing waves) in the bass that is equal to the 20 foot length; about 55 Hz. You want to avoid any dimension that is an integer multiple of another dimension; like 8 x 16 x 24 (1:2:3). If you will make one wall out of square, you will just about garauntee no resonance. Try a room that's 18 x 20 x 22 x 20.4 feet, for instance, that's one non-parallel side wall. Two non-parallel side walls looks even cooler, like an auditorium and works better. The triangles made by the angled walls become closets. Insist all 4 walls of this room, plus the ceiling and floor have at least one row of "block bridging" per 8' of stud or joist. Block bridging is a 2-by whatever brace nailed between the stud or joist about in the middle of the 8' span. It stiffens the wall a lot without costing much money. Don't accept steel straps, they don't work much. Make sure the 2 x 4 studs get covered on both sides with sheetrock or some sort of paneling (normal) to further ensure their stiffness and insulate all of the walls, ceiling and floor of this room with fiberglass (only abnormal in the interior wall(s)). You want to make the room as non-resonant as reasonably possible and use carpet and wall treatments (curtains, acoustic panels or Persian rugs) to control reflections. IMHO, more than this, like diffusers, is getting obsessive/compulsive, but can improve the sound of your room. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Adams Posted May 11, 2001 Share Posted May 11, 2001 Hey Bev - was wondering where you went. Yeah - what John Albright said with the exception of using fiberglas insulation. Do yourself (and your energy bill) a favor and tell the builder you want him to use blown-in cellulose insulation and not fiberglas batting. Not only is it a better insulator, it's friendlier to any alergies you may have due to the material being made from paper. Not sure it's totally hypo-allergenic (I think icyonene foam insulation is the only one that is), but many folks complain less. My new home has it and here's da bottom line - house is approx. 2000 sq. ft. heated and totally electric. Highest bill to date has been around $90. And no, we ain't frugal. :-) Not to get off on a tangent, but I wonder how a room built with metal studs would compare to built using wood studs?? Tom Adams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdm56 Posted May 11, 2001 Share Posted May 11, 2001 Bev, Lots of good advice already. Especially the links. I personally would avoid the non-parallel walls, though. Not on sonic grounds, because it does have merit, but due to cost and complication. Excellent results can still be achieved with careful selection of room dimensions, so as to spread out room modes evenly. And try to plan your furniture and audio system layout in advance, so as to avoid painting yourself into a corner sonically, so to speak. Good luck! ------------------ JDMcCall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bev Posted May 12, 2001 Author Share Posted May 12, 2001 Thanks Guys! I knew you'd have the answers! Well, the good news is the room is not a 20x20 box... it actually opens into another room and the entry, so actual open space is more like 20x35ish... I can't do non-parallel walls, but just about anything else is still possible at this stage! Ray, thanks for the links! John, you made my brain hurt! But I get it now.... Tom, thanks for the insulation tips...I'll need to keep the utility bills down and James...I'm trying to plan it now...before we ever break ground! I'm gonna drive the architect & builder nuts!!! Yeeha!!! Bev ------------------ Love & kisses on your Klipsch's!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTYoung Posted May 12, 2001 Share Posted May 12, 2001 Bev, I am in the process of desigining my house right now. There are several things you can do insulation wise to help out with your electric and heating bills. One thing you can do, if your exterior walls are wood framing is use 2X6 instead of 2x4 studs which will allow you space to use extra insulation in the walls. Blown insulation in the attic is less expensve than batts but the down side is that it tends to be a pain if you uyse the attic for storage. Icyenene insualtion is, from what I've heard, a better insualtion but it is actually sprayed on the underside of the roof decking so if you ever have a leak and the wood decking gets damaged you must have that area resprayed after the wood is replaced. Blocking in the walls is a pretty good idea, but you will have to request it because it is not standard building practice to put blocking in unless there are cabinets or shelving going in. If you are building a house on a slab with no crawl space underneath you also might want to consider running your water lines in the attic instead of under the slab. If a pipe ever does break it will be much easier and cheaper to fix than a pipe under a concrete slab. Replacing drywall is cheap compared to jackhammering and replacing a section of concrete slab. Tom, metal studs do not rot or warp and of course do not get termites, but standard 25 ga. metal studs are nowhere near as rigid as wood. ------------------ Yamaha HTR-5150 SF-1 SC-1 SS-1 KSW-150 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bev Posted May 12, 2001 Author Share Posted May 12, 2001 Yeah, I'm going around & around with the builder now... it looks like it would be too much $$ to do 2x6 walls. Everytime I get away from the conventional he says "chi-ching"... ::groan:: I am LOVING the links, Ray! I am gonna send the builder & architect into fits!!!! OH.....is a vaulted ceiling a good thing or a bad thing? I'm trying to get it together before construction, for materials, dimensions, and speaker placement. Got to do it right the first time! Bev ------------------ Love & kisses on your Klipsch's!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J M O N Posted May 13, 2001 Share Posted May 13, 2001 Bev, I have recently gone through the same process you are going through. There are three things I did to my sound room that strayed from the standard construction plan. The first two ideas were given to me by a local hifi dealer that also had just built a house. Both our rooms were going to be on the second floor, and he suggested doubling up on the number of floor joists to give a more rigid floor. The other item he mentioned was to install double sheetrock on the walls. This was also supposed to provide more rigid walls. He said the results were good so I also incorporated those changes to my house. There was additional cost that you will have to check with your builder. Since I will be using Khorns, I wanted to make sure the corners of my room were also rigid. I wanted to add additional braces in each corner. As mentioned above, the builder called this "blocking", and I had the "blocking" peformed in each corner between each stud. There were about four of five blocks installed between each pair of studs, each "block" about 2 feet apart from each other. I had this done 4 feet out from each corner and from the floor all the way to the ceiling. My builder did not charge me for this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted May 13, 2001 Share Posted May 13, 2001 Generally speaking, a vaulted ceiling is a good thing. It breaks up standing waves (resonance). I like the double sheetrock walls, can't be much more expensive and will greatly stiffen the wall, plus reduce sound transfer into and out of the room. Multiple block bridges between the studs would be a good idea, too. The "blocks" are usually made from scrap lumber. Stop adding blocks when the cost is noticible. Just one is a satisfying improvement. I'd say 3 or more, all around the room, is overkill. jmon's corners were a special case. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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