Finished the stereo house December 2019. Took six months building it and literally 5 years to research all angles to plan for it. Construction is concrete pad, offset stud walls one foot thick, double sheets 5/8" drywall with green glue sandwich. Ceiling is same sheetrock construction but mounted on metal furring hat channels with sound clips. Used 71 cartridges of compound and 21 sealant. All electrical outlets backed with soundproof putty.
Two small windows 4" thick with triple pane. 3" thick solid wood door, mahogany on outside, pine inside. Whisper quiet mini split AC/heat wall mounted unit.
Result is stunning, I hear nothing from the outside, trash truck included, and no one hears a peep of my music from the outside, no matter how loud.
Mission accomplished for sound proofing. For acoustic treatment I worked with Gik and the results are phenomenal. It took me 3 months to tweak in the system and now 6 months later I have completely stopped tweaking anything. Happy and satisfied music lover here with what I accomplished. The construction was nerve wracking at times since no one around this area was familiar with this type of construction, but I really enjoyed guiding those guys along. Great experience. In the process of upgrading some equipment, pictures will follow. Ended up doing a bunch of acoustic treatment upgrades also. Reality is the journey is never over no matter the level of quality. Lesson learned :)
Pro-Ject Audio Systems Debut III with ortofon 20 cart
RX doctor Record clamp for pro-ject
Gustard X26 pro DAC
Jay's Cdt2 mk3 cd transport with Qstab NSE CD clamp
Halo parasound A 21+ power amp
The first 6 watts are pure class A.
Noticeable difference over the A23+ I had.
PS Audio Stellar phono preamp for VPI TT
Wyred 4 sound ST preamp stage 2
Parks audio Puffin phono preamp for Pro-ject TT
Bluesound NODE N130 Streamer
Teddy Pardo Linear power supply for Bluesound Node
Sangea HDT-20 HD radio fm tuner
Simply amazing, some HD stations in Austin sound almost as good as redbook CDs on this inexpensive marvel.
PBN Audio Montana XPS speakers
Rythmik Audio F 12 A 370 PEQ dual subs
Iso acoustics ISO-200 subwoofer stands
Audio Envy O'nestian XLR interconnect cables
Tubulus Concentus I2s cable for Jay's to Dac connection
Also using an Audio Envy XLR between the Jay's and Gustard to get a more rounded but less detailed sound depending on brightness of the CD. Via remote of course.
Curious USB cable from streamer to DAC
Geistnote digital Coax cable between tuner and dac
4s11 canare 11 gauge bi-wiring speaker cables
Mediabridge Subs cables
Audio Envy Phono Deluxe RCA cables
Patrick Cullen cables Gold series power cables for most equipment
Shunyata Venom 14 power cable for Teddy Pardo LPS
Bluejeans Ethernet cable between NODE and TP-Link wifi extender
Small Green Computer Optical isolation bundle
Used between the wifi extender and streamer to clean up the ethernet signal. Subtle improvement in space and clarity.
Black Lion Audio PG-2 Power conditioner
Gik acoustics 8 corner bass traps, 4 absorbing panels for side walls, 2 for front wall and 2 absorber/diffuser panels for back wall. Later added diffusers for first reflection points, back wall, rear side walls and ceiling for a diffuser surface total of 84 sq. ft.. The total surface of absorbers amounts to 72 sq. ft. plus the floor to ceiling bass traps in the 4 corners.
Once I got rid of all echoes with the absorbers, it took that many diffusers to open up the room and give it the lively sound I lost with the absorbers. Now I have no echoes and a lively room! What a trip!
Audio Envy Ocean elite p3 power cord for Jay's
Monosaudio HIFI 12 awg power cable for optical isolator power supply
Can't update my system anymore, so I do it here. Moved the Node to my living room setup and got an Innuos Zenith mk3 to take its place in the house of stereo. No huge sound improvement over the Node the way I had it setup but substantial upgrade with its connectivity to my extender. Have not had a single wifi misconnect in well over a month now. Also the Innuos sense app for using Qobuz has more features than bluos, but I occasionally have to restart it as it just drops off when first getting into it, which can get annoying. They do a lot of software upgrades and hopefully will correct that.
I like that the Stellar gives me the option to change the ohms setting via remote. That comes in very handy for certain records regardless of mc cart. I have zero reason to upgrade on it.
The reason I bought the SW-10 was to identically clock both the X26 PRO and the SW-10 with the C18. Works perfect for that with two PNC 50 ohms cables connected via the two square outputs of the C18. I did find out that it takes time for each unit to recognize eachother and work in unison, meaning I am not interested in trying different slaving setups, sorry. The other thing that sold me about the SW-10 is the optical isolation feature. It ties in perfectly to the LPS part of my optical isolation bundle from Small green computer. I was waiting for the new etherregen, but when this new SW-10 came out, the etherregen simply no longer measures up in features. As far as sound, every part of it is better, whether it is worth it to someone has to do with how deep the pockets. It is totally worth it to me and allows me to keep my NODE, using the fantastic bluos os on my android remotes getting sound easily comparing to the quality of my TTs and CD setups.
