How do you guys deal with the ever-present ambient acoustic signature of your room? Things like the occasional HVAC rumblings, gentle traffic hum you can hear when things are dead quiet, critters from the outside, and all of the interaction with the walls, floor, ceiling, etc.?
How do you deal with the ambient acoustic signature of your room? HVAC, traffic,etc.
- Thread starter caesar
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none of those issues in my room. HVAC is dead quiet and no sounds from street, walls floors ceiling etc. I guess I got lucky
Isolated room (floating inner walls and ceiling), acoustic insulation (about 8" of mineral wool in the walls and ceiling in my case), and a minsplit HVAC unit so no connection to the rest of the house. A lot of folk forget that HVAC ducts provide one of the main paths for sound in or out of the room.
I agree Don
I used a commercial sized duct for returning air to my attic .The last 8 feet of the duct is lined with insulation and vents to the attic where it also serves as a Helmholtz resonator. I also have a dedicated HVAC for just that room
essentially my room has minimal (no room has 'zero' ambient signature, even an anechoic chamber) ambient signature due to being in a separate building from the house, being centered on a 5 acre parcel, away from urban areas in the mountains, being a room built inside a room, and on the ground floor on 6" of cement. so zero traffic, the deer are quiet, and I'm the only one in the building.
I do have 2 windows, and have 'thick' inserts designed to use to eliminate those as noise sources, but I've listened and measured with and without and I don't use them. the windows are away from the street side of my property so that might be why they are not an issue.
the HVAC is designed to be dead quiet except for the very low level 'click' from the controller in the room when it cycles on, not audible during music. ducting is sized properly with 3 90 degree turns on the outflow, dual outflow ducts, and dual cold air returns. there are vents upstairs to fine tune the air pressure to eliminate any air roar. the air box is upstairs in the attic above the hallway on a rubber isolation platform to eliminate any transfer of vibration, and the heat exchanger is outside on the other side of the building with 40 feet and 4 walls between it and the listening room.
there is still low level ground resonance, and noise brought in by the power grid, which I've dealt with in other ways not the subject of this thread.
Mike Lavigne, (forgive I also posted this on audiogon, but i saw you were here today)
Mike, I was up in Redmond for 14 years but never heard your system. We moved down to Portland in December and I'm finally getting around to putting my room together. I know I am going to need(want) some acoustical help with a remodel of my room to make it more isolated from the rest of the house, and improve sonics. Who did you work with and would you go back to them today? (Or recommend a PNW outfit.) Considering you have added diffusion to your walls, are you disappointed the original design did not account for this?
Mike, I was up in Redmond for 14 years but never heard your system. We moved down to Portland in December and I'm finally getting around to putting my room together. I know I am going to need(want) some acoustical help with a remodel of my room to make it more isolated from the rest of the house, and improve sonics. Who did you work with and would you go back to them today? (Or recommend a PNW outfit.) Considering you have added diffusion to your walls, are you disappointed the original design did not account for this?
I used a lot of vendors here in the PNW. My 2 rooms have a NC15 or below rating. We had a speed metal drummer hitting 130db peaks and you couldn't hear it outside or upstairs. Both rooms are "rooms with-in rooms".
The ambient noise outside is 50-70db, depending if the neighbor is mowing his lawn.
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The ambient noise outside is 50-70db, depending if the neighbor is mowing his lawn.
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It's about 35 dB, which is way below the average club or concert hall. I worry less about my noise floor knowing that.
Tim
You can always use portable window inserts made to fit into the casing using OC703 for when you want to block out noise. Also, if you want to do it, there are sound resistant windows you can buy from Milgard and others. Your weakest link are windows, doors and HVAC. For doors, you can use seals by Zero International.
That's probably correct, overall. But looking at the overall spectrum may be interesting. Things probably more concentrated in the bass, so you may have a peak, if your windows are closed. And if you open your windows late at night, you will hear bugs and critters, which will cause a peak in the highs.
I have a friend using studio doors. Not having that sort of money on hand, I used a heavy exterior door with threshold and full sealing so very little gets through it. Meant to mention mine is in the basement so floor is concrete.
It generally turns from spring to steam bath pretty quickly here; the windows aren't open much, and if they are, a whole house fan is running. That hum is probably right in my midrange. I love its soothing drone when I'm trying to sleep, though I prefer the crickets. Listening to music? I crank it up a bit if the noise of the house is bothering me. Usually it doesn't.
Tim
I'm not a big fan of humidity either, so I keep windows closed also. But the hum you are referring to is probably somewhere in the upper bass / lower midrange registers, and there is probably some peak or null somewhere. When you crank it up, that boost or dip doesn't go away...
I'm 9' below ground in my room which is isolated from the main house and has no windows. I don't have any outside noise that intrudes into my room. I do have an air handler for my heat pump in a utility closet in my room, but it rarely comes on when I'm listening and I can always shut it off because the temperature in my room stays fairly constant year round.
Here's what I use. Works like a charm!!
(had to draw the heart on there so it wouldn't p*ss her off!)
Excuseeeeeeeeeeeeee me, but do I wear your makeup, do I wear your undies that last one month, do I wear your $200. bras, etc. You should do an accounting
.zz.
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