"Shh, No Talking" Home Theater... - Page 3

Automatic drops and adjustable stops are to seal the door for sound proofing if you are going that route.

TLAH's can be made in different lengths, although the length determines the lower freq response. SLAs don't do reference, I believe. The center SLA would be vertical just like the L&R. You don't want it horizontal or else you will get comb filtering and it will sound different to each ear (unless you do a curved SLA). Is your center stud exactly in the center of your screen?

The nice thing about DIY is that since your LCRs are behind the screen you can concentrate on how they sound rather than how they look. Both TLAHs and econowaves should far surpass what you can buy new. You might want to look around in the DIY section for ideas or start a thread. LCRs are pretty easy to build as they are just a simple box. As long as you have the crossovers worked out by someone for the design, you should be golden.

How does the TLAH stack up to the Danley DTS-10 Spud kit? This is the sub that everyone on teh DIY Sub forum is raving about. I had the TLAH in mind for my room, but the Danley seems to be a really strong contender. Just curious what your thoughts are.

The TLAHs are for fronts (LCRs) and are line arrays. You can see them in my build thread.

The THT is what you are probably talking about for a sub. The THT is inexpensive ($300-400 with an amp), has more output than the DTS-10 (above 20hz), and requires only a 200 watt amp. It is also truly DIY with plans. The DTS-10 requires a much more powerful amp and is a $1000-ish kit from Danley. The DTS-10 does go much lower to 10hz, which is significantly lower.

It depends on what you want. The THT is the best bang for the buck. It has a TON of output for basically what amounts to the minimum you can spend for one driver and an amp....but only to 15-20hz. The DTS-10 goes significantly deeper, but costs several times more, and you might want more than one in a larger room (or if you are a bass head) but is still a very good value. You can't lose either way, really.

Thanks for that. The TNT is what I was thinking, not the TLAH. Too many acronyms.

THT. TNT has WAY WAY too much output for home use. Ha ha ha

\\
I was in your situation when I started my build, weighing what I should do for isolation. Scrimp and save, or do it right and know that it will be all I could do. Anything less than recommended techniques is going to be a crap shoot on end results. So, following is what I understand as gold standard for you, anything less and YMM definitely V:

1) For your 2 walls against concrete, use standard stick frame construction. No need for clips and channel as they are considered DECOUPLED due to concrete walls next to them. DISCONNECT them from upper framing via use of DC-04 clips. DD/GG on interior.
2) For your 2 interior walls, most cost effective method is using staggered stud construction, or building second interior wall, which DECOUPLES from opposite side. Same deal as #1 applies with use of DC-04's for DISCONNECTING from upper joists. DD/GG on interior. This approach is much less $ than doing a single standard wall construction and then doing clips/channel.
3) Ceiling normally is clips/channel/DD/GG if attaching to existing joists. If you are doing floating joists, then just DD/GG will do.

Sealing wall outlets and other penetrations are important as well and have recommended approaches.

I went the extra mile and am very happy with the results. Since every room is different in terms of location, flanking paths etc. it would be nearly impossible for someone to tell you you'll get X results based on your particular situation, testing isn't there. I came to that conclusion pretty quickly, and decided on the max since I needed it for my build.

Hope that helps.

RE the two walls against concrete, you can rework them with shorter studs but keep same top plate (now disconnected from joists except for DC04's). You question almost sounds like you are asking about cutting them and then putting a DC04 on each stud? That would get expensive and I've not seen that done before. People use the top plate again on the shorter studs, and then DC04's every 4'. If that's too much work, you can alternatively use clips and channel on the existing wall(s) and leave them as is. I recommended DD there as that's what Ted recommends (to me at least)

Don't know what to tell you on the screen wall for sure. I suspect you could still use DC04 on that wall and go closer than 4' spacing (maybe every 2'?). I'd give Ted a call to discuss further.

I guess your idea on the 2nd interior wall is one of those areas where it becomes cloudy on results if you don't do staggered studs. While you may achieve disconnection improvement, not getting it properly decoupled may allow enough sound through opposite side that it will flank up into the second floor anyway. Tough to say how much.

I just noticed this...although I haven't looked into IB, from what I've seen in other builds people doing an IB set-up typically have a totally sound isolated "chamber" built if sound isolation is a goal. So, if your IB chamber is "the rest of the basement", what's the point in worrying about soundproofing your walls?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I don't get it

I don't believe that I can give you a qualified answer, as I've never ran across this scenario before.

I really think Ted White is the one you need to consult

IBs can't really be sound isolated unless you isolate the back chamber also. The sound will go through the cones of the IB drivers.

Is is more difficult to isolate low frequencies.

You might want to ask Ted, but I would think you would still want decoupling, absorption and sealing up the room. The DD and GG helps mostly with the low freqs. Luckily, the DD and GG are the most expensive and labor intensive. Double check with Ted - give him a call.

I do not think it will be a waste of time to sound isolate the room and leave the back chamber not isolated. While I went through great pains to isolate my back chamber i do recognize that it still will not isolate all the bass.

You will still benefit by isolating sounds from coming into the room which I think is a bigger benefit than preventing sound from going out. It will lower your noise floor and increase the dynamic range of your system. In other words you will not have to turn your system volume up everytime someone whispers in a movie to make it louder than the sounds entering your room (mechanical, environmental sounds)

Also while low frequency sounds are harder to isolate and travel further, higher frequency sounds are generally more offensive to someone outside the theater than low rumbling sounds.

I would definitely try to decouple the IB Baffle wall from the ceiling - especially with the line array - Your wall will be transmitting a lot of vibrations. Have you considered doing an opposed manifold design instead? It would greatly diminish the vibration transmitted to the wall.

I agree with what StockMonkey wrote. My HT is still missing its door yet it is noticeably quiet in the room. Still, 4 x 18" holes will let in a lot more noise than a sealed room...but it is still much better than a non treated room.

There are quite a few IB installations that do not have a lot of breathing room around the drivers - most of the attic installations I have seen do not. I thought about doing a line array in my theater but ended up deciding that the manifold solved a lot of the problems and it was all going to be hidden behind my screenwall anyway. That being said I can certainly understand the appeal of of an array.

Is your screen going to be mounted directly on the baffle wall or are you going to have a false wall with a screen?

By the way i used the IB3 clips (similar to the DC-04) in my theater and the walls seem to be just as rigid as if I nailed directly to the joists. They did not seem very rigid while I was first putting up the walls, but once everything was tied together it seems very rigid. On my infinite baffle chamber i first had the IB3 clips attaching the baffle wall to the ceiling because it would move quite a bit when pushing on it. After the entire chamber was framed and the osb was installed (it is a full room within a room) I removed the IB3 clips because they were not needed and the With the OSB, and two layers of drywall the wall is not going anywhere. My entire chamber does not have any clips of any kind anywhere and the only contact with the rest of the house is the floor.

looking at those sub boxes I would suggest 1-2.5' off the primary wall, so you'll be looking at a false wall at 2.5-3' or may be 4'..

you could insulate the boxes a bit though I'm not sure if that would help your situation, I would say it might be better to dome the wall behind the subs might help deflect some of the reverb noise...