Mancave 3.0

[dguarnaccia]

Recently the wife and I bought a new house on 20 acres. Horse property for her, and a new mancave for me. The house is a bit dated, so we're going to have to do a bit of remodelling before we can move it, and with a full basement, I was able to pick out where I wanted to put the new mancave.

Here is a layout of the space I've designed so far...



I've been modelling it. The room is long, giving me the ability to build a stage this time to hide the speakers behind the screenwall. I think I'll also been a baffle wall behind the screen as well.

Here is a view from the front of the room:



I'll be able to have 3 rows of 3 this time. Equipment rack will be along the back wall in the mechanical room behind the theater.

Here is a shot from the rear:



I'll be going with an accoustically transparent screen that can support 4k. Waiting for the next gen projectors to hit the market at a reasonable price, but want to have everything ready for when they do.

I'll be double sheetrocking with green glue to cut down on noise outside the room. I also plan to put sand in the platforms to damp them.

A few things I'm trying to decide is how much accoustical treatment to put on the walls. I'll put corner wedges in teh front 2 corners. above the subs. I'm trying with making the entire room fabric lined with OC703 behind it, but I don't want to overdamp the room either. The faux columns will hide the sho10's. Wondering if I should make those fabric wrapped and make them out of OC705 as well.

Also trying to decide what to do with lighting as well. Do I go with Can lights or sconces? What does everyone think?

I should be getting started in the next few weeks, and will update you all as I get going...

[Kevin_Wadsworth]

That looks like a perfectly-sized area for a HT. I like the design.

I really like having my equipment/projector in a room behind my theater, taking out the light/heat/noise and making the room look cleaner.

I fabric-wrapped my entire room and have 1" linacoustic up to ear height on th efront/side walls and on the ceiling. I don't think it's too much damping.

Most people on the avs theater forum like can lights, but I'm not a big fan. If you are taking the time to decouple the walls/greeg-glue/double drywall for soundproofing, that's a lot of holes to cut into your enclosure. You can box in the lights, but that takes work as well. I like sconces on the side walls for general lighting and aesthetics, but they do wash the screen out quite a bit.

In my theater, I put in track lighting over the seating area and I really like that. It's some directed task lighting on the seating area if I want it without washing out the screen, while being only a single-wire penetration through the drywall. And since the ceiling is black fabric and the track lighting is black, it's pretty unobtrusive.

[dguarnaccia]

Thanks Kevin,

I've been thinking about the linacoustic stuff. Did you install it yourself or did you have it professionally done? If you did it yourself, how hard was it to install?

I really like your idea on track lighting over the seating area, I will to take a look at that.

I've been thinking about where to put the projector, and hadn't even throught to put the projector back in the mechanical room but that's a really good idea. It's about 26 feet to the screenwall, and I'd have to research if that's too far of a throw distance for the PJ's I'm thinking of. I'm sure the laser PJ that Red is designing will be fine, but will have to look at some of the other 4k projectors.

Thanks for the feedback!

[tthurman]

How are you going to do the laundry without wanting to stop and watch a flick?:biglaugh:

My boss built a recording studio onto his house and used double Sheetrock on two studded walls with the studs alternating. I don't recall what he used as sheathing between the two walls or if he even did, but if so, it was likely plywood or OSB, or perhaps a single sheetrock layer. He insulated each of the two walls with mineral wool, and then used z-channel to decouple it from the studs. The sheetrock was glued together with some Auralex type of adhesive, for which I'm sure this is a much more reasonably priced alternative. The ceiling cavities also were insulated with mineral wool, that was encased in large thick garbage bags. It is dead silent in there!

Are you going to do stadium type seating risers? (nm, I see this in your rendering)

[dguarnaccia]

I was going to use greenglue between the sheets. I've heard about the alternating stud walls, but I've never seen a diagram that shows how it's put together. Anyone know a good resource for this?

[phipp01]

I like the look of sconces. How about sconces that can be controlled by remote with LEDS lighting up the stairs into the chairs? That way you dim the sconces when everyones comfy and if someone has to get up during the movie the stairs are lit up.

PS a strip of LEDs that could be put under the lip of a stair,

[HopefulFred]

I was going to use greenglue between the sheets. I've heard about the alternating stud walls, but I've never seen a diagram that shows how it's put together. Anyone know a good resource for this?

