# New room setup



## nzlowie (Sep 29, 2012)

Hi guy's

Just about to move into a new house and thinking about my new listening room, or should I say what's going to be my room!
The room is approximately 5mts square, I know it's not ideal but we have to work with what's there. Two walls are unrendered brick, another wall is plaster board over timber frame. Still needs to be done so need the right board type... 

The last wall will be a false wall to hide a roller door, yes this is a shed conversion. I was thinking this false wall could be built as a lossy wall to effectively make the room acoustically longer, how do we do this?

Once completed would you place the speakers on the solid wall or the false wall end of the room? Where ever I place the speakers they have different types of wall next to them so these will have different reflection properties. Is this an issue?

As the room is basically square is there anything else we could do to improve things? The room also doesn't have a ceiling yet, should this be built solid or do we want it acoustically transparent?
I was planning on using very heavy curtains to hide the roller door, while its a listening room we don't need to use this door. 

Was thinking of placing the speakers up against the curtain covering the roller door, that way they still have some "air" behind them. 

Many more questions to come but its a start, your thoughts?
﻿
Cheers

Appreciate your thoughts, starting from almost scratch so now's the chance to get it right.


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## ajinfla (May 10, 2009)

I see only 2 speakers in rendering, is this primarily a music (stereo) room, or MCH/HT also?


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## nzlowie (Sep 29, 2012)

HI AJ, 2 channel only. My HT is in the family room, this room is soley for me and my 2 channel setup.


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## ajinfla (May 10, 2009)

Cool. Ok, yes, make the "front" wall, i.e. the wall behind the speaker, the roller door/lossy wall. Not to make room "effectively longer", but to allow bass frequencies to pass through (lossy). Assuming your speakers are monopole "box" speakers like 99.9%, this helps to mitigate the buildup of excessive LF power and corresponding excitement of modes. This contributes to greater clarity, pitch and definition in the bass.
Use enough insulation material for climate purposes of course, but a wood frame/plaster board non-solid structure wall (similar to an interior wall construction) will be lossy enough.
Regarding any "treatment" of the room itself, my advice is to always place furnishings in there first, sofas, ottomans(?), "decor", etc., position the speakers, then* listen*. If you are displeased with some area of the sound, _then_ consider so called treatments. 
2 human ears/brain are not the same as microphones, we have abilities to perceptually adapt and "listen through" the room to a large extent (with limits)...unlike a mic.
My generic recommendation if you need to "treat", is diffusion on wall behind speaker, absorption behind you/listening chair.

btw, unsure what type music you listen to, but if acoustic, you may be interested in this thread

cheers


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## nzlowie (Sep 29, 2012)

Thanks AJ

The wall to the right of the speakers is framed with 125mmx50mm timber but not lined yet. I read somewhere that plywood is better for lining music rooms than plaster board is this correct? (Will also have insulation in this wall). Or the other idea I read about was to have a rubber membrane behind the plaster board so the wall becomes a large membrane trap. Worth going to this trouble or will plywood lining be ok?

So you don't think its an issue if the speakers have 2 different types of wall construction next to them?

Lastly (for now anyway....) Ceiling, build it flat, slopping of stepped?

Cheers


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## nzlowie (Sep 29, 2012)

Sorry AJ, forgot one of your questions...... Music, lot of the old blues, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Eagles ect. Loving the old blues as they are very clean, simple recordings so not over engineered. 

Speakers are horns driven by tubes.


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## ajinfla (May 10, 2009)

nzlowie said:


> Thanks AJ
> 
> The wall to the right of the speakers is framed with 125mmx50mm timber but not lined yet. I read somewhere that plywood is better for lining music rooms than plaster board is this correct? (Will also have insulation in this wall). Or the other idea I read about was to have a rubber membrane behind the plaster board so the wall becomes a large membrane trap. Worth going to this trouble or will plywood lining be ok?
> 
> ...


I am not aware of why plywood would be "better". With the wall behind the speaker being lossy, you should be fine with some asymmetry horizontally, as that will only affect the lowest frequencies, which are already allowed to escape behind speakers. The midbass>upper frequencies will reflect, not pass through such surfaces. That will help stabilize imaging. OTOH, I don't think there would be any harm to make the non-solid right wall double (triple?) layered, any combo of plywood/plaster.
If you can do a sloped/peaked ceiling, that would be fine also.



nzlowie said:


> Sorry AJ, forgot one of your questions...... Music, lot of the old blues, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Eagles ect. Loving the old blues as they are very clean, simple recordings so not over engineered.
> 
> Speakers are horns driven by tubes.


Interesting, never seen those, what brand/model? Clearly some directivity control through the upper frequencies, with monopole box bass. So you listen to primarily non-acoustic bass music. What source(s)? Any possibility of dsp/eq, even at software level?


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## nzlowie (Sep 29, 2012)

ajinfla said:


> Interesting, never seen those, what brand/model? Clearly some directivity control through the upper frequencies, with monopole box bass. So you listen to primarily non-acoustic bass music. What source(s)? Any possibility of dsp/eq, even at software level?


They are my DIY creation, a combination of designs. The bass section is provided by 
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/DTQWT-mkIII.htm on top of this sits a couple of Le Cleach horns. 340hz & 550hz
https://www.azurahorn.com/azurahorn_horns.html

The bass being horn loaded blends nicely with the mid horn. I've spent many many hours tuning this combination and for the music I listen to its absolutely beautiful! Haven't heard anything else that I'd swap them for!

I use a PC with AudioOptimizer and a very good DAC. The speakers are bi amped and the bass amp has DSP so should be able to tweak as required. Mid-HF runs of a beautiful tube amp.

Thanks again for your thoughts, they're all helping me build the picture of what I need to do.

Cheers


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