As stated earlier, I have no more ways to update my system and since I don't want to do the work to post a new one, here are the latest additions:
- Sold the pro-ject TT, replaced it with a Pioneer PXL 1000, running the Sumiko Starling cart and Puffin phono preamp on it. VPI Classic TT back with rebuilt Lyra Kleos cart and still on PS Audio Stellar phono preamp.
- Gustard C18 master clock.
- LHY SW-10 ethernet switch which also functions as an optical isolation box and can input an external clock. These are amazing features! Both the Gustard X26 PRO and ethernet switch are connected to the C18 master clock.
Funny, I might have gone over my allowance for upgrading my system components as there is no longer an edit option for me on here. Anyway just wanted to say I added an Addpowr sorcer x4 and I couldn't recommend it more. It's like taking the baffles off the speakers all over again. Livelier, like adding a spring in your step. Plus it works on all my systems, 2 TTs, CD player, streamer, tuner and DVDs. What other single upgrade can do that?
Harder to control resonance. Plus the soundproofing is incredible as is. Stepping out a few feet from building and you hear nothing, no vibration, even with loud electronic music with heavy bass which I am increasingly falling for.
I think it is very helpful to describe as well as we can what kind of work we put in our system if we are going to help anyone. Glad you took the time to look it up. Yes, the sound of my room keeps amazing me pretty much at each listen. The only problem now with the new PBN speakers is I would like to get more power than my Halo A23+ puts out. I am looking at a halo A21+ because I want to keep the sound I have. Just more of it. Plus I would like the first 6 watts of pure class A the A21+ has for best low volume listening. The journey goes on...
@Artemus, the hat channels on the ceiling is for decoupling. They are mounted on sound clips which assures no transfer of vibrations caused by low frequencies through the ceiling. The walls did not need them since we did the offset stud method to accomplish the same. Meaning the inner walls do not touch the outer walls except a little at corners and edges.
@cymbop, in 3 words you laid it out perfectly. Room, treatment, gear.
@silvanik, so very nice to see a comment like yours that reinforces my beliefs about room acoustics. Thanks for the great compliments. And I checked your red strato, real nice. We think alike in more ways than one.
As the last 3 pictures show, I have been tweaking the sound with some more acoustic panels. Once you have decent equipment, I find adjusting the acoustics in the room to your ear provides much greater improvements than any equipment change. I know this rattles many, but it is truly my experience. I also added absorbing panels horizontally below the windows behind the speakers. I doubled the mounts so I can hang them vertically to cover the windows is necessary. I haven't found any improvement doing that though. Those 4 inch thick triple pane windows are doing fine for sound on their own. Who would've thought. The balance between the perfect amount of absorption vs. diffusion is incredibly tricky and time consuming but plenty worth the effort. Plus it keeps me busy :)
My AC guy wouldn't be interested in shipping these, if he has any left, since he makes most of his money on the install. You can get these online from many suppliers.
The model is probably a couple years old. The AC guy had a good deal on it and bought a couple dozen. They have now a newer unit which saves even more power wise. Either unit you get, those things are amazing, way quieter than the noise you hear from a vent when a central AC unit is on. The thing is set on 74 in 100+ degrees in Texas. The thermostat is on a remote control. Never hear it from my seating position EVER. Obviously much superior to central AC for a single room. Only added $20 a month to my bill. Great insulation though...
More detailed info: Offset studs for walls and joists for ceilings are wood. For insulation, used standard fiberglass rolls laid flush against the outer walls, leaving a 2" air gap right behind the double sheetrock. That air gap is a big part of the soundproofing. The top of the ceiling was made of two crisscrossed layers of 1/2" plywood which in essence shaped the room into a fully sealed box. The roof was completely attached on top of the box (the rafters were mounted on top of it) as to not break up the box (another key to soundproofing). Windows do not open. "Soundproof" curtains cut down the liveliness of room when drawn. I find liking some records with them open better (albums lacking in brightness), while bright albums are best with them drawned. Thanks for the nice comments.
The mini split is a Daikin 12,000 btu unit. Goes for $1,200 + $800 install. There is an inside and outside unit and it is fairly complicated to do on your own. It is more than sufficient to cool down my 27,000 cubic ft. in a matter of minutes. And you basically can never hear it unless you are right next to it. Amazing unit. My AC guy said I would love it in a music room and he was right. I thank you for your gridfusors suggestion for the front wall. As you may have noticed I have two small windows in that front wall and that would be a no no to any serious audiophile. But I didn't care, I need those windows to view the many beautiful trees in front and relieve me of the claustrophobia I would feel staring for hours at a plain wall. Hence the art work also. That to me is more important than any small sound improvement I may hear from treating the front wall. Something very interesting happened, the TV is mounted on a stand rather than against the wall, and what I found out is the lead vocal would disappear BEHIND the TV. After trying different options, I installed a 4" thick open cell piece of foam about the size of the TV right between the TV and the wall, and magically the lead vocal placed itself in FRONT of the TV. Now my soundstage is perfect to my ears. Another thing is I maintain a great balance between a dead room and a live one because I ordered my 8 bass traps with limiters, therefore it does not absorb high frequencies, just low ones. And with my carpeting it is just what the doctor ordered. Like you say, there was a lot of homework going into this. Thanks a lot to take the time to give me your input. Very much appreciated.
