Help me design my house.

[Sleestack]

I'm tearing down my house and building a new one. It will be approximately 4,500 - 5,000 sq. ft. I do not want centralized audio/video. I prefer to have separate systems in each room. In any case, I want to have 2 dedicated rooms, one for my HT and one for 2 channel. I have all the gear, I just need to design room dimensions. They don't need to be a slave to acoustics b/c I use TACT room correction, but should at least adhere to abasic acoustic principles.

Any thoughts on layout and dimension? I know I want very high celings in both rooms. Rooms should not be ridicuoulsly big (its only for me, the wife and the 3 yr old), but they should be as big as practicable in a 5,000 sq. ft home.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[jaxvon]

If you're willing to throw some money at the problem, why not hire Rives?

http://rivesaudio.com/services/servframe.html

You can see some of their work on this page:

http://rivesaudio.com/examples/frame.html

Lastly, if you're into DIY, check out this crazy DIY room for an HT project (he's also a member here on AH):

Member info page: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/member.php?u=4652

DIY Project page: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=378645

 

[sts9fan]

Rooms should not be ridicuoulsly big (its only for me, the wife and the 3 yr old), but they should be as big as practicable in a 5,000 sq. ft home.

You contradict yourself in that statment. Three people in a 5k sq ft home is a waste of resources.I hope you look into solar panels. McMansion

 

[jake51s]

You contradict yourself in that statment. Three people in a 5k sq ft home is a waste of resources.I hope you look into solar panels. McMansion

Don't hate the player, hate the game

 

[sts9fan]

The Players make the rules

 

[tbewick]

The ratio 7.8 x 6.2 x 4.9 (metres) has a very good distribution of room modes for even bass. I think this is called the magic ratio or something. I'll post up the details.

I've heard having an angled ceiling is desirable, as this combats ceiling reflections. Also you'd want to have the listening room downstairs.

The BBC R&D website has something about acoustics for production studios. I haven't looked at the papers myself but they might be of some use:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/papers/index-studio.shtml

 

[tbewick]

Here's the details on the room modes. Ref: Practical Hi-Fi Sound, Roger Driscoll (c) 1980, Hamlyn.

Harman might be worth looking up, but I've found their site not very easy to use.

 

[Sleestack]

Jaxvon

Definitely going to be calling Rives.

That DYI HT looks great, but I would never find the time to do that.

Tbewick

Thanks for the info. Those dimensions seem good for my 2 channel room. Probably want the HT a little bigger.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

The ratio 7.8 x 6.2 x 4.9 (metres) has a very good distribution of room modes for even bass. I think this is called the magic ratio or something. I'll post up the details.

I've heard having an angled ceiling is desirable, as this combats ceiling reflections. Also you'd want to have the listening room downstairs.

The BBC R&D website has something about acoustics for production studios. I haven't looked at the papers myself but they might be of some use:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/papers/index-studio.shtml

Hi tbwick,

So with my 8' ceilings would it be correct that 12.734' x 10.122' is the optimum size or is that not large enough for the bass waves. (thats pretty small) I have heard salesman say that "you need a large room to really get the bass from these speakers". I'm always skeptical of salespeople so what is your thoughts.

SBF1

 

[Ethan Winer]

> I have heard salesman say that "you need a large room to really get the bass from these speakers". <

That's a myth. If it were true, headphones would have no bass. The text below is from my Acoustics FAQ.

--Ethan

Yet another common misconception is that small rooms cannot reproduce very low frequencies, so they're not worth treating at all. A popular (but incorrect) theory is that very low frequencies require a certain minimum room dimension to "develop," and so can never be present at all in smaller rooms. The truth is that any room can reproduce very low frequencies, as long as the reflections that cause acoustic cancellations are avoided. When you add bass trapping, you are making the walls less reflective at low frequencies, so sound that hits a wall or ceiling will be absorbed instead of reflected. The net result is exactly the same as if the wall was not there at all - or as if the wall was very far away - whatever does come back is greatly attenuated due to distance and, therefore, not loud enough to cause as much cancellation.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Ethan,

I never understood the salesmans statment, but there is alot I don't understand.....Yet! Now off to do more reading...

Thank you,
SBF1