Hi All,

This is my first post here, and I need some help. I am building a listening room in the back of a two-car garage, adjacent to the house. I have some questions, and I would be very grateful if the knowledgeable people here help me. I realize that it is the time to do my best to avoid big mistakes, unless I want to start moving the walls back and forth later

My music source is a pair of Klipschorn speakers, they should be placed in two corners sharing a wall (like this, but without the middle one that appears on that photo). I want to have them standing along a shorter wall, as I need the length of the room in order to have two "listening positions": a couch, and right behind it a desk with a chair. Here is a preliminary picture I made (the speakers are marked as Khorns):


After I draw the picture I changed my mind a bit regarding the dimensions. I searched the web and learnt the notion of Louden’s "ideal ratio", 1:1.4:1.9 (it also fits well inside Bolt's chart). So, now I want to make my room approximately 10'x14'x19' = 3.04m x 4.27m x 5.79m.

The questions I am left with are the following:

• Shall I use special materials to build the walls and the ceiling? We live in a quite area, so I do not care much about noise isolation.
  
  
• I read that non-parallel walls might be a good idea. Shall I make my room not exactly rectangular, say with wall lengths of 4.22, 4.32, 5.77 and 5.82 meters? I am not going to make recordings in the room, this is a listening place only.
  
  
• I know that sloped ceiling might be helpful too. Shall I, instead of having the height of 3.04m everywhere, have the ceiling linearly rising from, say, 2.70m to 3.04m? The lower end wound be at the wall where the speakers will stand, of course.
  
  
• We have concrete floor in the garage, and I am thinking of making a wood floor in the listening room. Is it OK? Shall I use some special floor materials?
  
  
• In general, I have no previous experience in designing acoustically-pleasing rooms. Is there anything else I should know "before it's too late"?
  

Thanks in advance

Quote Yrtimed:

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• Shall I use special materials to build the walls and the ceiling? We live in a quite area, so I do not care much about noise isolation.
  
  
• I read that non-parallel walls might be a good idea. Shall I make my room not exactly rectangular, say with wall lengths of 4.22, 4.32, 5.77 and 5.82 meters? I am not going to make recordings in the room, this is a listening place only.
  
  
• I know that sloped ceiling might be helpful too. Shall I, instead of having the height of 3.04m everywhere, have the ceiling linearly rising from, say, 2.70m to 3.04m? The lower end wound be at the wall where the speakers will stand, of course.
  
  
• We have concrete floor in the garage, and I am thinking of making a wood floor in the listening room. Is it OK? Shall I use some special floor materials?
  
  
• In general, I have no previous experience in designing acoustically-pleasing rooms. Is there anything else I should know "before it's too late"?
  

Thanks in advance

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1. If noise isn't a problem, don't bother. As long as you know for SURE that it's not gonna become a problem in the future. Consider sound escaping, and entering. If you know it wont affect you, then spend it on acoustic treatment rather than multiple layers of material for soundproofing.

2. Non parallel can just mean that the walls be splayed, not necessarily changing all the lengths.

3. I'm not gonna try and bodge an answer, 'cause i'm not 100% sure on this. However i expect it will be helpful, as again its two parallel surfaces.

4. As long as the room is properly treated. Wood floor shouldn't be problem.

5. You haven't really mentioned what the rooms gonna be used for apart from "Listening" so there's not really any specific advice to give? Also you haven't mentioned treatment considerations. Are you planning on building your own panels/bass traps, or purchasing ready made products?

Chris.

Quote christianmurphy:

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1. If noise isn't a problem, don't bother. As long as you know for SURE that it's not gonna become a problem in the future. Consider sound escaping, and entering. If you know it wont affect you, then spend it on acoustic treatment rather than multiple layers of material for soundproofing.

2. Non parallel can just mean that the walls be splayed, not necessarily changing all the lengths.

3. I'm not gonna try and bodge an answer, 'cause i'm not 100% sure on this. However i expect it will be helpful, as again its two parallel surfaces.

4. As long as the room is properly treated. Wood floor shouldn't be problem.

5. You haven't really mentioned what the rooms gonna be used for apart from "Listening" so there's not really any specific advice to give? Also you haven't mentioned treatment considerations. Are you planning on building your own panels/bass traps, or purchasing ready made products?

Chris.

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Thank you for the answer, Chris

1. I really hope that soundproofing is not gonna be an issue, in fact that hope is one of the biggest reason for buying a house

2. The thing is that the room should fit inside a garage, so the easiest solution for making non-parallel walls seems to be through making one of the angles equal to 90 degrees (probably, in one of the corners where a speaker stands). Then I need different lengths (as well as certain asymmetry) in order to have non-parallel walls.

4. In fact, in terms of looking I do not care whether the floor would be wood, carpet or anything else. So my question is, in fact, what would be the recommended material for the floor.

5. The sound source would be 2-channel.
The room is going to be the place where I work (I am a scientist), that is why the office table. When I work I love to have music playing quietly. As well, that would be the place to just listen to music, probably sitting in the couch. At some point later I might add a projector and a pull-down screen between the speakers, but that would certainly be a less important thing.
I plan to buy some ready made bass traps, as well as absorption panels to create reflection-free positions at the listening points. Maybe, I would also put some panel at the back wall of the room.