Newbie: Acoustic room treatments

[Drako60]

I'm looking for a DIY solution for sound proofing, I want to stop as much sound leakage as possible while stopping as much reflection as possible.

The room is fairly small about 10x12 with hardwood floors and 1/2 drywall, I'm using (or will be when they get here) TSC P6 6.5 mains, and the 3-way RC1 center with P5 surrounds, and ASW8 8 inch sub with a Harmon Kardon AVR 520.

The speakers will be on the 12 foot wall, I'm mostly looking to sound proof the surround wall as thats where most of the sound will be projected at, which leads into the rest of the house.

Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful

 

[mperfct]

Hi Drako,

You asked for a two-cent answer on a fifty dollar question. I don't mean to be coarse, but please read this first.

That should help get you started, so you can ask more specific questions. Take a read, digest it, and then come back and we'll be happy to help with more specific questions.

Warmest regards,

Chris

 

[Drako60]

Thats an interesting article and it does explain how sound is isolated and how to isolate sound in new structure or remodeled structure, unfortunately I don't have those choices.

I admit I wrote the question in a hurry, and was very specific, so for the specifics of the question.

I need something in the line of material, batting, rubber, perhaps free standing panels or hanging panels.

I'm not so worried about keeping sound out of the room, as I am with keeping sound in the room, so I guess the real question is, would acoustic panels or perhaps something cheaper, be able to do this?

 

[mperfct]

Thats an interesting article and it does explain how sound is isolated and how to isolate sound in new structure or remodeled structure, unfortunately I don't have those choices.

I admit I wrote the question in a hurry, and was very specific, so for the specifics of the question.

I need something in the line of material, batting, rubber, perhaps free standing panels or hanging panels.

I'm not so worried about keeping sound out of the room, as I am with keeping sound in the room, so I guess the real question is, would acoustic panels or perhaps something cheaper, be able to do this?

So it sounds like you are more interested in sound isolation, versus acoustics. Adding panels and such will do little to keep sound in the room, sorry to say. Sound isolation typically takes a little thought and a lot of work, versus acoustics takes a lot of thought and a little work. That's a generalization, mind you.

Maybe some of the other guys on here have some tricks, but to isolate a room, probably the "easiest" way to go about it would be to use green glue and put up a layer of 5/8ths sheetrock. Which of course would require to redo outlets, trim, lights, tape/mud/paint, and all the other etc.

Hopefully someone else has an easier way to do it. Probably one way you could get a bit of reduction in sound escape is to replace your door with a solid core door with a sealed threshold. That would only be a few hundred bucks and help a little bit, the amount it helps is dependent on how sound "leaky" your current door is.

Good luck!

 

[highfigh]

I'm looking for a DIY solution for sound proofing, I want to stop as much sound leakage as possible while stopping as much reflection as possible.

The room is fairly small about 10x12 with hardwood floors and 1/2 drywall, I'm using (or will be when they get here) TSC P6 6.5 mains, and the 3-way RC1 center with P5 surrounds, and ASW8 8 inch sub with a Harmon Kardon AVR 520.

The speakers will be on the 12 foot wall, I'm mostly looking to sound proof the surround wall as thats where most of the sound will be projected at, which leads into the rest of the house.

Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful

1/2" drywall will stop almost nothing. If you have a door in that wall, weatherstrip it and if it's a hollow core or has a thin plywood field in the center, replace it with a heavy solid core door. Any HVAC ducts will need to be covered, too- if you can isolate them from the ductwork in the rest of the house, do that.