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Building a listening room from scratch

Hello all,

I am renovating a 19th Century townhouse in a distressed post-industrial town on the Hudson River.

I will have the 20’ x 30’ attic dedicated to my home studio/office and audio listening area. The ceiling has a steep pitch from the 12’ high center towards the 20’ wide walls, which are 3’ high. To make the building perform to a high energy conservation standard, I have lined the walls with 5.5" of rock wool (which has excellent acoustic insulation characteristics), and the ceilings with 14.5" of rock wool. Except for the three windows situated in a gable and two dormers, and my book and record collections and the audio equipment itself, the floor is the only hard surface, of wide-plank wood. My architect says that I should not sheet rock the walls or ceiling, that I should simply cover them with fire-resistant burlap and I will have a semi-anechoic room, similar to recording studios.

What do you think of this idea?

Thank you all,

unreceivedogma
128x128unreceivedogma
sisyphus51's avatar
sisyphus51
121 posts
 
Sounds like a nice place, 'dogma.
whart's avatar
whart
2,965 posts
 
I remember you @unrecivedogma. You had an earlier thread about moving your records. You might try what the architect suggests - or other material at some point, since fabric doesn't have to cost a lot and installing it is probably less work and less mess than sheetrock. You could probably come up with an interesting aesthetic using hanging material and could experiment with the acoustics of different materials as well. Last night, we were in a loft apartment here in Austin where the owner, who collected sideshow banners from old circuses, had a massive hanging on one wall. It was very cool. Probably made of canvas, and hand painted many years ago. There is also custom printing on fabrics that you could explore or just 'make some art.' 
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
885 posts
 
whart,

Yes, those records will move into this space.

I’m a painter by training, though I veered into advertising photography and writing thanks to my politics (left of Bernie). I’m thinking just the natural colored burlap for the ceiling, and a deep slate blue dye for the walls.

Building code requires that the material be fire resistsnt, so that limits my options.

For me, the question is how dead do I want the room to be? My old room was full of hard surfaces: wood floor, tin ceiling, brick walls, one wall almost completely glass windows. Now I will be veering in the other direction. I can always harden it up with large framed movie posters hanging on the wall, etc.
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
Dweller, regarding your comment about laying tile.  I have carpet over plywood subfloor, and it really absorbs the 60-90 Hz region.  That range is down about 12 dB at its max.  I've thought about pulling up the carpeting, putting down ceramic tile over the subfloor, then using rugs over the ceramic tile as needed.  Do you know if  ceramic tile is a good choice or is something else better for the purpose of reflecting bass frequencies?  Do you know of any published references on flooring for listening rooms?
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,729 posts
 
@brownsfan - Sorry I don't have expert info in this area. All I know is my friend had no bass in his room with a plywood floor and a huge cavity underneath. I have profound bass in houses built on a concrete slab. My suggestion for tile is an educated guess but I've got strong feelings it would make a difference.
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