This is the only resource I know, and I can't imagine there are too many better.

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/soundproofing-articles/staggered-stud-wall-construction/

Fred

[dguarnaccia]

This is the only resource I know, and I can't imagine there are too many better.

http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/soundproofing-articles/staggered-stud-wall-construction/

Fred

That is awesome, thanks Fred! I wonder what it is about staggering the studs that helps reduce sound transmission.

Phillip, totally agree. I've got rope lighting today around my mancave that I control using Zwave devices and a remote control I would defintely do something similar.

[HuskerOmaha]

I would definitely put this up in the dedicated home theater section at avsforum. Those guys have been there done that and know every question you throw at them.

They think of awesome ideas and shortcuts for everything.

[dguarnaccia]

I thought about it HO, I just hate driving anything to that toxic cesspool. I will probably throw it up over at HTS's HT construction forum.

[HuskerOmaha]

I thought about it HO, I just hate driving anything to that toxic cesspool. I will probably throw it up over at HTS's HT construction forum.

I know, I know that the majority here think that avsforum is just garbage. Well, maybe some subforums more than others.

Plus with over a million members another HT build thread isn't a big deal overall, you know?

HTS would at least get some more ideas...avsforum just has many people....the sound proofing experts that do this for a living, people like BIG who made a masterpiece and go help people now with theirs.....you are just going to get many more eyes and ideas.

Just my thoughts. Plus you get more and quicker/same day answers than other forums...

[dguarnaccia]

One thing I'm really looking forward is to get some room gain MK style. This is in a full basement, and the front and back walls are concrete. Should finally get some decent room gain. Maybe I'll have to try to get flat down to 7hz like MK. Might need a couple more 18.2's :scratchchin:

[dguarnaccia]

I know, I know that the majority here think that avsforum is just garbage. Well, maybe some subforums more than others.

Plus with over a million members another HT build thread isn't a big deal overall, you know?

HTS would at least get some more ideas...avsforum just has many people....the sound proofing experts that do this for a living, people like BIG who made a masterpiece and go help people now with theirs.....you are just going to get many more eyes and ideas.

Just my thoughts. Plus you get more and quicker/same day answers than other forums...

True, I may just have to cave at some point when I'm in the thick of it :)

[HopefulFred]

I wonder what it is about staggering the studs that helps reduce sound transmission.

The idea is that the drywall on the noisy side of the structure is beaten like a drum by the impeding sound waves. The vibrating drywall transmits the energy (vibrations) into the framing it's screwed to - the stud. If that stud is connected to more drywall on the other side, that other drywall - on what should be the quiet side of the structure - is now also vibrating like a drum head; and drum heads are like loudspeakers - they project sound out into the air. So by cutting out the mechanical link between the loud side and the quiet side, you reduce the transmission of sound significantly.

There's lots more to it, but that's the philosophy of decoupling in a nutshell. You've got several techniques for decoupling - staggered studs, isolation clips, and totally decoupled framing (room-within-a-room). Apart from decoupling, you've also got damping. (I'm probably about to mis-classify this) You can damp the sound energy by using heavy construction (extra drywall) and damping compounds (green glue). Then the last component is sound transmitted directly via air passages. This one is very important and includes the HVAC ducts, open doors or windows, and the unnoticed backs of electrical outlets and fixtures. There are solutions to all these problems, but it should be acknowledged that a complete sound isolation plan should address all of them, completely.

That website I linked is basically the source for everything worth knowing about noise abatement. Notice that noise abatement is a two-way street; subwoofer sounds stay in, and the neighbor's barking dog stays out.

[tesseract]

I thought about it HO, I just hate driving anything to that toxic cesspool. I will probably throw it up over at HTS's HT construction forum.

The AVS home theater dedicated forums have less of the BS that permeates many of the other subforums. I think you will find some good ideas at AVS and HTS.

Bryan Pape and Ted White at HTS have tons of room acoustics/isolation knowledge, be sure to check out the Home Audio Acoustics forum. Also, the Home Theater and Design Construction forum should prove useful.

Congrats on the new digs, dguarnaccia. I look forward to reading about your future HT. :applause: