My New 5.1 Audio Only Space

filper said:

As of May 30th I will be "retired"...

We have bought an almost finished home in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.

The first picture is of my new space for 5.1 audio only. The second one is the view from the backyard.

I may be looking for some advice on how to fine tune the room.

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I hope you plan to watch plenty of NHL hockey to celebrate your retirement...

For room fine tuning:

Avoid parallel walls like the plague and reflective floor or ceiling surfaces. To avoid standing waves caused from reflections go here to build super cheap acoustic panels: (Place them where you think sound will reflect from a parallel surface.)

http://acousticsfreq.com/blog/?p=62

Its hard to build a room w/o parallel walls so use dummy walls or partitions to avoid having a rectangular space.

A poorly shaped(rectangular or square) room can ruin even the most expensive audio system.

Cheers!

DM

Sooooooo....
What GEAR is gonna be there???
And how is it gonna be installed?

SPILL IT!!! (you know you want to ...everybody's doing it.... )

DennisMoore Jr. said:

I hope you plan to watch plenty of NHL hockey to celebrate your retirement...

For room fine tuning:

Avoid parallel walls like the plague and reflective floor or ceiling surfaces. To avoid standing waves caused from reflections go here to build super cheap acoustic panels: (Place them where you think sound will reflect from a parallel surface.)

http://acousticsfreq.com/blog/?p=62

Its hard to build a room w/o parallel walls so use dummy walls or partitions to avoid having a rectangular space.

A poorly shaped(rectangular or square) room can ruin even the most expensive audio system.

Cheers!

DM

Click to expand...

I figure if I leave the space 'au naturel' there won't be many reflective surfaces except the floor.

It will be fun to experiment.

kap'n, I'll be using the same gear I have now and see how it works out. The space is mine. My better half has the rest of the house to fine tune.

The space I will have was one of the considerations when we went looking for a new home.

filper said:

I figure if I leave the space 'au naturel' there won't be many reflective surfaces except the floor.

Click to expand...

Hello filper and congratulations on you new lifestyle!

Won't the room be too dead for music, even leaving the plastic sheets over the insulation?

proufo said:

Hello filper and congratulations on you new lifestyle!

Won't the room be too dead for music, even leaving the plastic sheets over the insulation?

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Perhaps. I will find out.

Thanks.

proufo said:

Won't the room be too dead for music, even leaving the plastic sheets over the insulation?

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I see no negatives in having a dead listening room. Music is usually mixed in a dead rooms (control rooms). To hear what the mixer intended, you would want an acoustical environment as similar to the mixer's as possible.

It can be argued, however, that recording instruments, such as drums, in a dead room it not particularly a great idea. Some of the greatest drum tracks were recorded in "live" rooms where the sound of the room plays an important role in the sound of the recorded drums.

Go for that old time 70's studio feel, staple paper egg cartons to the walls......great reflection killers they say though the ambience might suffer. The rear yard is also promising.....can start with a small herd of goats and mules, the "gentleman farmer".

Looks a mess, but it sounds great a la carte.

A lot of work to do yet.

Coming along fine :banana:

I need that shelving unit...

LizardKing said:

I need that shelving unit...

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Me too.. this is just one corner of the room

fredblue said:

Me too.. this is just one corner of the room

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Holy crap! :yikes

I'm glad you don't have earthquakes in London!!!

Reminds me of why I've got all mine digitised on a NAS now
1. The shelf space required
2. How to find one you want to listen to?

Now my discs are mostly stored in boxes in my garage but still a few hundred in cabinets in my listening room and in plastic containers in my home office.

I recently whacked all my surround and high res. stereo albums in a database and realised how many I haven't heard for ages or new discs that I haven't had time to digest yet. So I made a report of "Albums to listen to" which sits on my coffee table. Ticking them off... (Weird really...)

I've got over 1000 blu-ray and DVD movies plus 200+ laserdiscs (I paid 100USD in 1994 for Talking Heads Stop Making Sense laserdisc 2nd hand which is still my highest price for a single disc - a 100 bucks was a fair bit back then too)

LizardKing said:

Holy crap! :yikes

I'm glad you don't have earthquakes in London!!!

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Haha.. should be ok short of nuclear war! the units are bolted to one another and fixed to the walls.. we do get tremors in the UK apparently (I'm no meteorologist/geologist/seismologist/whateverist but wouldn't imagine we'd ever get anything on your scale!)

I try to keep everything in some kind of order.. bit tricky with new stuff coming in all the time but I try to keep on top of it. to give you an idea of how my mind works ( ) ...

..from L to R, Box sets & SDE's in LP-sized packaging (like the PF Immersion, Aqualung, etc.) on top two rows, Elton LPs & 12" singles on next two rows (bottom row got chopped off, couldn't fit in frame using phone camera) but that is music Laserdiscs.. Next unit along DTS label DVD-A's and DTS CDs, Miller Nevada DTS CDs, CD+5.1 DVD-V sets, DualDiscs.. next unit from top to bottom is Warner DVD-A's, Universal label DVD-A's, EMI & Capitol DVD-A's, miscellaneous label DVD-A's in the SJB Plus cases, Silverline DVD-A's at the bottom.. next unit is all just CDs arranged by artist (so top row in pic is all Bowie, Bee Gees, Clapton CDs.. you get the picture.. by row 3 we're at EJ CDs.. that units double deep so there must be 1,000 in that one I'm guessing).. SACDs are out of frame to the left in a series of those Ikea tower units.. DVD-V, BD-V and BD-A, etc are all the way along the opposite wall. it's crazy I know.. but there you go

Damn Filper, Now I want to retire and have some fun!

Good luck and enjoy.

Thanks for all the comments.

Here is a tighter shot of the front soundstage. Amazing how live the room is.

Slow process with all the landscaping to do.

I have figured out how I want to do the walls now. November project.

Having fun with the turntable for a bit.

Phil's "Fortress of Amplitude" (Wheeler98)

Looking good! I was wondering how it was coming along-keep us posted?

filper said:

Slow process with all the landscaping to do.

I have figured out how I want to do the walls now. November project.

Having fun with the turntable for a bit.

Click to expand...

Damn, I wish I had that space! I presume you are covering windows with acoustic panels?

keenly said:

Damn, I wish I had that space! I presume you are covering windows with acoustic panels?

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I am not even putting blinds on them. It would spoil the view.