By Juan C. Ayllon Two weeks ago, Belle and I downsized, selling our former home and moving into a smaller one. Now, we had agreed to complete the unfinished basement (where my listening space goes), however, with construction costs inflated by the real estate craze, we suspected that our plans may be delayed for a long while. Thankfully, we found out last weekend that lumber costs are coming back down and, following dinner with old friends, that Mike and June, who run a commercial flooring concern, can help us out with the flooring and connect us with reputable and reasonable contacts in construction after we formulate solid floor plans for accurate bidding. "Don't just hire one guy who says he does it all," Mike says. "No one does; they just hire other guys who subcontract for them. You can be the general contractor and save money." The catch is the time and effort involved in planning, collecting measurements, then reaching out to the various parties -- the electrician, plumber, the guys who put up the studs and drywall, the heating and air specialist, painter and others, taking their bids, costing it out, then dealing with the actual construction process. This is going to take some doing. In the meanwhile, before the basement project kicks into high gear and equipment needs to be covered and set aside, I have a little listening and review work to tend to, but the question remains, how is this even feasible in these challenging, unfinished conditions? I recall the harsh reflections and horrible sound I’d experienced in the cavernous concrete-walled basement of our first home when I had a mobile DJ system and a spare stereo down there, hence I recognized early on that if I was going to derive any pleasure from listening in our current basement during the interim, I will have to take the room out of the equation as much as possible. To accomplish this, I settle upon a roughly 10’ by 12’ wide concrete nook lined with insulation beneath our sun room and do the following:
Although there are some gaps between the hanging curtains behind the couch, they do a great deal to ameliorate interactions with the rest of the hard surfaces in our open basement space. In fact, listening from this nearfield position, Belle and I are stunned at the clarity and richness of the music tickling our ears. She’s remarked several times that she has never heard the system sound better! Sitting so close to the point position of an equilateral triangle formed between speakers and listener, that doesn’t completely surprise me, but it’s nevertheless gratifying. Of course, following our basement remodel, we plan on relocating the media room along a longer finished wall with a large, mounted flat screen TV with a leather couch, loveseat, maybe my old Barcelona Chair and a pair of sliding barn doors at its entrance, closed off from a separate storage and workspace, and an open general usage room. We will likely paint the exposed ceiling -- rafters, piping, wiring and all -- charcoal grey, and treat the room with acoustic panels bass traps, and acoustic curtains for maximum auditory performance. Although our plans are not finalized, we are looking forward to completing them soon and building our basement with its own new media room. And, while we wait, we can still enjoy music and the occasional HD movie (with a smaller removable TV we sometimes use). In my book, that’s a win-win! Postscript: The Straight Wire Crescendo 3 speaker cables and the AV Room Service EVP vibration isolation pads seen below under the Schiit Audio Yggdrasil and Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier continue helping deliver the most pristine imaging in my system. EDITOR'S NOTE: A new 432 EVO Aeon Reference Music Server is slated to be in for review in the near term. Stay tuned for impressions!
1 Comment
8/5/2022 04:14:13 am
This is such an amazing article and it is really beneficial for many people, keep up the good work. Thank you so much for sharing.
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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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