Author Topic: If you had to choose a bonus room  (Read 15975 times)

Offline Carlman

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« on: February 09, 2007, 05:42:26 PM »
What are some things you'd look for?
I'm looking for a new house and probably will for a while now.  It's the only way I see really upgrading my hifi. ;)

I've been in some houses with large room but they're square, or have a weird angle from the roofline... so the room looks like this:


There are tons of them... just do a search on 'bonus room' on Google and look at the images tab... they're all like that.  

What's the best way to deal with that?  Or should I just go all the way and build totally custom?  ;)

-C
I really enjoy listening to music.

WEEZ

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2007, 05:57:39 PM »
This is a GREAT topic....Carl, you are reading my mind!

Hopefully, Bryan (bpape) will jump in here.. :?:

My wife and I really like our house (one floor) but I want a dedicated sound room! (So does she, but for different reasons :shock: )

I'd like a room that has good ratios..but I really don't want a funky ceiling if I can help it; and to build everything on one floor gets expensive.

BRYAN!!!!!

Offline bpape

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2007, 07:10:13 PM »
Rooms with funky surfaces like that can be a blessing and a curse.  They're very difficult to predict - not to mention ones like the pic above would tuck the speakers into a really tight place which is not good.

If it was me, I'd look for a large room square or not.  If you're serious about really good sound, you'll be building another set of walls inside for isolation anyway and you can change the dimensions at that point.

Room volume, room height, symmetry, ease of isolation, access to HVAC, ability to cover windows, etc.  Those are the things I'd look for.  I'll start with a 24x24x10 space any day and tweak it to what I want - like maybe a 10x19x23 room with a nice storage closet, a couple of nice deep bass absorbers, good spacing between inner and outer walls, etc.  Think about finally having a GOOD place to store all your boxes and crap - in that 3.5'x24' closet on one side of the room!

ALL rooms suffer from modal issues.   There are no perfect ratios - just those that try to spread them out instead of having them stack up on each other.  You'll still have to deal with them and the decay times, reflections, SBIR, etc.

You can also shorten the room a bit and then recess a couple of nice 2-3' deep, 2' wide, floor to ceiling bass absorbers.  Now that will reach down into the bottom end and not take up any of the visible part of the room.  The space between can again be a closet, equipment rack, bathroom, etc.

Oh, and don't forget a built in kegorator and tapper in the room.

Bryan
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Double Ugly

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Re: If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2007, 07:13:44 PM »
Quote from: "Carlman"
What are some things you'd look for?
Or should I just go all the way and build totally custom?  ;)
Now that I've taken a job in this God-forsaken place, we're seriously considering adding onto our house, primarily for me and my system.  If that happens, it will be entirely custom.

Unless you're lucky enough to find a bonus room w/o screwed-up walls, and/or ceilings, and/or doors, and/or windows, etc., I don't think there's another way to do it right.  If you end up w/ a house w/ a bonus room like the one pictured, you'll spend about as much trying to tame the acoustics as you would building it yourself the right way the first time.

I may be a little off the mark or over the top, but I just don't like correcting what I perceive as someone else's mistakes.  I realize they aren't actually mistakes, but they may as well be when you consider my intended purpose for the room.

WEEZ

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2007, 07:21:40 PM »
Bryan, correct me if I'm wrong, but if a person is stuck with a square room, positioning the speakers in such a way that the listener is facing a corner works pretty well. (wish I knew how to post a drwg)

Offline bpape

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2007, 12:01:02 PM »
Orienting a system at a diagonal will help only with early reflections off the side wall by pushing them past you.  The modes will still exist and still need to be dealt with.  The seating position is still critical.

Starting out with the seating at 62% of the length and positioning the entire system and listening position about 6" off center left to right will do a lot to avoid the real serious modal positions in the room.  You'll still need to treat them but you can get a much better starting point.

Bryan
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WEEZ

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2007, 01:42:15 PM »
interesting...

There is so much to know about room acoustics.

Many of the 'bonus' rooms we've seen are above a garage, and have short side walls (maybe 4' high) then slope up to a 7 or 8' peak. (Like an attic room). It would be great to have a space for my music stuff...but a room like that would be a bugger to get good sound in, I would think.

Offline Carlman

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2007, 01:47:27 PM »
WEEZ, I think it could be a blessing or a curse... When I walk through these homes, I pay special attention to HOW people sound when they're talking.  It's interesting how lively, dead, weird, or good people sound.

The best test for me is to watch them talk and localize the sound of their voice at their mouth.  If it's dead-on, it's a very good room.  That happened today in a foyer of all places... but in front of some carpeted steps.  The whole house had good sound characteristics.

I also found some  homes where they could build a basement.  Basements are the way to go.  Bonus rooms are out of the equation for me now that I've seen the possibility of the poured-concrete box. mmmmm

-C
I really enjoy listening to music.

Offline bpape

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2007, 03:04:57 PM »
If you end up with a room with the short walls and angles, you can still 'fix' it.  A lot depends on which way the angles run in relation to the length and width - and how wide the room is to start with.  

If you start with a room with the angles on the sides, you can build inner walls to minimize the amount of angle and move it up on the wall.  If it's only 12' to start with, that's a problem.

If the angles are at the ends of the room, then you can actually just soffit around them, again depending on the length, and get some good broadband control and kill the reflections from the angles at the same time.

Bryan
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WEEZ

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2007, 03:42:52 PM »
Carl,

Here in TN it's rare to find a basement home...and even more rare to find one that doesn't leak :?

If we find (or build) another house, my music room will likely have to be above 'grade'. And at our age now, and with all the kids gone, a two story house isn't appealing..with the exception of possibly a 2nd story so-called 'bonus' room.

Bryan,

Yeah, like (if I only knew how to post a drwg) a typical 'bonus room' would be above a garage and be maybe 13' X 21' ; with a window on one 13' wall and a door to the stairway on the opposite 13' wall.  The 'short' height walls would run the 21' length..so looking at the 13' wall; it would look like a tent.  :( ...and be maybe 7 or 8' high only in the center along the 21' length.. :?

WEEZ

Curly Woods

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2007, 07:36:26 AM »
Bryan,

  I have a "bonus room" which is 20' wide and 30' long.  The issue is that the side walls(pony walls) are only 3' tall and then angle up at 45 degrees to the ceiling height of 10'. So the ceiling width is 6' wide for the length of the room.  Is this an impossible space to work with?  It is not a finished space, as I have been concerned about the angled surfaces affect on the sound.  Thanks for your input in advance

Offline bpape

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If you had to choose a bonus room
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2007, 08:58:02 AM »
Rooms like that are not uncommon.  There are lots of ways to go about it.

First of all, with 20' of width, we can build taller pony walls easily and still have plenty of width - say 18'?  The peak of the ceiling is a great place to hang absorbers parallel with the floor.  Bass control without over deadening.

The variable height can actually be an advantage becasue it's the only dimension in the room that you can't adjust seating position for.

Along the angled surfaces, a series of 6"x48" hard sided absorbers arranged in an array makes for a nice pseudo QRD diffusor while providing good spread absorbtion - again above listening level and not doing too much in any one area.

Lots more to do but that would depend specifically on the room, the furnishings, speakers, etc.

Bryan
I am serious... and don't call me Shirley