By Juan C. Ayllon I was excited about building my new listening space. I had the ideal dimensions. I had a plan. I even marked off some tentative new wall boundaries in blue tape on the basement's unfinished cement floor. And then, following an innocuous conversation between Belle and our adult daughter, Colleen, they were scuttled. "Why put up all those walls in the basement?" Belle asked. "It will look really boxy and shrink the space!" she suggested. "Why not simply keep it open?" Ugh. I was frustrated. She had her point, however; since we recently downsized, why diminish our new open spaces even more? Right around that time, I had been looking at room divider curtain solutions. That seemed an easy fix. Easy-peasy! I drafted up a solution that employed heavy curtains to define the space and address slap echo and other unseemly acoustic reflections. Not so fast! After doing some online research and listening on Youtube, I was dismayed. Although they will reduce slap echo, even the best acoustic curtains will only effectively manage frequencies in the 200 cycle and above range (see AcousticFields.com video below). Keeping in mind that it's best to keep the front of the room as acoustically symmetrical as possible, this wasn't good enough. Unfortunately, with our new construction unfinished basement, barring building a new enclosure, there wasn't much to work with. My temporary 10' x 12' wall nook location, offers the best symmetrical front, but it's a bit small and, besides, we want to keep that open for a tall table and chairs. So, what to do? I came up with a design that I thought addressed this problem best, as the two front sidewalls were close to evenly matched in this diagonal configuration. However, after talking with a very seasoned friend in the field, Straight Wire's Steven Hill, I realized that the side walls -- which are virtually non-existent, were far less than ideal. "Why do you need a dining table there in the first place?" he asked, hinting that that might be a better solution for my front wall, but ultimately suggesting the nook as the most symmetrical front wall placement. However, that's out for reasons stated earlier. Kicking it around for several days, I struck upon a solution that makes the front of the listening room more acoustically balanced and symmetrical: suspend one homemade 64" H x 31" acoustic panel with a 3/8" thick fiberboard backing on the side by the stairs, along with a 7' H x 17" W bass trap; the opposing side would have the same along the front sidewall and corner (see updated drawing). Of course, the hanging panel and bass traps could be taken down when not engaged in listening to soothe Belle's aesthetic preferences! Although the 3/8" thick fiberboard doesn't match a solid wall, it no doubt should help balance things out better (as opposed to simply having a thick curtain there). And the remaining exposed curtain mimics the curtain on the opposite wall covering a long window. In this scenario, I would likely place a long, thick curtain either behind the listening space or the rear wall to tame rear wall reflections -- that and/or place additional large acoustic panels (perhaps some large oil paintings of the grandchildren with thick recycled denim insulation lining their rear placed sporadically along the rear wall. But wait! There's another potential solution. Jerry Willsie, marketing director at Straight Wire, Inc. suggested building out a hallway extending from the front wall back to form a hallway, where photos and paintings could hang, with a nice barn door opening up to the listening area. "That would solve a lot of your acoustic problems," he offered, adding that it would also make for a terrific interior design aesthetic. Emailing me back my basement schematic with his modifications, Jerry suggested:
That way, he wrote, "you pique a persons interest before actually entering your listening room," while showing off some of my accomplishments such as artwork, plaques with accomplishments and photos (see diagram above). I like that a lot! However, if moving the heating and A/C units under the stairwell are ultimately too ambitious, another less costly solution struck me: extend the wall from a squared up enclosure for the heating, A/C, and storage spaces to the front wall, with a sliding barn door opening up into the room (you can view the drawing below). I now have several viable options for the finishing and construction of my basement listening and audio-visual space to present to Belle, as it is important that we are both happy with our final basement solution. Here's to finalizing our plans, calling in the contractors, and getting it built -- cheers! Post Script: As it turns out, Belle didn't like the last two options with the hard wall along the stage left side of the front wall. Not at all! However, she liked the third design down from the top (i.e., the one with the curtain next to the stairs, the hanging acoustic panel, bass trap and curtain). However, an improvement on that design occurred to me In the wee hours this morning: Instead of a hanging acoustic panel, I could create a faux front side wall using a cheap hollow core door with gypsum board (i.e., drywall), cut to the same size, bonded to its front atop feet used on cubical walls. Then, I would mount the large formerly hanging acoustic panel on it (another similar one would be on the opposite side wall (see diagram). The faux corner wall would butt up against the front wall. The curtain at the stairs and the opposite sidewall would both extend to the front wall corner. With this solution, I could tuck the faux wall away in the storage area when I am not engaged in serious listening, the curtains pulled back and -- voila! Belle has her open space. And I would get a closer acoustic match on both front wall corners. At least as much as I can, given the parameters that I am working with!
Editor's Note: I want to thank Straight Wire, Inc.'s Steven Hill and Jerry Willsie, as well as AVP RoomService's Norm Varney, Hubs Dagrand and Ernie Fisher for their input in this planning process.
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Juan C. AyllonA writer, artist, educator and owner of Prairie Audio Man Cave, he lives with his wife, Isabel (AKA Belle), and their Goldendoodle, Liam, enjoys listening to high fidelity music and all things hi-fi at their home in the greater Chicagoland area.. Archives
March 2024
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