High End Listening Room Acoustic Treatment

Isaac HernandezIsaac has 8 years of experience in residential and commercial insulation projects. He specializes in multipurpose rooms, sports centers, and transportation projects. Isaac enjoys gaming and live concerts. Él habla español. 1-800-782-5742 Ext. 0144

The Issue

Turning an unfinished basement into a high-end listening room can be challenging. This is especially true when you need to keep the design consistent with the rest of the house. Keeping the space looking good was important. Also, the homeowner wanted a place where he could kick back and enjoy quality sound and video.

Fabric wrapped panels and bass traps optimize this room for high-end listening.

The Challenge

When the customer was in the planning stages of their high-end listening room, they came to Acoustical Solutions for some recommendations. Their early discussions were about room design and making sure the room was not too dead sounding. The room was ‘purpose-built’ to be a critical high-end listening room. Suggestions for the room were building thicker drywall, adding solid core doors, and selecting hardwood floors instead of Berber carpeting to allow better tunability of the acoustic characteristics of the room.

In a high-end listening room, fabric wrapped panels and bass traps create a clear, crisp sound.

The Solution

After the room was built, the walls put up, and the system installed, the customer once again called upon Acoustical Solutions for advice on proper acoustical treatment for the room. What was recommended and installed was a series of 4′ x 4′ x 2″ thick AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels and AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Foam Bass Traps. The main idea was for the listener to hear the sound’s direct path from the speaker not losing clarity from the first reflection off the side wall or ceiling. The customer wanted a clear crisp sound, not one too dead caused by too much absorption in the room, losing the high-frequency content of the sound. The AlphaSorb® Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panels are a dense fiberglass board that is covered with Guilford of Maine FR701 acoustic fabric and installed with Z-Clips. The AlphaSorb® FR701 Fabric Wrapped Bass Traps are a thick Class 1 Fire Rated acoustic foam product also covered with the Guilford of Maine FR701 acoustic fabric.

In the Customer's Own Words

“The sound I have in this room rivals the best out there. All the people that I have had over who are either an enthusiast, audiophile, or Joe Six Pack have all said that the experience in my room is amazing. The main thing that I have noticed is the calming of the aggressive nature of the Nautilus tweeter in my N804/HTM1 Speakers. The imaging is much more precise now without the smearing which seemed to occur before the panels went up. Also, because of the room shape in the rear, I was getting weird effects, which would cause the left front to require as much as a 2 – 3 dB of extra boosts to be calibrated with the other speakers. When the panels went up, everything fell within .5 dB if not right at 0 dB. I am also able to crank up the volume now and listen at length without any ear fatigue. In a way, I guess I did my job right, in that the assumption is that this is just another room in my house that looks as if it is a natural extension of the other spaces within my home.”

To learn more about how Acoustical Solutions can solve your noise control problems, use our contact form, call one of our Acoustical Sales Consultants at (800) 782-5742, or visit us on the web at acousticalsolutions.com.

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Residential Acoustic Projects