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Ideal design for a new music room

I'm designing a new house which will include a room dedicated to enjoying stereo music reproduction. In my experience, room acoustics have a huge effect on the sound in any particular room.

I'm interested in ideal dimensions, structural materials and finishes. Any experiences and stories anyone?

The music I mostly enjoy is classical, including organ, choral, chamber, solo instruments and orchestral. 
128x128encore
encore's avatar
encore OP
7 posts
 
As I understand it, the golden ratio applies only to rectangular rooms. It’s also quite problematic to apply. I’m hoping to avoid the problems the ratios try to solve by starting out with an asymmetrical room. 

Here are some considerations, entirely without input (so far) from acoustic professionals:
  • the walls, floor and ceiling should be rigid so they will not vibrate and contribute to the sound. This is important for the low notes.
  • The floor perimeter dimensions should not be a perfect rectangle with parallel opposite walls in order to prevent standing waves - cancellations of some frequencies and boosting of others. Would rounded space like a band shell be best?
  • Would a stable 3D sound stage be more likely in a room that has a physical stage facing a room that widens into the listening area?
  • Then there are the livelyness and brightness issues which will require carpeting of some of the surfaces, the floor to start. How about the ceiling or the back wall?

Thanks for your input,

Peter
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
A room that is not a rectangle or with any parallel surfaces then introduces a whole host of issues in speaker positioning (as each speaker will see a very different set of reflection points). Interesting discussion of this topic in Roy Gregorys experience of his new room 

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/blog/wilson_audio_alexx_thors_hammer_2.htm
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi Peter

If I can be of any help let me know.

http://tuneland.forumotion.com/t404-my-tunable-room-tjbhuler

Michael Green

http://www.michaelgreenaudio.net/

tom6897's avatar
tom6897
1,484 posts
 
Check out the round room, https://goo.gl/images/ZsdoW1
and https://goo.gl/images/NukgrR
encore's avatar
encore OP
7 posts
 
Thanks Michael Green for the very interesting and creative work you do. You are the right person to improve the sound in an existing room that doesn't sound quite right. Maybe all rooms need fine tuning and there is no such thing as a perfectly sounding room. But I'd still like to get as close as we can from the start.

Tom6897: A room as round as the inside of a ball is very interesting but may be going too far for what I have in mind. Has anyone heard music reproduced in such a round room?

Folkfreak: Wouldn't a pair of speakers placed in a room something like I describe below have matching reflection points?

  • 18' wall behind the speakers with a pair of side walls at 100º that are 24' long and a slightly curving wall facing the speakers. Height could be 10' at the speakers and 12' at the opposite end. 


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