How to deal with a Glass Wall?

[Aziz.S]

Hello,

I'm trying to build a home theater in a large living room (4.5m x 9m) on the third and last floor of a villa. The problem is due to building restrictions related to terrace regulations in the compound, the outer wall of this room (which will be 9m long) needs to be made of glass (the other three are concrete), however this is the one room in the house which I can install a come theater. My idea is that if I use thick carpets, laminated glass, and thick curtains covering the glass, some acoustic panels here and there, maybe a couple of bass traps...and the sound would be decent. Am I on the right track or is this a hopeless case.

Btw, will be installing my 7.2 system with 4 ELAC UB5s, a UC5, two Polk Ceiling speakers (for Atmos), and two Yamaha sw300 subwoofers, hooked up to a Denon 3400h and a 65' LG C7.

The listening area wil only be about half (maybe a bit more of total room space)..the rest will be a big Desk for work and hopefully the maximum Vive VR play area 4m x 4m (meaning empty space). There will also be at least one, if not two large bookcases filled with lots of old books.

Also I have no idea where to place the subs because of the Glass Wall.

I would tremendously appreciate any help...THANKS

 

[TheWarrior]

Hello,

I'm trying to build a home theater in a large living room (4.5m x 9m) on the third and last floor of a villa. The problem is due to building restrictions related to terrace regulations in the compound, the outer wall of this room (which will be 9m long) needs to be made of glass (the other three are concrete), however this is the one room in the house which I can install a come theater. My idea is that if I use thick carpets, laminated glass, and thick curtains covering the glass, some acoustic panels here and there, maybe a couple of bass traps...and the sound would be decent. Am I on the right track or is this a hopeless case.

Btw, will be installing my 7.2 system with 4 ELAC UB5s, a UC5, two Polk Ceiling speakers (for Atmos), and two Yamaha sw300 subwoofers, hooked up to a Denon 3400h and a 65' LG C7.

The listening area wil only be about half (maybe a bit more of total room space)..the rest will be a big Desk for work and hopefully the maximum Vive VR play area 4m x 4m (meaning empty space). There will also be at least one, if not two large bookcases filled with lots of old books.

Also I have no idea where to place the subs because of the Glass Wall.

I would tremendously appreciate any help...THANKS

Welcome!

You are definitely on the right track! Lots of us have large sliding glass doors and such.

I'd save acoustic panel absorbers for last - start with what you need like curtains and carpet. You don't want to absorb too much and create an overly 'dead' sounding space.

The curtains can have insulation added, as well as a decorative valence over the top can provide space to hide additional absorption in order to provide a broader range of frequency absorption.

Carpeting can be just standard 'clipped pile' but the key is to have a good thick carpet pad underneath!

Bookcases are your friend as they provide natural reflectors, the varying size and shape of the spines are perfect for this.

Dealing with subwoofers is a whole other matter, which requires very specific information about your room, locations of everything - the list goes on.

As for speakers, the best thing I can recommend is to go hear as many as possible! Where are you located?

 

[Aziz.S]

Welcome!

You are definitely on the right track! Lots of us have large sliding glass doors and such.

I'd save acoustic panel absorbers for last - start with what you need like curtains and carpet. You don't want to absorb too much and create an overly 'dead' sounding space.

The curtains can have insulation added, as well as a decorative valence over the top can provide space to hide additional absorption in order to provide a broader range of frequency absorption.

Carpeting can be just standard 'clipped pile' but the key is to have a good thick carpet pad underneath!

Bookcases are your friend as they provide natural reflectors, the varying size and shape of the spines are perfect for this.

Dealing with subwoofers is a whole other matter, which requires very specific information about your room, locations of everything - the list goes on.

As for speakers, the best thing I can recommend is to go hear as many as possible! Where are you located?

Thanks!
Definitely reassuring to know that I'm on somewhat of a right track.
I was planning on just a thick carpet, but now will surely place a thick carpet pad underneath.
I'm located in Cairo, Egypt & Already bought the speakers, Subs and av receiver.

The problem is because of the long glass wall (around 8.75 meters in length), one side of the room will be completely covered in curtains which then creates the problem of whether or not to cover the other side as well (also 8.75 meters) which is dry wall. Will covering both sides in curtains kill the room acoustically, or should I do that just to have symmetry in the sound?

 

[Aziz.S]

unfortunately I didn't receive an updated house design map from the designer building the house, but basically the room is going to be where I added a thick black oval; the room titled "glass room" on the map was made a little thiner in width and then extended to almost double the length so that it is now 8.73 meters long instead of just 4.48. The area covered in glass is the whole wall pointing towards the terrace (8.73). The other three walls are normal dry wall.
The glass has not been installed yet, and I would tremendously appreciate any recommendation on what type I should use (toughened, lamented, etc...)

Thanks Again!!!

 

[TheWarrior]

unfortunately I didn't receive an updated house design map from the designer building the house, but basically the room is going to be where I added a thick black oval; the room titled "glass room" on the map was made a little thiner in width and then extended to almost double the length so that it is now 8.73 meters long instead of just 4.48. The area covered in glass is the whole wall pointing towards the terrace (8.73). The other three walls are normal dry wall.
The glass has not been installed yet, and I would tremendously appreciate any recommendation on what type I should use (toughened, lamented, etc...)

Thanks Again!!!

The plan says 'glass house' - does this mean the ceiling is glass on that side of the house, not just the wall? Do any of those lines indicate where the glass ceiling stops?

Best window glass I can get is multiple panes filled with argon gas and given a UV coating - but I have no idea what would be used for a ceiling - assuming that is being done...

 

[lsiberian]

By throwing stones.

In all seriouness acoustic curtains should be sufficient.

 

[Aziz.S]

The plan says 'glass house' - does this mean the ceiling is glass on that side of the house, not just the wall? Do any of those lines indicate where the glass ceiling stops?

Best window glass I can get is multiple panes filled with argon gas and given a UV coating - but I have no idea what would be used for a ceiling - assuming that is being done...

No glass ceiling at all thankfully (I don't know why they named it that!); The ceiling is a normal dropped ceiling. The Glass wall is near the line where you see the numbers 4.25 and 4.48, and it also contains a glass door leading into the terrace. I'm gonna have a curtain throughout that entire left-wall (to cover the glass), and a carpet with padding like you recommended covering the the majority of the floor (which is made of marble). But that still leaves the right-wall (a normal dry-wall): do you think I should also install a curtain over there (or maybe through a portion of the room) so that there is sound symmetry or will that be overkill making the room dead?

 

[TheWarrior]

No glass ceiling at all thankfully (I don't know why they named it that!); The ceiling is a normal dropped ceiling. The Glass wall is near the line where you see the numbers 4.25 and 4.48, and it also contains a glass door leading into the terrace. I'm gonna have a curtain throughout that entire left-wall (to cover the glass), and a carpet with padding like you recommended covering the the majority of the floor (which is made of marble). But that still leaves the right-wall (a normal dry-wall): do you think I should also install a curtain over there (or maybe through a portion of the room) so that there is sound symmetry or will that be overkill making the room dead?

Good!

Start with the glass wall and go from there. Less is more!