In reply to:
Am I shooting for an stc rating of 50 or 60? This room is going to be in a basement with concrete walls. The walls that are next to the concrete, do I still need to stager my studs in the room here? As I learn more, I find more questions to ask. Anyway, thank you everyone for your posts.
I am still waiting for a local supplier to get Quietrock in stock. Until then I may end up building with regular sheetrock
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The walls with basement need only be standard insulated stud construction.
If you are trying to figure out ideal dimensions, there are programs available that allow you to input dimensions of the room and the listening position and they will calculate theoretical nulls and peaks. Programs like these allow you to play with the dimensions to get the "best possible sound" from your room. Bottom line is that being able to construct a dedicated room to home theater will yield results far superior to simply plunking speakers throughout a space wherever the wife will allow
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As far as the STC rating, all I can say is to aim for the most you can afford. It is similar to investing more money into speakers. You can not underestimate the importance of a well constructed listening room. Some people will argue that a listening room should be the second biggest investment next to speakers.
