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Basic Movie/Music Room over garage build

H

HeilYeah

Member
Started to convert the storage area over the garage into a basic movie/music listening room.
Approx 12ft6 wide, 8 feet tall, 20ft 6inches deep. Pic attached of current state.

20220320_083008.jpg

Not worried about sound going out to other rooms or the neighbors as the room is on the far side of the house and I live out in the country.
The exterior room walls are insulated with fiberglass batting and the surface finish is drywall everywhere.
There is a center divider wall that I just built that divides the music room from my future home office on the other side.
I only put drywall up on one side of the wall so far (the office side). Music room side is still open stud cavities. The new divider wall is the left side wall as you are in the room.

Plan was to fill the open stud cavities with rockwool safe and sound and then just cover that rockwool with burlap fabric down the entire left center divider wall. No drywall to be installed on the music room left side wall?
Looking to get some feedback as to whether that is a good idea ot not?
 
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I'm not sure what your goal is with the burlap idea. You can always put drywall over the burlap later, but not as easy to return to open after installing drywall.
 
Thought the burlap only over the rockwool would absorb way better and not reflect like the finish drywall surface.

Could also add mass loaded vinyl, car stereo absorption matting, or anything else to the wall?
Open to sugesstions and other ideas for the wall since it is just stud cavities at this time.
I am fine with leaving the burlap as the finish treatment.
 
I understand what you're seeking to accomplish with the fully absorptive unfinished wall and that's not a bad idea, just misplaced or incomplete strategy. The thing to be aware of here is that with one wall absorptive and the opposing wall reflective, you're going to be left with a terribly imbalanced room response with virtually NO off axis sonic energy from the speakers returning into the room from the absorptive wall, and most ALL of the off axis sonic energy from the speakers returning into the room from the bare and acoustically reflective finished wall. This will create a number of acoustic issues that will manifest in poor image and sound stage resolution and an imbalance in tonal and spectral reproduction. Basically...an acoustic train wreck. To rectify this, you have to create a balanced acoustic response between both walls. So either make the unfinished wall finished and reflective and then add absorption panels to both walls to tame the early reflections arriving at the listening spot, or make the finished wall fully absorptive like the unfinished wall.

I think your burlap over rockwool idea has merit...I'm actually doing something similar in a dedicated listening room that is currently under construction...but it may create too much of a good thing that is going to be expensive, time consuming and intrusive to balance out on the opposing wall. If you know where your listening spot and speakers will be located...even if just approximately...you can create a section of the unfinished wall that is fully absorptive in the first/early reflection zone, and put drywall up on the sections of wall outside that zone...and then mount a bunch of absorption panels on the opposing finished wall in the same first/early reflection zone so that wall simulates the acoustic response of the "unfinished" wall.

Michael
 
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This is just kind of a general illustration to convey the idea, but assume the area shaded black is the first/early reflection zone. Go ahead and do your burlap over rockwool thing there on the unfinished wall like where I've shaded it in black and then use the same rockwool to DIY some panels and hang them where it's shaded black on the opposing, finished wall. Cover the panels you put on the finished wall with the same burlap and you'll create an aesthetic balance. Put drywall up on the unfinished wall in the areas that aren't shaded black and then strategically locate some panels on the bare drywall areas to kill interaction between opposing, reflective and parallel surfaces that are creating echoes.

20220320_083008~2.jpg

Michael
 
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WOW! that is good thinking, sir.
I understand what you are saying and I am grateful for the time u spent making the photo/post.
Equipment is ESS AMT3 rock monitors and old school Sansui power in the front of the room as pictured.
 
Some progress and laying out the room.
Insulated the left wall and covered with OSB.

Sansui amp, eq and ESS amt3 rock monitors location testing.

Committing an atrocity. Haha.
Side mounted tower speakers!!

Sounds excellent and plenty of room for projector screen above.
I might rotate the Heils the other way but for now it actually sounds pretty good.
20220507_161702.jpg
 
Attempt number 2.
Spreading speakers apart, verticle placement and lifting them up a little.
Still room for a huge screen.

Sounds good. Could sound great if I put speakers in slightly and more away from the wall but this is not audio only-so some compromises will need to be made.
Needs subs for bigger bass and to move some air.
20220509_200952.jpg
 
Added a 15 inch sub and everything sounds fantastic as is at this point!
I put some soft mating under the foam and everything is isolated nicely now.
Next step will be some woodwork to make theatre walls and outline the screen area.
20220521_104254.jpg
 
I suggest moving the speakers away from the corners as much as possible. Any amount is better than where they are now. Leave the sub where it is. Slightly away from the side walls will also be efficacious.
 
Made a little progress.
Added burlap panels on the right side and going with sealed OSB walls on left side.
Acoustics are fine at this point.
20220618_140651.jpg
 
Columns installed and added fiberglass insulation inside them. The mids/highs got even clearer with the columns in the room. Maybe helped to break up some reflections. The room sounds great.
You think I should drill 1 to 3 inch holes in the sides of the columns to create column bass traps or just leaven them alone?
Still have to put the faces on the columns and trim them out.
20220710_101929.jpg
 
Mine is a purely music room, ex-bedroom. It is sensory pleasure, without vice. It's a mood enhancer. It focuses on sonic pleasures, sensory pleasures without frenetic ADD video stimuli, it relaxes it's challenged inhabitant, and his friends and family who choose to bask in it's musical pleasures, and it's more relaxed outlook on life. It is an oasis, an escape, a mood, a way of life.
 
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