1st HT Room ... Room has shifted to bigger

hey all....

i have bought a flat in 1st foor ....and now i m making an HT ...size of the room is




.... now i would like to know wht will be the best and cheapest way of doing the accoustics so that the room above mine and below mine HT room are not disturbed and also no sound travels to my other rooms which are on the sides as u can see in the image....

i will be doing false ceiling ...the general one which is done and readily available in India ie. Gypsum Board.... so do i have to do something more above that so that it can be sound proof .... please suggest the best way..... and also thinking of buying the following A/V gears:

1. DENON 3808
2. DALI IKON series / Focal Chorus Series / Kef IQ series
3. SONY / DENON DVD PLAYER
4. XBOX
5. LCD / Plasma 42" (tell which is better)
6. Projector will be use but i think will keep the screen above on cieling and pull it down when required as LCD/Plasma will be there so... when the screen comes down the LCD/Plasma will get covered up.....


please recommend.... if should i chnage anything..... and also can i add an extra sub for more bass or that will be sufficient....

i will have 75% movies played and 25% audio played.....

Pranab,

It is a great news that you have a much bigger space.

Vinay.

1. DENON 3808 – Nice choice.
2. DALI IKON series / Focal Chorus Series / Kef IQ series - Focal
3. SONY / DENON DVD PLAYER - Denon
4. XBOX - PS3 60GB with SACD
5. LCD / Plasma 42" (tell which is better) - Plasma

hey is FOCAL Chorus Series better than DALI IKON series .... as i will use mainly for movies..... and can u give any idea where i can find Focal Chorus series speakers and its price tag.... and regarding... Denon player wil it play HD movies, Blue Ray and eveything and how much does it cost.....

and regarding the Accoutics.... will gypsum board will be enough for Ceiling and will it do the sound proofing ... ie. by fixing the board will i be able to stop the sound from travelling to above floor... and also what shall i do in the floors.....

Its highly subjective my friend and am no expert on this. But from personal experience – I own the Ikons, hence the recommendation earlier on the other thread – when I heard the Focals, I was pretty impressed. One thing I noticed is that the Ikon will give you more bass and energy; while the Corus were cleaner and warmer. So for audio purposes, I might prefer the Corus to the Ikon. Infact, the 1027 BE is in my shortlist.

Regarding the Denon, the BluRay player will cost a bomb now. You are better off with the simple 1940, it’s a good machine for DVD playback and they are not bad with CD also. For HD formats, the PS3 is the best bet imo. Infact, as a compromise you can just go ahead with the PS3 and leave the rest for future upgrade!

I don’t thing the gypsum boards will do justice to your sound-proofing plans. You need to get professional opinion here. Vinay could probably help you with the right contacts here.

All the best.

I also think gypsum will not do the sound proofing work, i think whatever you do, one can achieve sound proof level of around 60%.

I have used a lot of glass wool, wall to wall carpet, then below the carpet, a thick sheet which has a apperance of thermocal, special accoustic cieling tiles, the door is thicker atleast by two times than the normal door, the door should not have floor springs, it should have hinges, for sliding windows you have to use accoustic glass, a lot of rubber sealing has to be used, one has to see carefully from which part of the room , the sound will leak, and than the treatment has to be done on lines as said.

Vinay.

for soundproofing green glue can do wonders

Sunil,

Wow, what a solution for sound proofing, it is out of the world, you people have a mother of all knowledge.

Vinay.

Pranab

Is the flood matter over in Assam...

Anyways, ... congrats for the bigger room size for HT...

I would just say,that when you have everything going in right place, dont miss, out the projector...

Go for it too, i know, that would exceed a bit of your budget, but your movie experience will be fanatic...

What you are investing on Plasma, just some 10-15K more, will get you a good Projector (PJTX300) and Dalite 6x8 matte white..

what say...???

Hi,

Pranab the idea of sound proofing is very good but mostly misunderstood and misguided !!

I didn't comment in the beginning for various reasons !

First and foremost please understand that just by using XXX material or YYY material you will and cannot sound proof anything !!

For a proper sound proofing or rather Sound/Acoustic treatment you need to know what frequency is the causing you the problem to bring it in control and make it flat in accordance with the rest of the frequency !! For that you need spectrum analyzers and SPL meters !!

For the folks who don't know, there are materials specifically made to absorb certain frequency and ignore rest (now don't say,oh ya its black magic Vodoo ! its the fact) for example the Gypsum board has variety of boards according to the absorption,say 1Khz 30% or 2Khz 20% etc they have exactly that material which does precisely that ( absorb 20% of the 2khz and pass the rest) ! Please be aware of all these facts !!

You just don't stick some materials in the empty spaces or makeshift walls and say its done !! if do it without proper testing, in all probability you'll screw-up the sound then improve it !!

Here's how it works,You send a frequency sweep ( for folks who don't know what that is,its a frequency test tone from 20hz to 20khz) then analyze which is the frequency that's bouncing of or creating a ripple in the response and tame that particular frequency !! not put some material and end-up absorbing the frequency thats not supposed to !! also check with the SPL meter the sound level of each frequency and take a note and compare the reading from 20-20khz to check for the most peaky band (range of frequencies) and try to absorb that there by making it to the exact level of the other frequencies ! this just the basic of sound treatment !!

So there's more to it then meets the eye !! I'd say the best and easiest way is to check with the SPL meter (easily available for 3-4K) and do the test I said to get some idea as to what frequency is creating the problem !


If even this is not possible (for whatever reasons) and if you are opting for POP top (false ceiling) then I'd say try to go for the mixture of POP and wood ! not just either POP or wood as both combination will work better then alone,then try to fill the top with small amount of glass wool and check the sound (make sure you don't fill in too much as that can in turn do more damage then cure ! ).

Another option is to use the thick carpets and thick drapes (wherever windows are present) again you have to do it on a trial and error basis !!

So I'd say try to buy all the associated equipments (i,e the AVR,speakers,sofas,etc etc) put in the room and check the sound ( offcourse the false ceiling done but without any filling) then gradually add the necessary absorbing materials ! thats the safest and most ideal way to go about it if the proper testing equipments are not accessible to you !!

Also I'd like mention one thing to all here that,Whether you agree or not !!
All the newage AVR's are calibrated in the R&D centers of the companies to handle the basic room conditions ! so in general there will not be and shouldn't be need of any additional sound treatment ! they know very well that these AVRs are put in the average rooms not the studios! so Engineers at the firms are very much aware of the situations & conditions of such rooms and know how to handle it in the hardware level !!

Now coming to your choices, the denon 3808 is killer of AVR (very good i,e ) so nothing much to think,but do have a look at the yamaha 1600 and 1800 or better yet 4600 you'll be surprised with the results !!

Speaker wise the dali is pretty good and the newage chorus is so so ( atleast to me) the old one were much much better ! the KEF iQ 5,6 are lousy so avoid at all costs !! try iQ 9 which seems pretty good. apart from that also check out wharfedale pacific evolution ( best value for money).

The Plasma wise I'd say pioneer,If you can afford then the KURO series !

The Projector would be Hitachi PJ-Tx300 or sanyo Z5 ( as far as possible steer clear of DLP and stick with LCD) !

Hope this is enough and will help in some small way !!

One more thing if I've offended anyone by commenting here please excuse me !!


Regards.