Bob's New Listening Room and System

Bobvin

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I still remember it. But as far as I could understand Bobvin has no attic over his room, another type of treatment must be used in his ceiling!

The "high hat mufflers" are assembled on-site, and in my case they fit into the space between the floor joists, surrounding the recessed cans.
 

Bobvin

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Last week the "high hat mufflers" and NoiseOut was installed in/on the ceiling. I had reduced scope a little to save some $$, and was just going to put the BlueJeans insulation in the niche walls. But, too much insulation was ordered so I was able to really cram the bays full of the BlueJeans using 2 layers, and there was also more NoiseOut ordered than was needed, so I installed it on the walls myself. Holy crap that stuff is heavy. I first tried hanging a full length section on my own and used up about 3 days of mojo on that one panel. I was exhausted! But I was able to get the two niche areas coated with the NoiseOut before the sheetrock guys got here this morning to get the drywall hung.

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Bobvin

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A bit more progress... sheetrock is up and second layer of mud applied. Come Monday, it'll be sand and prime, then apply first layer of texture. By Thursday the painters will come in do get the space looking normal again.

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Left side of room

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Right side of room

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Back of room and the hallway that'll soon have my new 850 bottle wine cellar!
 

Bobvin

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Paint is done. Now some final details on baseboards and the new HVAC boxes we are creating over the vents in the floor. Then wine cellar, acoustic panels behind stretch fabric wall system & ceiling cloud, finally carpet and curtains.

Also, I returned all my 3000K LED lamps for the recessed fixtures to exchange for 2700K. LED lamps do not color shift warmer as they are dimmed like halogen or incandescent, so when I dimmed the couple of lamps I installed thelight became a somewhat gastly pale grey. LEDs have a hard time rendering reds, and while the CRI of the lamps I bought are all >95, I would say when dimmed either that isn't accurate ordim light at 3000K just isn't appealing (to my eyes). I am hoping the slightly warmer 2700K will be better.

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Blue tape on floor shows where the wine cellar glass wall will be located.
 

Bobvin

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A little bit more progress... that dead space in the hallway is becomming functional.

cellar-construction_sm.jpg
 
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Bobvin

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Cellar racking complete... waiting for the glass.

Sadly, a delay with the acoustic contractor who was supposed to have arrived yesterday to install custom panels and fabric-wall. Waiting until tomorrow to learn the new schedule. Seems like listening to music over the holidays is slipping out of reach. Damn!

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microstrip

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It looks great! What kind of fabric-wall are you using?
 

Bobvin

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It looks great! What kind of fabric-wall are you using?

The fabric wall will use trac from "fabric-wall.com" and the fabric is Guilford "reeds" in "mink" color. (a nice match for the 'topaz' color of my Alexias) It will go on the walls in the recessed niches (alcoves?) on the left and right walls, and on the wall in the back of the room. It will also go on the suspended panel that will cover the obsolete whole-house audio stack on the right wall.

Guilford Reeds, mink.jpg

There will be curtains across the window wall, across the base of the stairs, and across the hallway where the wine cellar is. The curtains will have SoundSense "Lumitex" liner, with 3 layers between the curtain fabric on the curtains in the back of the room (stairs, hallway) and 1 layer in the curtains on the window wall.

Overall, the fabrics and wall colors were chosen to maintain a somewhat monochromatic theme. Carpet will be as before, only this time I am going to cover the hardwoods completely and go wall-wall. The previous carpet will be used in one of the bedrooms down at the end of the hallway past the wine cellar. The floor in the cellar will remain as existing hardwoods.

Hopefully by end of the year I'll be back in business.
 

Bobvin

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****. Dammit. Son of a bee-atch!
Just as I was expecting my sound contractor to arrive to complete installation of custom sound panels and the fabric wall, I got a call on Friday (Dec2) saying they wouldn't be arriving on Monday (Dec5). Something to do with the fellow who was supposed to have come to do the job—and now they're scrambling to find dates to get here. It was offered they'd come Christmas week but my sweet wife is taking time off that week, the last thing I want is contractors in the house all week (and we're hoping to get away for a couple days.) Now I'm waiting for a call to nail down the dates.

Where I was hoping to enjoy my room during the Christmas holidays, it now is looking like it will be the end of January before I'm up and running again. For all the supposed strengths of this acoustic consultant, communication is not one of them.
 

LL21

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Sorry to hear...have been watching the evolution of your room with great interest. Hopefully they can squeeze you in. We were to move in Jan and have the system up and running end of Jan...ended up middle of July because the speakers cables had to be re-done twice. Third time, it took 6 hours to get them snaked under the floor because the electrical contractors had not put conduit expecting TA Opus cables...fortunately, the Distributor is absolutely 6-star and got them under the floor calibrated...and then even came back to recalibrate the Wilsons again after the cables had settled in. But that was late July due to manufacturing delays. No music for 5 months! But super happy in the end.
 

