Bob's New Listening Room and System

[Bobvin]

Woo-hoo, I have finally got a contractor—turns out to be the same fellow who handled the remediation of our deck a couple years back. So it looks like demolition will begin the last week of September. I believe I have finally drilled down and sorted out the whole recessed lighting issue that has made my head spin for the last couple of weeks. F-me there are a lot of options in that realm, and when you choose to go LED (because anything with a filament can potentially buzz when dimmed) the costs go up and the options are crazy to sort out, and then you have to find if the fixtures you choose work with the dimmers you want. Ugh!

After the first contractor came back with his sky-high bid, we reduced scope a little bit so that some items will be ala-carte and I can do them in the future should I choose.

So what is happening... you can look at the pictures on the first page of this thread—the recess on the left wall, where the cabinets are, will be increased and the cabinets removed. On the right wall the whole kitchen thing with fridge, dishwasher, microwave, wetbar will be removed. The stack of whole-house distributed audio will be shoved back into the cabinet and a door made that will ultimately have an acoustic panel on it. Curtains will go across the front window and doors. In the rear, the wall with the picture rails will be acoustically treated and covered with fabric, as will the recess areas on the left and right walls. I am adding a wine cellar in the hallway, and the hallway will be closed off by curtains. There will also be curtains that draw across the stairwell.

There will be custom RPG BAD panels, the sheetrock in the entire ceiling is coming off and the lights all re-set/replaced/added to. There will be LED tape lighting, and all lights on Lutron wireless dimmers. If anybody cares, private message me and I'll send you a copy of the plans. The goal has been to make the space acoustically treated without it being obvious.

 

[steve williams]

Congratulations Bob, it's been a long wait. I use a Lutron light control for on off and dimming with scenes and it is noiseless.My lights are LED. Most of my listening is with lights off anyway.

 

[Bobvin]

Thanks Steve, good to hear your Lutron solution works for you. Most of the time I'll have the lights off too, but hoping to have some LED tape lights for the ambient lighting. The LED tape light technology has come a long way—way better than rope lights but sadly LED is still quite expensive.

 

[Bobvin]

And so it begins... with the room cleaned out, the contractors have started this morning protecting the floors for the demolition to come.

 

[steve williams]

Terrific news Bob. I hope it all goes smoothly now

 

[Mike Lavigne]

good luck Bob with your project.

Mike

 

[Bobvin]

Funky, wierd, what's-that-for" cabinet removed exposing where the wine cellar will go, and dust-contain setup.





You can see on the floor in front of the dust-curtain marks showing roughly the arc of the curtains that will ultimately run across the base of the stairs.

If anyone cares, I can send you a copy of the plans. Just PM me.

 

[steve williams]

Bob

Im interested which of Bonny's OEM products will you be using

 

[Bobvin]

Hi Steve, the room will be using BlueJeans insulation (not OEM, but recommended), High-hat Mufflers, Lumitex and NoiseOut. I don't know if her carpet underlay is OEM or not, but will be using the the Vibramat covered with Lumitex. There will be custom BAD panels on the sidewalls and rear wall, and these will be behind FabricWall stretched fabric. The curtains across the hallways will have multiple layers of Lumitex between the curtain fabric, and there will be a single layer of Lumitex in the curtains across the glass windows and doors in front. There is also a 10' x 8' ceiling cloud between listening position and speakers.

Finally, when my custom album cabinet is complete, the drawers will have fabric faces and sound treatment (the cabinet will fall at a first reflection point.)

Almost forgot... Paradise Foam to reduce the sound of the HVAC. We'll be building small "steps" on the front and rear wall/floor junction to deflect and disperse the conditioned airflow. Double vents of larger size will help too. That alone will greatly reduce the background noise when the HVAC is running.

 

[steve williams]

That's great Bob. I have most of that in my room except for the Vibramat. I just have NoiseOut under my under pad.

 

[Bobvin]

Sheetrock 95% off the ceiling. So far nothing particularly odd appears that would prevent progress which is always a bit of relief. Tomorrow removal of existing cabinets and appliances, including the granite "wet bar" top. We hope to use that on the opposite side of the wall in the future. Electrician can start all the wiring for the recessed lights first of next week and we'll be on-the-way. Bonnie's crew will come after rough wiring is complete.

 

[Bobvin]

Today the demo was completed and the soffit for the recessed niche areas on the left and right side of the room was framed in. The niche areas have been expanded so the corners adjacent to the doors are equivalent. The niche on the left side of the room is deeper than the one on the right... and the one on the right is where my gear will be located. On the left side I intend to put a custom cabinet built to store vinyl records. In the future I will have another one made for the rear of the room.

At this point the electrician has begun moving outlets, fixtures, etc. I have decided not to have an additional dedicated circuit installed, instead rewiring the two that I have because one of them is moving to the left niche, which would make the wires be different lengths. In the future should I need a 3rd dedicated 20amp line, there will be a space for it.

 

[microstrip]

Sheetrock 95% off the ceiling.(...)

Are you using a single or double layer?

 

[Bobvin]

Are you using a single or double layer?

Just a single layer of 5/8" sheet-rock. There is a transition at the stairway which would require a lot of extra construction effort should I have elected to add another layer of sheet-rock. And the acoustician said she could easily work with just a single layer given the other things being done.

 

[Bobvin]

Nothing to show in pictures... but Bonnie's crew arrived this morning to begin the sound treatment in the ceiling. We expect it will take four long days to get everything done. Then, next week will have spray insulation added to the walls of the wine cellar, finish insulating the walls, and begin sheetrock, tape, and texture. Aside from the week delay we had for moving the HVAC the balance of the schedule seems to be on track. Hoping for completion early December.

 

[steve williams]

Good news Bob

 

[microstrip]

Nothing to show in pictures... (...)

Can we expect some photos showing how the treatment was carried?

 

[Bobvin]

Can we expect some photos showing how the treatment was carried?

I'm not sure I can share details of the treatments, some are proprietary to SoundSense, e.g. "high hat mufflers" are a unique design that go over and around recessed light cans. The goal is to turn the ceiling into a big Helmholtz resonator. Not a tuned resonator per se, but one Bonnie can successfully model the response with respect to other treatments. (This is my understanding, and is likely incomplete.)

 

[steve williams]

I'm not sure I can share details of the treatments, some are proprietary to SoundSense, e.g. "high hat mufflers" are a unique design that go over and around recessed light cans. The goal is to turn the ceiling into a big Helmholtz resonator. Not a tuned resonator per se, but one Bonnie can successfully model the response with respect to other treatments. (This is my understanding, and is likely incomplete.)

I have 11 of her high hat mufflers in my attic thus creating the Helmholtz resonator

You'll love what she does Bob

 

[microstrip]

I have 11 of her high hat mufflers in my attic thus creating the Helmholtz resonator

You'll love what she does Bob

I still remember it. But as far as I could understand Bobvin has no attic over his room, another type of treatment must be used in his ceiling!