Are floating walls and ceilings THAT important?


I am beginning a dedicated room design that will be in the basement of a new construction house. I plan on optimizing, as much as possible, room dimensions. Wanting fellow audiogoners to share some knowlege and experience. Also planning on several dedicated circuits hopefully cryoed. I also assume a subfloor over the concrete would be very desirable. I was not going to float the walls and ceilings thinking it may be overkill but my wife was painting (rolling) the room behind my listening (living) room and man there was a resonant frequency that I thought was bass from my listening source. I am leaning toward floating the walls now if I can get my contractor to get on board and understand this construction method? I kind of understand but am not that handy? Is the extra cost worth the benefit, in your experiences? My entire system retails for about $14000 and I listen to music and watch movies about equally. Thanks much. Twc Did you catch that my wife was in there working and I was listening? Actually just breaking.
twc

Showing 1 response by islandflyfisher

Twc,

My dedicated sound room has what you mention as floating walls. I used 5/8 drywall for the inside walls, screws spaced every four inches and used a sound blocking product to help elimate my music from leaking into the house between the two walls. I do not recommend putting a sub floor in over your concrete unless you are more into Home Theater than 2-channel audio or are using speakers that do not reproduce deep bass. If your current listening room has an elevated floor, you will notice a much tighter base in a room with concrete floors with much less bloom in your low end. I'd also recommend adding one more dedicated circuit for your lights in the room. Put in dimming light to add ambiance. It makes a ton of difference when you get into some serious listening. With an extra circuit, you will to pick up any noise from that dimmer switch.