We're in the midst of a basement remodel - I'm finally getting that dedicated Home Theater room (yippeee!). The time has come to make a decision on wall construction - before taking the leap, I thought I'd come to AVS to ask for advice. Room size: 18x20 with a 96" ceiling height. The screen will be on one of the 18' walls - probably going with a Carada Masquerade with a CIH setup (JVC HD-750 pj with a Prismasonic lense).

Right now I have simple wood framing and am debating the merits of three types of wall construction:

1. Normal drywall, later adding sound absorption panels to 'tune' echoing. Total installed & painted price about $1,000 without sound treatments.

2. Gold Bond brand SoundBreak drywall system (two layers with a damping polymer between the layers). While this system will add mass and cut down on wallboard resonance, I'll still need sound treatments on the walls to cut down reflected sound. I have zero need to eliminate sound escaping from the room - I'm more interested in good sound inside the theater. Total installed & painted price about about $2,500 without sound treatments.

3. Softwall System from a local company (www.softwallfinishingsystems.com). They use 1" rigid Johns Manville fiberglas panels covered with fabric, and a panel mounting system of their design. They claim 85% sound absorption. See sample pictures at the end of this post. Total installed price is about $5,000.

Questions are: Which method would you choose? Should I expect too dead a room by lining all walls with the equivalent of Linacoustic? I'd hate to spend nearly double the money and wind up with a poor-sounding HT.

TIA for your thoughts...

To give you an idea of the floor-to-ceiling Softwalls when mounted (I'm in no way related to the company, they're just trying to sell me product):

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/350D2006/softwalltheater.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e352/350D2006/Web%20Stuff/softwalltheater2.jpg

2. Gold Bond brand SoundBreak drywall system (two layers with a damping polymer between the layers). While this system will add mass and cut down on wallboard resonance, I'll still need sound treatments on the walls to cut down reflected sound. I have zero need to eliminate sound escaping from the room - I'm more interested in good sound inside the theater. Total installed & painted price about about $2,500 without sound treatments.
If you are not worried about sound from outside getting into your theater, or sound from your theater going outside, you don't need a double drywall setup. But, you only mention in your post that your are not concerned with sound leaving the theater - how about outside sound coming into the theater? Are there things outside the theater that could infringe? Some examples: street noise, kitchen use, other TV/stereo use, furnace, plumbing.

If you want to acoustically isolate the room, there are a lot more things to worry about than just the walls. There are several threads that cover the construction of an acoustically isolated room - if you need to do this ask for some references. A good place to start is the first post of the Dark Knight Theater (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1043747), he has a list of links to sound isolation info.

How much work are you willing to do yourself? There is lots of useful info here in the AVS forum about creating and installing sound treatments yourself.

Also, while you should be thinking about the sound treatments now, you will install them near the end of your build. How your room is laid out will dictate what type of sound treatments you need and where they are installed.

2, it also helps to keep outside noise out. Do you have a furnace in the basement? noisy neighborhood etc. But you should also do a double layer on the ceiling. Personally I think I would go with two layers of basic off the shelf drywall and apply your own green glue. But that $2500 just write a check price, isn't all that bad to get your room done quickly.

Thanks for your responses, guys.

Our home is out in the boonies, so there's no worries about street noise. Good reminders on the furnace and plumbing, though. Happy news there, I guess, is that both furnaces needed replacing last year and the new ones are dead quiet.

How much work are you willing to do yourself? There is lots of useful info here in the AVS forum about creating and installing sound treatments yourself.

I did read several of the acoustic treatment threads - GPower's thread got me thinking about just letting Softwall Systems cover the entire room with their panels.

I'm leaning, though, towards the middle-of-the-road solution, using the SoundBreak double-layer drywall, then add sound treatments as necessary. It would be just my luck to go with the more expensive solution, then hate the deadness of the room. :)

Thanks,
Brad

2. Gold Bond brand SoundBreak drywall system this system will add mass and cut down on wallboard resonance.

You're feeling you'll hear the wallboard resonance?

I'll still need sound treatments on the walls to cut down reflected sound.

In my opinion, this should be the primary driver in your efforts, based on the quote below

I have zero need to eliminate sound escaping from the room - I'm more interested in good sound inside the theater.


In my opinion, you'll gain very little to nothing with soundproofing materials given your stated needs. Damped drywall (a soundproofing material) will not improve your playback experience. That is the role of acoustic treatments.

I would recommend building standard walls with standard drywall, and invest the savings in treatments and a proper theater designer.

I would recommend building standard walls with standard drywall, and invest the savings in treatments and a proper theater designer.

Good advice, heeded. HT designer arrives tommorow at 5:00 PM to provide educated guidance.

Thanks,
Brad

I think it sounds like you are mixing the ideas of sound proofing and room treatments.

Soundproofing involves adding mass/sealing the room to prevent sound from getting in or from escaping the room.

Room treatments involve improving the room's acoustics.


Are you wanting to do both?

I think it sounds like you are mixing the ideas of sound proofing and room treatments.

Soundproofing involves adding mass/sealing the room to prevent sound from getting in or from escaping the room.

Room treatments involve improving the room's acoustics.


Are you wanting to do both?

I am only concerned about improving the room's acoustics.

While working through that issue, I ran across Softwall Systems -- they have the equivalent of room treatments on every sq in of wall surface. In addition, I ran into a company selling SoundBreak, a double-layer of wallboard that supposedly aids with room acoustics by adding mass to the walls.

Based on conversations with the HT designer (and to be confirmed tomorrow), I'll probably just go with regular drywall and hang room treatments to handle any echoing/distortion.

Sorry to have caused some confusion, guys. I've spent a ton of time here, reading threads and my mind is swimming in data! :)

Brad

I am only concerned about improving the room's acoustics.


I'll probably just go with regular drywall and hang room treatments to handle any echoing/distortion.



Sounds like you're right on track

Sounds good. But just remember this advice paraphrased from Dennis Erskine (it took me many times reading it before it really sunk in)- Keeping sound out is one of the most important function of sound isolation. The background sound level in a normal room is much louder than the quietest scenes in a movie (something like 45dB vs. 22dB). Also, it's much more of a hassle to add soundproofing later.

Should you end up going down this road, look at adding a second layer of drywall with green glue in between the layers. It should be similar in cost to the SoundBreak system, but my guess is that it would be more effective. Ted White should be able to point you to some comparison data between the two. Ted also is a good source for purchasing Green Glue and has developed an effective system for applying it that is not available anywhere else.

CJ