# What about going with Fabric VS Drywall for walls???



## AutoDelphi (Jul 23, 2014)

Hello Members, 

I am looking for your help as I build my dedicated theater room, I am building this room from scratch.

The room is located in my basement with 2 concrete walls forming the front (screen area 10.5') and the side (long wall 16')and the other 2 are double wall 2x4 construction. 

The room is 10.5' wide by 16 ' long by 7.5' high. so roughly 1260 cubic feet.

The screen is 105" diagonal with the main seating position at 11'. The room is going to have 2 15" Dayton Ultimax subs in sealed boxes. I am looking for nice tight bass!! Please keep this in mind as well while forming your suggestions. 

My question is regarding the wall covering. I was thinking about sound absorption in the room, I currently have the walls framed with 2x4s on 16" centers and have used Roxul Safe'n'sound between all the studs for all 4 walls and the ceiling. 

Currently there is no drywall up yet and when you walk into the room it sounds like all the sounds are being absorbed by the Roxul. 

Heres were I need your input..

Do I do the standard drywall then use the standard measures for sound absorption and diffusion.. OR

Do I use fabric to cover the walls without using drywall. So pretty much building large speaker covers to cover the whole entire wall????

My thoughts were that the whole room would be used for sound absorption!!

Please give me your input on the idea!!! Also ask any questions you need. 

Thank you


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## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

I think you would run into having a room that is too dead. I am far from being an expert in acoustics but I believe you want some sound bouncing around. Hopefully someone else can chime in also. I am curious also. It seems like a good idea in theory


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Your isolation will suffer doing it that way as well as having an overabundance of mid/high absorption and nothing thicker than 4" to even attempt to deal with the bass. You want tight bass, you need good, thick bass control.

105" screen is really big for that space if not AT - doesn't leave much room in the front corners for bass control or damping in general in the front to address surround reflections.

If you don't care about isolation, you can leave it like it us but a decent amount of it will need to be covered in something reflective or additional thickness of insulation so you'd still have 'visible panels.'


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## orion (Sep 18, 2009)

OK there is an answer. I thought there was a reason why you are not supposed to do it that way. I am glad bpape brought some knowledge to the topic.


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