Standalone Audio Room

[Grateful]

Hi,

I’m getting ready to design a custom home and want to build a separate structure for audio. I’m thinking something like 800 square feet with a 12’ ceiling. Is there a golden rule calculator, so I can nail the best dimensions?

About 20 years ago, I had Rives Audio design my current room. Who are the best audio room design firms today?

Much thanks!

 

[Al M.]

Those sound like very nice dimensions!

Here is a calculator (room dimensions in meters):

Room sizes compliance with international standards and recommendations

It is explained in this article, which is a long read but in my view excellent:

https://digistar.cl/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=557

 

[Kofi Baffour]

Hi,

I’m getting ready to design a custom home and want to build a separate structure for audio. I’m thinking something like 800 square feet with a 12’ ceiling. Is there a golden rule calculator, so I can nail the best dimensions?

About 20 years ago, I had Rives Audio design my current room. Who are the best audio room design firms today?

Much thanks!

reach out to Warp Audio Academy. He does incredible work. His website - https://vespers.ca/work-with-me/?v=6848ae6f8e78

Also, ratio can be a Golden ratio, a Sepmeyer Ratio, a Louden Ratio or a Bolt Ratio

Golden - 1 : 1.6 : 2.6
Sepmeyer - 1 : 1.14 : 1.39
Louden - 1 : 1.4 : 1.9
Bolt - 1 : 1.26 : 1.59 and 1 : 1.50 : 2.50

But I'd say discuss with Vespers

 

[Young Skywalker]

I would recommend plugging room dimensions (for a rectanglar space) into this website: https://amcoustics.com/tools/amroc

You should look for well-spaced peaks for a given combination of length (x), width (y) and height (z).

I used this when deciding on room dimensions for my own dedicated listening room (650 cm x 480 cm x 300 cm). My listening position is at one third of the room length from the back wall. My speaker plane is one third of the room length from the front wall. Loudspeaker centres are one quarter of the room width from each side wall. This creates a near field listening triangle that is approximately 2.56 meters from ear to tweeter with tweeters approximately 2.4 meters centre to centre.

 

[Grateful]

Hi,

Thank each of you, very much, for your assistance!

Does anyone else have any advice and/or recommendations for the latest and greatest Rives Audio?

 

[DonH50]

In addition to Golden Ratio, prime or quasi-prime dimensions also work to reduce the impact of room modes. E.g. 1:3:7 or whatever. The main thing is to not have any dimension be a close factor or subfactor of any other.

If you are building a room, consider isolation to reduce sound leakage from and into the rest of the house. I use Kinetics IsoMax clips and used a minisplit for HVAC to avoid ducts into the rest of the house. (The ducts in the picture are existing and went to other rooms; no duct outlets or inlets in the media room to the rest of the house.) Construction notes pasted below. Isolating the media room is one of the best things I did IMO.

HTH - Don

 

[Grateful]

Hi Don,

Thank you, very much, Don!

I’m building a separate building (probably 60’ x 20’ x 12’). I’m thinking a 32.5’ x 20’ x 12’ listening room with the rest of the space to house music, extra gear, vinyl cleaning machines, etc. I’m going to have an HVAC and electrical panel solely for that building. I’m in South Texas, so it will be built on a concrete slab.

Thoughts, ideas, improvements?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i have a stand alone room.

a few thoughts 21 years in.

keep in mind that the golden ratio does not scale for home audio sonics. small room acoustics don't work that way. maybe anecdotally it works at one size, and likely the variables in construction materials and methods will have a vote too. i would agree that intuitively the golden ratio is a good shape room to begin with though. my opinion is (1) that rooms that resemble symmetric ovals (interior shape) in some form or fashion do sound good. with (2) non flat ceilings. (3) soffits around the room at the ceiling and floor make a difference and don't cost much with new construction. (4) concrete floor, (5) great A/C grid is important. (6) -3- 90 degree turns for the air conditioning ducting to eliminate HVAC noise, and ideally (7) vents in the ceiling, (8) air returns near the floor on the wall for good air flow and flexibility in gear arraignment. i have a drop ceiling with chambers and the air ducting is able to run inside the drop ceiling. my air returns are in my front corners and help with the shape of the room (ovalize it) too. those returns go to the ceiling and act like bass traps. my rear wall is flared at an angle from a center rear door. then shelves are stepped into the middle helping with the oval shape.

if it's a separate stand alone building and your home is in a quiet area then sound elimination from the outside does not need super heroic methods. and there are very efficient products that can deliver good sound deadening such as Quietrock 545 to consider. i added this product to the front (speaker end) surfaces of my room 6 years in to equalize my room boundaries and it really helped. i then screwed 3/4" finish grade plywood over the Quietrock and never looked back. when i say 'i' i mean my contractor. he did hate me when he had to cut the Quietrock though. went through lots of saw blades and it's very heavy to work with.

 

[Grateful]

Hi Mike,

Thank you, very much, for your assistance!

Did you use Rives Audio for design? Do you have an opinion on who’s the prudent choice today?

What are your room dimensions? If you could do it again, would you tweak those dimensions?

Best regards,
Jeffrey

 

[Grateful]

Hi,

As usual, my posts are light on important details. My site is rather ideal. It’s a 45 acre fenced neighborhood with six home sites (mine is 1.3 acres on the flat top of a hill). About 37 acres are a permanent wildlife preserve. We have one pond but plan on adding a second soon.

The developers (good friends) replatted the hood for me. As a result, I’ll have my own electric transformer.

Thanks,
Jeffrey