Dixon's Jam Room Theater - Page 2

Thanks for the comments.

The soundproofing has actually exceeded my expectations.

The basement area outside that room is slate tile floors, with an open staircase up to the main floor that comes right up between our family room and kitchen. A formal living room is right above the theater. I am often down there blasting away at a fairly uncomfortable level (not ear bleed levels, but too loud for most folks) and when I walk upstairs to the family room, kitchen or living room and ask how it sounded, my family looks at me with blank stares and says "how did what sound?" Some sound leaks out around the area of the door, as that is expectedly a weak link, but not enough to really carry up the stairs. I left room to add a second door if needed, but so far I am happy without it. The HVAC return is also a weak link (still some work to do there), but luckily it runs straight into the mechanical room and I am not experiencing any noticeable flanking (better lucky than good on that one).

The only time we hear anything upstairs is when someone in the theater is playing material with really heavy, low bass, such as Transformers, and only then if at an extreme level. In the living room (and only in the living room) you can hear faint rumbles of bass when the big explosions happen, etc. In fairness, I don't have a great sub. I am sure I'd hear a bit more rumbling if I had a big-time sub shaking that room.

All that said, I routinely blast music or movies after the family has gone to bed (two floors above) and there is ZERO sound getting up to that floor, rumble or otherwise. That was my main goal when I did the soundproofing--being able to play music at night and not disturb anyone.

Oh, and it is dead quiet in the room when I shut the door, something I hadn't appreciated as a benefit when I was planning.

I highly recommend making the effort of soundproofing. Mine isn't perfect, but it is quite good.

Thanks. Yes, those are the Ekornes Jazz chairs. Really great on the ol' back.

As promised. Very hard (with my photography incompetence) to capture the true color of the guitar in a pic. Did my best to capture it accurately. It is a 2004 '59 reissue in iced tea burst--if, like me, you could never swing the real thing, this is a good substitute.

I promise not to turn this into a guitar pic thread, but since I said I'd get you a better shot, I wanted to be good on my word.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Thanks for the comment.

The track lighting is W.A.C linear.

http://www.ylighting.com/linear-system.html

It is a mini track system. I haven't noticed any meaningful heat in the room as a result of the lights, although I have very good airflow with three (four if you count the equipment room) air supplies, plus a return. Obviously the lights are off or significantly dimmed when we are using the projector.

The light fixtures themselves certainly get hot to the touch, as I learned the hard way when first putting them in and "adjusting" them

Are you referring to my soundproofing? I did not do any before and after tests with measurements. Prior to my renovation I had a decent surround setup in the basement, and you could hear it all over the house when it was running at any reasonable volume, especially the rumble of the subwoofer. The basement at that time had a dropped ceiling and no real insulation, so it isn't a meaningful comparison to what we have now.

One thing I noticed with our current soundproofing is that it seemed to get better with time, especially with handling lower frequencies (maybe as the green glue cured?). Ted or one of the other folks in the know might be able to explain it, or maybe it is my imagination

I can't say which part of the soundproofing did the most good (decoupling, extra drywall, green glue, etc), but as a combo it really worked for me.


Thanks. Mine too.

I am already pushing my luck posting my room in the dedicated theater area

Although I do think my room qualifies (barely)

The walls are a faux mix that my painter came up with. I showed him this picture of the walls at Union Station in Los Angeles and asked him to do something in that color family. We then did some samples and settled on a mix.



My main wall color is Benjamin Moore Mediterranean Olive (BM 2142-10). He started with an almost mustard color as a base (don't have the reference in my finish schedule), and then layered over the olive. You might be able to mimic his look with an olive suede paint from Ralph Lauren.

The ceiling is Benjamin Moore Deep Taupe (BM 2111-10). It is a sort of milk chocolate color. Most folks would likely prefer a darker brown for a theater ceiling, but I don't have an issue with significant light reflection and I like the depth of the color--has a rich look to it. The trim work is faux stained--no clue what he used for that.

Thanks for the comment. Your theater is one of my favorites.

Love the guitars by the way. Looks like you might be a VH fan

Thanks for the reply Ted. I assume you are responding to my comment that the soundproofing seemed to get better over time.

You are correct that I am addressing a few flanking paths after the fact (primarily the HVAC return). Luckily for me I have access to it from both sides and can experiment with ways to improve performance. Someday I may also add a second door at the entry (so I would have a back-to-back door entry). In any event, performance is very good as is. Thanks.

Thanks

Timely question. I was actually thinking about this very point last night. Just before going to bed I stumbled upon Hunt for Red October playing on cable (at which point I was stuck because I can never turn that movie off). During a few of the dark underwater scenes, I noticed the reflections on the wood top of the bottom portion of the shadow box below the screen--really the first time they have distracted me. Nothing terrible, but I thought to myself how much better the picture would seem if I could cut that reflection.

The sides are made up of (except for the thin trim piece, which is about 20 inches in front of the screen) GOM fabric panels just like the front panels--they are open air to the space behind them for acoustic reasons. I get no light reflections off the fabric, so no issue there. While I would have preferred to do GOM fabric panels for the cap on the bottom portion of the shadow box, I was concerned about my kids hopping up on that space, so I compromised and put a wood cap on it. As for the area above the screen, there is no upper shadow box portion--just ceiling.


It has not generally been a distraction and I really like the shadow box effect (makes the room feel deeper when we are using it for music etc). That said, last night I decided that it would be a good idea to put GOM fabric (or black velvet) panels on top of that wood cap to cut the reflections. I will probably look into that when I otherwise finally pull the trigger on doing acoustic treatments in the room.

I recently upgraded my subwoofer, so I decided to update my "build thread". I went with two SVS SB12-NSD models, which are their latest 12" sealed models. I realize that these are not the monster subs that many of you enjoy, but I am very impressed with their ability to go low and loud. As expected, these have a tight, punchy sound that is especially nice with music. I am sure there are lots of great options in this price range, but I would certainly recommend these.

I learned the following things after I had set these up:

1) Two quality 12" sealed subs are more than enough for me. These things were so strong with low frequency action scenes (my clothes were literally fluttering) that I had to bring the gain down quite a bit from where my setup had initially placed it.

2) My prior sub (a low-end Energy sub from the late 90s) was a piece of junk

3) I really need room treatments. After gain matching and running Audyssey, the bass in my primary seating location sounded great. When I went and sat along the side walls, the bass (and a bit of BOOM) really became pronounced. Since I measured those side seats as part of the setup, I assume it is just an issue with the room. I may move one sub to the back, but I suspect treatments would do the trick.

4) I don't know what I am doing, so I should get a pro to help me with the treaments (I actually knew this before I got the new subs )

Since threads are boring without pics, here you go