This room looks great but I have to say that many reviewers seem to have far from optimal environments.

I agree. It really helps to see the reviewers rooms to see how their experience will translate to our rooms.

99.9% of the reviewers don’t have rooms like this. Most live in small untreated apartments 😂.

I started reading (and subscribing) to the 2 largest audio print publications in the early 90's. until just a couple years ago. I did have the chance to build a room when I built a house in ~96 but did not do anything special. I had a basement with 12 inch block walls every other cell filled with concrete and then regular 2x4 walls but the room was too large-- 32 long x17x9 and opened into other areas of the basement and the open stairwell. The sound was pretty good. It was about 60% underground. WWIII could have started in the neighborhood and you would have never known it until you came upstairs. I was hoping to try again but 2 ear operations (1 per) in the 90's guaranteed me tinnitus which even at 70 does not seriously detract from my musical enjoyment. I don't need a room like this now but still hoping to build one of similar size which would be basically half of the total size of the house. I have made comments all over yt about the room being the first element to consider when setting up a system and that all reviewers would help us out by describing their room in a permanent link so we have a reference.

@@roofpizza1250 From what I know about wall construction and room treatment, his room really isn't that optimal. His room is probably better than most of the reviewers, but still not what I would consider optimal for critical listening. Here's a room that I would MUCH rather have. I would also probably add more absorption against the walls, but not much more than what is in the room. Look at the wall/ceiling construction. The room has a +/- 1dB room response curve and a 28dB ambient noise floor. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m7N8dJiZldTMaKc.html

really?... Shunyata? Thats the supreme snakeoil of snakeoils......pure junk.

Truly.

Thanks for watching! Happy to help.

Thanks so much to everyone who has posted positive comments. I'm happy to share with you what I've learned.

​@@RobertHarley-dk1thGreetings Robert!!!Your rewiews audio devices are accurate and genuine.Mainly from Berkeley audio design DAC,what You wrote sounded like that!!! I am owner Luxman D-08 sacd,Luxman 590 AX,Audio Pyshic avantera,wires are silver Diy cryogenic treatment.👍👏

👍 LOL, was thinking the same thing as well as i watched & was/am complimenting their efforts as well. May I suggest continuing with a series of a few more vids without any brand hyperbole (not that you had herein) going forward if we're blessed to see a few more from you. I suppose I'm suggesting you spend your next several years producing new, chapter by chapter, video documentaries😉 of your excellent book(s)! of which I have your first or second edition from late 90s and your latest revised ed. from 2020-21? Have to share, I've designed/built over 20 DEDICATED two & multi-CH rooms over 2+ decades, not including 100+ media & multipurpose A/V rooms, sans the elite gear, and when you came to the room-within-a-room construction components plus the freaking doors(!!), your story brings to mind both great memories & a few angst filled, of projects where I could/did D&B from the ground up but also with times too a few home building contractors were challenging with our "special needs". Whether decorative or functional or both, I sometimes cringe at similar doors. 😉 GREAT opening vid. 👏

I'm so glad that you are finding my book helpful. The book turns 30 years old next year (but has been updated six times in that period).

I'm glad that it worked out for you. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi Dave, I had exactly the same experience when I used a pair of Curve Diffusers on the sidewalls of my completely untreated listening room in the rental house while this house was being built. That's the single most important treatment you can add to a room. Thanks for sharing.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th Thank you again.

That's in the next video that we shot the same day as this one. It is being edited now and should be posted soon.

The next video is an in-depth tour of all the equipment in the room including AC power considerations. We shot it at the same time as this acoustics video.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th wonderful. Really looking forward to it. Many thanks.

That's amazing! I remember the first time I heard them. Albert Von Schweikert and I worked in the same stereo store, and had had sold a pair to another salesman there. I heard them at the other salesman's house and decided on the spot to buy a pair. I'm glad that you are still enjoying them.

The floor is carpeted, and the ceiling is treated with four flat-panel mid/treble absorbers hanging over the listening position, two flat-panel mid/treble absorbers hanging over the amplifiers, and two Acoustic Geometry Curve DIffusors hanging from the ceiling at the first reflection points.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th 👍

They look like custom "built-ins" to me. Not too many cabinetry makers or suppliers (if any) are designing "off-the-shelf" solutions for CD storage these days. 😉

Meh. This guy is going beyond "nice". He's obsessed... he obviously knows how to blueprint a home and has the money to mess around with design. You can still be in this hobby...and enjoy it. If you're able to have a dedicated room.. acoustic treatment is a nice upgrade but you don't have to go crazy. If not.. no big deal. A lot of us have our rigs in the living room. Can you have acoustic treatment in your living room? Sure. As long as your single :p.

It's for sure beyond what most people would do with their rooms. It's far more then I would do. But, on the other hand, just having this knowledge could really save people alot of frustration and hard core money when making their own rooms.

Art Noxon's Iso-Wall design calls for the visco-elastic damping material rather than green glue, and I didn't want to second-guess him.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th Very wise! Thanks for replying. BTW, I know that you've written an article on this, but it'd be nice to see a video detailing your music room's electrical power arrangements.

