Listening room ceiling type?


I'm in the planning stages of my listening room in my basement. The dimensions will be approximately 13' x 19' with the ceiling measured 7'7" from concrete floor to the bottom of the joists above. The joists are 2x10 with a finished length of just less than 9". It is my intension to fill the space between joists with Roxul mineral wool bats. These bats have a 3" thickness.

Should I stick three of the bats between each joist to fill the space or say two bats with an air space between the floor above and the first bat and again an air space between the first bat and the second with no third bat at all. The joist run perpindicular to the direction the speakers will be pointing.

Also, I have had a suggestion to us burlap to cover the ceiling but thought this might be to absorbtive. I've been considering a drop ceiling of 2'x2' panels (1st choice) and a fixed drywall ceiling (2nd choice if not 3rd after burlap). Any advise from some of you folks in the know would be much appreciated. Thanks, Tom.
cosmic_void

Showing 1 response by bay1553c48

That's really interesting. My last house had dimensions very similar. The house was a split level with the down stairs having a bedroom, full bath, full utility kitchenette room and two large rooms measuring 16' x 24'. The ceiling was exactly like what you described 7'-7" finished. I loved the room with my Vandersteen 2c about 5 feet from the back wall and 3 feet from the sides. It threw a sound stage so big; it was incredible! I had popcorn ceiling removed and a 6" x 12" beam to cover in the stereo room. When the popcorn was removed, the removal process used soap water that caused the existing dry wall ceiling to sag. So instead of fighting it, I had the contractor put another 1/2" dry wall over the top and secure it with 3" screws and mud. I used 6" crown molding which knocked some of the reflection. The room was lively and just loved jazz and blues music. Classical was good too. My brother-in-law and his sons were all in the orchestra. They could not believe the presentation of the sound stage! It was like beening the conductor at Boston! They would point to instuments in the sound field with their eyes closed and never once did they point to a speaker! They kept asking me how the two speaker could produce a soundstage that was 30-40 ft deep and 20 feet high! The album was Yo Yo Ma and Boston S..

So here is the spec for that room.

Concrete floors
- Waterproof epoxy coating with heavy wool padding and burbur carpeting wall to wall.

Concrete 1/2 wall on three sides 3 ft high.
- Waterproof with epoxy coating
- 2x4 stud spacing away from concrete
- Heavy fiberglass remodel insulation R45 (These are bagged in plastic liners.)
- 3/4" drywall screwed into studs.
- Blow out part of the end wall for glass french doors (Very lively rear projection, need to have curtains to baffle sun and sound).
- Large triple pane picture window above opposite wall behind listener (When covered with heavy curtain hurt the sound field, covered with light shear curtains only.)

Side walls into kitchenette laudary room
- Studded with 2x6.
- packed with remodel heavy fiberglass (R45)
- 3/4" dry wall

Electrical
- 4 separate 20 amp electrical lines pulled into the room with 4-6000 watt isolation transformers on all four the lines with the electronics.

Best Regards
Bay