Matt’s Blue Room Theater and Listening room

Blue Room Home Theater and listening space. Fully soundproofed and heavily treated.

Description

Current Setup

Video:
JVC RS1 Projector
Spandex Screen on SI Screen Frame (Previously used Black Diamond)
Sony UBP X800 UHD BR Player

Audio:
Onkyo TX-NR709 (Some capacitors replaced, opamps replaced, resistors on pre-out, etc.)
Acurus A200 Amplifier
Crown DSI4000
Laptop with Tidal (HDMI Digital Connection)
Acoustic solid turntable
Grado Phono Cartridge (wood body, forget exact model)
Rega RB250 Tonearm
Music Fidelity X-LPS with external power supply, Completely rebuilt with .5% metal film resistors, Panasonic FC caps, Wima Caps, Rifa Caps, V-caps, Burson Discrete Dual opamps (I completely rebuilt this, replacing nearly every part. The critical RIAA stage was rebuilt with very tight tolerance parts that I further hand sorted to ensure L-R channel balance, its as good as this basic design)

Room and Acoustic Treatment:
25'x11'x8.5'
Wall and Ceiling Construction: 2x 5/8" Type X drywall, Green Glue Constrained Layer Damping, Hat Channel, Decoupling clips
-Three walls are surrounded by Concrete Foundation. Two of Foundation Walls have 24" space between Theater wall and Foundation wall.
-Rear theater wall is ~14" thick, double stud construction, with double communicating door assembly (With 12" airlock space between doors).
-HVAC, Spiracoustic based HVAC mufflers, HVAC ducting is 28 gauge damped steel with acoustic lining (1.5" thick), plenum/expansion chamber on both supply and return. (Being Honest, this wasn't as successful as I hoped, the mufflers and duct lining did not fully prevent the transmission of sound into other spaces, especially low frequencies. I may work on improving this.
-False Wall for Screen and to hide speakers. Entire 30" depth of front wall is covered (100%) with multiple layers of 2" Linacoustic insulation, including the ceiling. Front wall has 2 layers with plastic membrane. Ceiling/Wall corner is bisected by 2" insulation.
-False Wall fabric Appearance Panels are lined with 3.5" Blue Jeans Cotton Insulation, spaced 30" from the wall (Acoustic insulation with a 30" airgap provides very high LF damping, when combined with a damped membrane, can provide substantial LF damping with littler comb filtering problems)
-3 Seat riser near middle/back of room. 2 layers of plywood, greenglue, acoustic insulation, perforated top around wall barrier

Speakers:
3x Gedlee Abbey for LCR
4x JBL 8340 Side Surrounds
2x DIY M&K/Vifa TriPole Surround (Purchased parts, minus crossover and some drivers, for M&K Tripole surround, designed crossover similar to Joseph Audio using 3rd order/2nd order filters with trap filters 1 octave below crossover point)
2x Gedlee 12" Bandpass Subwoofers (B&C 12TBX100 drivers)
1x Dayton RS12 sealed subwoofer
1xB&C 18DS115-4 Ported Subwoofer (19hz Tune)-awaiting driver, enclosure complete
2x Buttkicker Tactile Transducers

Room and Acoustic Treatment:
25'x11'x8.5'
Wall and Ceiling Construction: 2x 5/8" Type X drywall, Green Glue Constrained Layer Damping, Hat Channel, Decoupling clips
-Three walls are surrounded by Concrete Foundation. Two of Foundation Walls have 24" space between Theater wall and Foundation wall.
-Rear theater wall is ~14" thick, double stud construction, with double communicating door assembly (With 12" airlock space between doors).
-HVAC, Spiracoustic based HVAC mufflers, HVAC ducting is 28 gauge damped steel with acoustic lining (1.5" thick), plenum/expansion chamber on both supply and return. (Being Honest, this wasn't as successful as I hoped, the mufflers and duct lining did not fully prevent the transmission of sound into other spaces, especially low frequencies. I may work on improving this.
-False Wall for Screen and to hide speakers. Entire 30" depth of front wall is covered (100%) with multiple layers of 2" Linacoustic insulation, including the ceiling. Front wall has 2 layers with plastic membrane. Ceiling/Wall corner is bisected by 2" insulation.
-False Wall fabric Appearance Panels are lined with 3.5" Blue Jeans Cotton Insulation, spaced 30" from the wall (Acoustic insulation with a 30" airgap provides very high LF damping, when combined with a damped membrane, can provide substantial LF damping with littler comb filtering problems)
-3 Seat riser near middle/back of room. 2 layers of plywood, greenglue, acoustic insulation, perforated top around wall barrier

Acoustics in place right now:
8X 24" Vicoustic Wavewood Panel Cloud at ceiling first reflection point
8x24" Vicoustic Premium Cine Panels in 4 panel groups at first reflection points, adhered to 2.5" timber frame lined with Blue Jeans Cotton Insulation, plastic membrane.
1x36"x56"x5" DIY Bass Trap with two layers of OC703 FRK back to back, membranes facing opposite directions (One near wall, one on front), mounted with 1" airgap
2x24" Vicoustic Wavewood Panels near side Surround Wall Location
24"x24"x48" Bass Trap (4" 6lb Rockwool creating a hallow chamber lined with a heavy plastic membrane and moderately filled with scrap insulation)
2x 24"x48"x4.5" Panels with 4" Rockwool, 6lb, cork Membrane on rear of panel. Currently resting against the wall below the side surrounds at the MLP

Comments

Thanks. Just saw these comments. I can fit 6 seats in two rows of three. You could maybe squeeze a 4 row with narrow seats in the front if you don't mind squeezing by.
 
My friend JC recently stopped by and checked out my theater. I wanted to share the review he emailed me. I want to preface this with some context. He is comparing insane SPL as against a system that uses 4 21" B&C pro drivers and 6 15" high excursion subs. That was his reference point with the high SPL comment. That system he was referencing can exceed 140dbs in room at nearly any frequency. Mine is more limited at 120db, and my subs well, yeah they can't do that yet. Improvements are in the works as he mentioned.

Review below

Bottom line: your theater proved to me that you don’t need crazy SPL to have a great sounding theater; of course I know you are still quite capable of producing it if you so desire.



Imaging/Speakers

As I said before and you pointed out: the illusion of the speakers being higher was quite prevalent, and the sound stage presentation was fantastic. I don’t honestly think it would make much difference if you could actually widen the L and R because the imaging was so smooth and detailed. You can also tell you enjoy listening to 2 channel content in your room. I cannot see any reason for you to upgrade from what you have.



Sound Proofing

So yours is now only the second HT I’ve experienced sound proofing other than my own. I did note your noise floor and it was amazing. Personally, I cannot see having a dedicated home theater that isn’t sound proofed to some extent. Someday we should do some tests and compare ours, especially after I get the rest of my basement done.



Sub.

Ok, I think it struggled a little in higher-SPL setting, but I know you’ve said you have had some issues with it. But it was accurate, smooth, and great response. It helped point out the flaws in my substage – I know I have some major peaks, valleys, and nulls. I didn’t notice any of that with your substage. Sure, you don’t have the insane SPL (yet), but you have the tonal accuracy down pat. But then the ominous empty 18” enclosure sitting there says plans are in the works for the future.



It was great finally seeing your theater! It looks and sounds great, and you should be very proud of it!
 
Wow! Your build plans and detail are incredible! Does all the acoustical treatment and damping make for a really dead room?

Do you have any recent pics as you finalize things?

T
 

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Matthew J Poes
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