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Designing new room

I need some advice.
I'm thinking about building an addition to house my stereo. It's currently in a dry unfinished basement. Because the turntables are on a slab foundation, with concrete walls, it sounds great. 
The new space would be about 22 x 18 with a V shaped cathedral ceiling of about 14' at its highest point. Suspended hardwood over ply floor. Am I on the right track or will I be disappointed compared to what I have now. Details in Virtual Systems. Thanks.
128x128noromance
7 responses Add your response
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
There’s good advice on room building in the April Absolute Sound. My room was constructed using this method (ASC IsoWall)

Building the walls to sound good is not easy and your current concrete may be hard to beat ... but I’m amazed you get the Quads to work in a room as big as your current room, hope the high ceilings in your new space don’t exacerbate any issues
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
9,404 posts
 
Thamls @folkfreak  The ASC info is appreciated. The Quads play in a corner for near-field listening. I'm not really looking for loud in the new space but hope the Quads will breath and image better in a larger room.
mikexxyz
66 posts
 
Here is an on-line calculator to understand room modes.  Since you are having it built, you have some flexibility in dimension which means you get to choose where your problems are ;-).

My guess is that the acoustic engineers would not recommend the "V" shaped cathedral ceiling.  I have a vaulted ceiling which is not recommended either but it works Ok.

http://www.bobgolds.com/Mode/RoomModes.htm
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
9,404 posts
 
Thanks. I'll consider closing off the V at 10 feet. 
mikexxyz
66 posts
 

Concrete and stone do not absorb bass energy, wooden structures do.  Regardless of whether you like the current sound (seems you do), the new room should have dramatically different acoustics.  I would measure the current room (REW) as a baseline, then you have a direction if things are not initially to your liking. 


dentdog's avatar
dentdog
469 posts
 
That 14’ vaulted ceiling could be dropped at it’s apex and designed with some wonderful diffusion since you have at least a couple of feet to play with. Dropping it definitely gives you some room to play with diffusion/absorption. You don’t see many rooms with well designed ceilings. Could make the room special for sure. My ceiling at 8.5 is tough to treat and remain esthetically pleasing. 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,412 posts
 
With the Quads, the ceiling is not as much of a concern as it is with point source loudspeakers. But the front wall (behind the speakers) is more so. Diffusion!
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