Well it's obvious to me as a sound engineer why that was the result, we are very sensitive to reflections, you ge reflections when recording so spatial information is already on the recording now playing that in a room with no absorption doubles the reflections

@@Tacet137 true. When we hear a fake room or abstract room (studio) inside our playback room, the combination becomes a more believable experience.

Those kinds of rooms don't eliminate resonance modes, but they make them much harder to calculate. The air in the room will still resonate at certain frequencies.

In the follow-up video where I go through all the components in the reference system, I talk about the AC power to the room. Nothing special on the floor, just carpet. I don't have a precise figure because the additional materials (second sheetrock layer) and labor were built into the contractor's bid, but the acoustic package (Iso-Wall built into the structure) and the surface acoustics (Acoustic Geometry ProPack 10 and three ASC 16" Full Round Tube Traps) were in the neighborhood of $30k. That's without labor---I did the installation myself.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th Thank you for getting back to me. When I build my room I’m going to follow a lot of what you did here. Thanks again for your sharing your wisdom and insights!

I should have mentioned in the video that I consulted on a friend's ground-up room. He built his the same way as my room, but the acoustics are hidden behind fabric and it's scaled up considerably in size. He has Magnepan MG30.7 with a pair of JL f113 subs. It sounds spectacular and he's very happy with the way it turned out.

RIP ?

@@RAREFORMDESIGNS Harry Pearson signed off as HP, everybody knew who it was. Forever remembered.

I cut the strips of 1/2" plywood, applied two strips of ASC's visco-elastic damping material to the plywood lengthwise, and then screwed the plywood to the side of the stud with the damping material between the plywood and the stud. The strips of damping material are about an inch wide and 4' long. The damping strips ran the entire length of the plywood.

177" with the Wilson Alexia V that are under review at the moment.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th thanks, so that would be the typical placement in your room.

@@wally6193 Yes, every speaker I've reviewed ends up very close to the same location.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th My room is 17Wx22LX13H, I have mine at 120", which seems to be the sweet spot for the nulls/peaks in the bass response. I'll have to check that program you mentioned at one time and see what it says. What was the name of that program? I did check it with REW and it seemed to look good. Thanks.

What is the distance between the speaker front and the back wall.

I replied to an earlier post to describe the ceiling treatment.

That's exactly why I did the installation myself. The builder kept trying to get me to use thicker sheetrock for "better acoustics" not realizing that the thinner sheetrock is necessary for the constrained-layer damping effect. Incidentally, you want the inside wall of the listening room to flex, but on the other side of the wall you want stiffness.

@robertnystrom289 BUMMER! 😖 Been there/done that (unfortunately). General (Building) Contractors, and especially the Framing and Drywall subcontractors/tradesmen who actually do this work, are very much "set in their ways" and have very specific installation techniques and a strict regimen they follow, because over time, those techniques have proven to be foolproof and "just work" in 99% of their projects, with no callbacks or issues. Most simply CAN NOT fathom or understand wanting to do it any other way. :( Most are also not too keen on "someone else" who is not in their trade simply Telling Them "how to do their job", and that you need to "do it this (other) way". In 99% of cases, "their way" IS, in fact, the correct way, UNLESS they are made fully aware and fully understand the Specific Reasons for the deviations from the "norm". So unfortunately, IMO, it was You who failed to fully communicate to the builders/installers the full importance and Specific Details of HOW this very UNIQUE "system" is designed to work, and WHY you went to so much trouble and expense to design it this way. I think that this outcome could have been easily avoided IF you had at least told EVERYONE involved in the construction and installation (or, More Importantly, included the Design Specifications IN WRITING Directly on the PLAN), that "This room and its Wall Panels are PURPOSELY DESIGNED TO FLEX and WIGGLE in order to Work As Intended and to accomplish its design goal!" ... "The Wall Panels NEED To FLEX, Otherwise, they WILL NOT work as intended and will NOT fulfill their Unique and Specific Purpose! This is NOT a TYPICAL Room, and it has SPECIFIC Design Goals that REQUIRE unorthodox construction and installation methods." IME, ANY "non-standard" and/or "Custom" details of the Design and Construction MUST absolutely BE CLEARLY INDICATED and Fully Explained directly on the PLAN, as well as on any respective reference notes or addendums to the plan. You also have much more financial and legal leverage if an issue such as this arises, as you have it "in writing" and indicated directly on the working plan set. Unfortunately, I see and experience these types of issues quite a bit in very unique or "custom" architectural home building projects. It's not as common of an issue in commercial construction projects where more importance is given to construction and design details (much more money and legal ramifications at stake).

The portrait of Stanley Clarke is by Merryl Jaye. I also have in my listening room portraits of Chick Corea, Miles, Dexter, and Buddy Rich by her.

Yes we should think of it as budgeting for cables. It's really the only way we'll get the best for your system.

I use a Degritter ultrasonic cleaner.

@@RobertHarley-dk1th thanks

It's not an issue on a concrete slab.

Not my immediate neighbor, but very close.

The side door goes to the garage, not the house. The isolation is compromised, but it doesn't matter because it adjoins the garage. There's no degradation of the room's performance. By the way, it's interested to compare the isolation between the two doors; the door to the garage (solid core) has decent isolation, but the acoustic door has dramatically greater isolation.