Author Topic: Listening Room construction  (Read 11411 times)

mgalusha

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Listening Room construction
« on: February 15, 2008, 10:27:18 AM »
Well, it's been a long time in coming but it ends today.  :D

The carpet guys are installing the carpet at this moment and I'm hoping to start moving my gear in later today. Oh yea, I can't wait.

Started planning in July, construction started in mid December and was completed about 10 days ago. My wife did almost all the painting and now the carpet dudes are hard at work.

I'll snap a few more photos once they are done.

This started as a 21' x 21'x square with most of the ceiling being 9'. I put in a partition wall where the support beam was as this is where the lower ceiling began and it also worked out to pretty good dimensions for the sound. Now it's a little over 20' x 14' and about 8'4" high with a 5'6" entrance hall, which I'll use for storage as well.

2 x 20A dedicated circuits. All other outlets on 15A circuit. Lights on separate 15A circuit. 20A outlets are 4 plex. Also pulled 2 sets of phone, ethernet and 2 RG-6 cables, so I have plenty of connectivity.

Gallery photos: http://www.audionervosa.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=32;u=4








Offline bpape

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2008, 11:09:11 AM »
Congrats Mike.

Looks like you'll be having all kinds of fun this weekend.  It'll be nice to have a place of your own again.

Bryan
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mgalusha

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2008, 11:17:21 AM »
Thanks Bryan, I appreciate all the help and advice. I incorporated as much as I could. :)

Offline bpape

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2008, 11:18:46 AM »
Glad to help.  The proof is in the pudding as they say.  Will be looking forward to hearing back from you when you emerge from the cave Sunday evening!

Bryan
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Offline Carlman

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2008, 12:18:32 PM »
Congratulations!!!! :) :) :)

Man o man I can't wait to be where you are, Mike... Thanks for sharing... looking forward to the final photos...

I know you must be pretty antsy to get in there... Have fun and keep us posted when you get a chance... I'd love to learn from any mistakes. ;)

One thing I'm struggling with now is the HVAC... and isolating the HVAC system from the floor above it, at least somewhat, anyway... I didn't see any vents in your room... what are you doing for air?

-C
I really enjoy listening to music.

mgalusha

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2008, 04:49:45 PM »
Carl,

There is one vent in the smaller room and one in the main room, it's just not visible in the photos. I had them make two 90* turns to reduce the potential for sound transmission.

Realistically it will be shut most of the time. In the winter we rarely run the furnace, using a pellet stove as our main heat source in the living/dining area. I will put a space heater in the listening room and of course shut it off when I go down to listen. I had them use R-30 in the ceiling, R-13 in the walls and the sub floor is R-3.5. So once it's warm I'm hoping it will stay that way fairly easily.

In the summer, basement in Colorado are usually just about perfect temperature wise but if it gets too hot I can always open the vents and let the AC in. :)

I did manage to get my gear in and running yesterday but I have some work to do in finding the right place for the speakers. I fired up the table saw and router today and cut some amp stands from maple butcher block (cheap stuff from Lumber Liquidators). They are not as nice as I'd like but I'm really determined not to have a rack between the speakers and I really don't want the amps sitting on the floor, so three hunks of maple it is. Picked up some of the threaded brass inserts at Lowes and turned the heads off of 12 1/4-20 bolts for quick and dirty spikes as well. A nice afternoon in the garage, thankfully we had a semi warm day, 58*, which is pretty good for February.

I'll try and take a picture tonight, assuming I don't drop. It's been a full couple of days. :D

Mike

Offline richidoo

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2008, 10:10:22 PM »
Sounds like a good recipe for amp stands. I was just eyeing a pair on AC for sale for 150 bucks each! But they are very pretty.  Lumber liquidators sounds more my style. I like the lathe spikes too! Good one! Careful don't let the raw steel put rust stains on your carpet. I use flat black enamel on my project hardware. Congrats Mike! Of course you know we want even more pics ;)
Rich

mgalusha

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2008, 05:38:02 AM »
Careful don't let the raw steel put rust stains on your carpet. I use flat black enamel on my project hardware.

No worries, I have plenty of black paint though it would take years for them to rust. I live at 6400ft in Colorado, humidity is one thing I don't have.  :roll: I have some 3/4" brass stock, so once it warms up a bit I'll turn some brass spikes. I just wanted to get something quick and I had a dozen socket head bolts, so they took less time to turn down than hex head bolts. :)

The butcher block from Lumber Liquidators isn't the greatest but isn't too bad and the price is pretty good. A friend and I split a 12' piece. The sell it in 25" x 8' and 25" x 12'. Both are 1.5" thick. http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=1471

Since we split the 12', it was $150 for a 6' piece. I made 3 amp stands and a chunk to put under the TT. Worked out to about $40 each including the inserts.

Offline richidoo

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2008, 07:18:00 AM »
That sounds awesome. Gives you the ridgid mass without the price of solid maple.

mgalusha

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2008, 06:16:08 PM »
A few photos of the finished room. Of course the speakers and amps have moved a little since I snapped the photos.. and will likely continue to move until I'm happy. It's getting close but not quite there yet. At least it's listenable now. :)







It is very quiet in here.  8)

I still need to get the acoustic panels off the floor though I did hang two at the first reflection points a little while ago.

The one thing about having the luxury about putting the speakers anywhere I want is the choices are nearly endless... not that I'm complaining much.

Mike

Offline stereofool

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2008, 06:41:10 PM »
Congrats on getting (almost) done! Gee....a room strictly for audio...I wonder what that would be like.

I'm going to enclose my carport and do exactly that...one of these days...or is that millenia  :duh!
Steve
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Offline richidoo

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2008, 06:17:56 AM »
Looking very good Mike! Your speakers are gorgeous too!

Offline Carlman

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Re: Listening Room construction
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2008, 12:12:43 PM »
Looking very good Mike! Your speakers are gorgeous too!

What he said... :)
I really enjoy listening to music.