Bobvin

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Sorry to hear...have been watching the evolution of your room with great interest. Hopefully they can squeeze you in. We were to move in Jan and have the system up and running end of Jan...ended up middle of July because the speakers cables had to be re-done twice. Third time, it took 6 hours to get them snaked under the floor because the electrical contractors had not put conduit expecting TA Opus cables...fortunately, the Distributor is absolutely 6-star and got them under the floor calibrated...and then even came back to recalibrate the Wilsons again after the cables had settled in. But that was late July due to manufacturing delays. No music for 5 months! But super happy in the end.

Indeed, I am hoping for the happy ending. Sadly, delays and poor communication do nothing for my sense of confidence.
 

Sharp 1080

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Indeed, I am hoping for the happy ending. Sadly, delays and poor communication do nothing for my sense of confidence.

Just try and realize the delays are a hidden blessing. The last thing you want to do is have a worker there that doesn't want to be there during Christmas and is "slipping you in" while still finishing another job promised the same time.
 

Bobvin

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Copied from the "what is right material for the floor" thread...

In my room Bonnie spec'd the Vibramat, which is a NoiseOut like mass loaded vinyl bonded to a spongy carpet pad. On top of that there will be a layer of Lumitex before the EarthWeave wool carpet on top.

Won't those layers result in a height of over an inch? What specifically is Bonnie trying to accomplish with those products together?

Sound not escaping your listening room? Wideband frequency absorption? What else?

Which product serves which objective?


Vibramat is 7/16", carpet is 3/8", so under an inch. The Lumitex thickness is not really material at .35mm.

Full write-up of the acoustic solution will be provided after completion—I spoke with Bonnie a couple days ago with some of the same questions you asked. The floor in my space would be like Steve's room (though I know his floor is structurally more robust) as mine is joists over crawlspace. Rather than mischaracterize the floor treatment, I'll wait for Bonnie's write-up. Her crew will be here to install wall treatments week of Jan 9th, carpet install the following week. I am close to being able to put my room back together.
 

Bobvin

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It keeps getting better...

Friday the 30th we were going to host a small group of neighbors for some wine and snacks, and Friday morning the crew was here to install the glass to complete my wine cellar. We had put wood blocking in the ceiling for the cellar glass support tracks before we put the sheetrock back on. But there is a diagonal piece of glass that crosses a couple joist bays and we did not put full blocking in those bays, just a couple cross blocks. Also there was a piece of drain pipe in one of the bays that would have made installing full blocking difficult.

So the damn glass crew comes in, and instead of using a stud finder to ensure they've got a good spot to put a screw for the support track (the diagonal piece that runs across the joist bays), puts a 3" screw right into the drain pipe. Fortunately my wife was in the guest bathroom ensuring the toilet was clean and flushed it right after they put in the screw. Next I am hearing from the installers "hey, you've got water coming out of your ceiling!"

Of course, we had used spray foam insulation to creat a vapor barrier for the wine cellar, so removing a piece of ceiling sheetrock only allowed me to chip out spray foam trying to expose the pipe. Hiring a plumber would have them cutting the pipe and using a Fernco coupler, which would involve a whole lot of extra demo. Since it is a drain pipe and only a screw hole I will create a patch myself, but will still involve sheetrock repair before we can finalize the wine cellar and move toward completion of my room.

I suppose I should be happy wifey flushed that toilet when she did. That particular upstairs bathroom sees very little use — only if we have guests. Glad not to have found (or not!) the leak before completing my room, installing carpet, etc. Guessing where a leak in the ceiling originated long after the fact would surely have sucked big-time. Would have been very intermittent too, only leaking a little when the toilet was flushed.

Since it was the wine cellar guy's sub-contrator who did the damage, at least he'll be paying for the repairs.

F-ck me!
 

LL21

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This too shall pass! And by the looks of your room, it will amazing when it does. Hold steady!
 

Bobvin

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So my patch for the hole(s) in the drain pipe goes like this:

My solution involves cutting one side off of an ABS coupling then removing part of the coupling to form a “C” which will wrap around the pipe. I will use ABS joint solvent to attach the coupler “C” then secure with a large hose clamp. This should create a very secure patch, wouldn’t ya’ think?

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microstrip

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So my patch for the hole(s) in the drain pipe goes like this:

My solution involves cutting one side off of an ABS coupling then removing part of the coupling to form a “C” which will wrap around the pipe. I will use ABS joint solvent to attach the coupler “C” then secure with a large hose clamp. This should create a very secure patch, wouldn’t ya’ think?

(Does not show the hose clamp I used to secure it.)

It is a perfect solution - but you should lightly sand the tube around the holes to get a flat surface. People use ABS join solvents even in pressurized tubes, in a drain it is more than adequate.
 

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