Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Getting close HT listening room

It may have been a 2 year project from when I started figuring out the room and demolition of parts of the basement to get it done, but I am finally getting close to finished. I have come a long way from this





To a room that I can actually see myself sitting in and enjoying the fruits of all my labour. The hardest bits are finally behind me and all that is left is to get the sub floor screwed down solid, and the engineered hardwood floor laid. Finish the trim bits and hook up all the face plates for the speakers.

Very nice! I hope the rest is smooth sailing for you.

Good idea to use steel track for the bottom plate. So the wall with the door and drain cleanout is the front? Great job taping that stepped bulkhead.

Yes, the wall with the water meter is the front wall that will eventually get a new TV installed on it. As had to get the electrical panel upgraded to a 200amp service, all the wires for the house didn't fit in tight to the wall around the ceiling level. Rather than having another psudo bulkhead around the electrical box that would have stuck out, I decided to make that into a small room that houses the networking drops.

In trying to keep the sound from traveling though the house, I tested a set of speakers in the room before I finished it. The sound traveled mainly down the return air ducts, so I took extra time to put in better sound insulation around those parts. That is why there is such an interesting box around the back of the room. I put on it a heavy rubberized sound mat like they use on cars directly to the outside of the square duct that took out the ring sound that travels. Then I put on a 3/4" acoustic sound tile with 2 layers of 5/8 drywall. The hope is that the mass will deaden the sound travel through so there is not enough energy to get into the duct.

The ceiling is all on resilient track and 5/8 drywall with a layer of roxaul safe'n'sound. I didn't put in any pot lights into the ceiling as that could be another hole for the sound to get into the ceiling space through. I did end up having to put in a single access hole at the front for the outside water tap shutoff. It was just too much cost to get it repositioned.

The room is that almost square 15'6" x 17' with 4 doors along the back of the room. This kind of limits where you can place speakers and any additional sound treatment along the back wall, but we will see what is needed. The small bit of wall along between the doors to the laundry and workout room could support a parametric diffuser like some that I have seen designs for on the internet. I'm a woodworker so making one with some MDF that I have laying around would not be too hard.

I've got the OSB laid down and screwed securely, so I hope to get the engineered floor installed by the weekend.

Having a floating ceiling may help with bass issues. The floating walls and ceiling in my room seemed to. I tried looking. What's a parametric diffuser?

I've heard of polys, qrds and fractals. Parametric sounds cool. What are you tentatively thinking for treatment ? (if you go that route.)

You must have e got your ambition back. this is where it gets exciting.

My walls are just screwed directly onto the wooden stud. However, as I have 8'6 ceilings and the studs come in 8' lengths, there was a more fun way that the walls connect to the ceiling joists. If you look at the first two photo's, you can see that I used a metal track both top and bottom and then put on a small connection stud to tie the top track to the ceiling. I figure that way the walls are pretty much isolated from the ceiling and sound will not transmit.

I've gotten a bit farther in the room as all the sub floor is now done and I am 1/4 the way though laying the engineered hardwood. Its the oppressive heat and humidity that is dragging the build now. Can only work so long before I start to feel ill.

Unlike Marks square walls, which are just screwed.

Started to get the engineered floor installed. I know some will say it will have a horrible reflective surface, but it just looks so nice.



I look at many of the setups on here and other forums and I have concluded that most have made some sacrifice just to have a place to listen and that elusive perfect sound room is just a myth for the rich and famous.

Quick question. Have you ever layed flooring before, and how hard is it? I've always wanted to redo a bunch of our flooring on our main floor of our house with some sort of wood, and it looks easy on TV...

I have done loads of hardwood. This is the really simple engineered click and lay stuff that I got from HomeDepot. I really liked the colours inside the wood and how every piece is a totally different pattern / colour.

In my main floor I installed some sold walnut XL rustic hardwood. This was an unfinished 7/8" tung/grove that you had to nail down. I picked up a Stenco pneumatic nailer and it took me about 2 days with a cutoff saw on the front steps of the house to get it done. The boards were on average about 8' to 16' long (hence the XL). After it was installed i used Rubio Monocoat and it looks spectacular.

But this is a basement and subject to more harsh ware, so I went with the factory pre-finished click stuff.