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I've got multiple otherwise-equal places to put my home theater -- I'm looking for something larger. Our old one was 12 x 18 and we had the couch at the 10-foot mark. It always felt a little cramped when we wanted more than 5-6 people to watch. (seating was just a normal, small, sectional) I was looking at something in the 15-20 x 20-25 size this time.
In the new house, I've basically got a blank slate in the basement.
The wall options are either open (as in, open to the other part of the larger room), Insulated concrete forms (2 inches of foam, 6 inches of concrete, 2 inches of foam... then the dirt), or standard non-structural 2x4 walls.
I don't want to completely wall off the theater into it's own room -- for times when we want something a little less 'dedicated to watching' -- super bowl parties, etc.
The semi-obvious places to put the HT has an ICF/Concrete wall at the front and another at the right side... with the left side and most of the back open to the larger room. Basically think "corner of the basement".
The other semi-obvious place is to put it in that corner but put it an an 45 degree angle -- so it'd be more symmetrical. It's not as space-efficient, but if I'm going to get better sound performance, that isn't a huge deal. I would likely put in non-structural walls at the same angles for holding speakers and making it 'look' decent and allow for components and server closets and and such.
I can also put it in a place that simply has the ICF wall behind the screen and is, currently, open all around in the other directions. (where I can put up wood walls or half walls and columns as needed)
Thoughts?
Basically, my question boils down to: how do concrete (ICF in particular) walls affect the sound compared to 2x4 and drywall walls?
In the new house, I've basically got a blank slate in the basement.
The wall options are either open (as in, open to the other part of the larger room), Insulated concrete forms (2 inches of foam, 6 inches of concrete, 2 inches of foam... then the dirt), or standard non-structural 2x4 walls.
I don't want to completely wall off the theater into it's own room -- for times when we want something a little less 'dedicated to watching' -- super bowl parties, etc.
The semi-obvious places to put the HT has an ICF/Concrete wall at the front and another at the right side... with the left side and most of the back open to the larger room. Basically think "corner of the basement".
The other semi-obvious place is to put it in that corner but put it an an 45 degree angle -- so it'd be more symmetrical. It's not as space-efficient, but if I'm going to get better sound performance, that isn't a huge deal. I would likely put in non-structural walls at the same angles for holding speakers and making it 'look' decent and allow for components and server closets and and such.
I can also put it in a place that simply has the ICF wall behind the screen and is, currently, open all around in the other directions. (where I can put up wood walls or half walls and columns as needed)
Thoughts?
Basically, my question boils down to: how do concrete (ICF in particular) walls affect the sound compared to 2x4 and drywall walls?