Lighting in your Music/Media room

Bobvin

VIP/Donor
Jun 7, 2014
1,715
3,071
665
Portland
www.purewatersystems.com
OK, this could be posted in several forums...

I'm in the final phase of my room redesign. We had one go of it only to receive an out-of-this-world bid which sent me back to reduce scope and scale a little bit. Now we've modified the plans/drawings, I am finding I will be adding about 16 new lighting fixtures to the ceiling. All to be recessed cans, mostly all down lighting/wall washing lighting. There are more than a dozen existing cans, currently all incandescent on dimmers.

In my prior home up in Seattle area, I added some track lighting with halogen bulbs. These were put on Lutron wifi dimmers. Problem was, those damn halogen low voltage bulbs can buzz/hum like crazy when they are dimmed. In our currently home, the line voltage incandescents don't seem to make any noise when dimmed.

So my question to those of you who've customized/remodeled a space for your music room, how have you dealt with lighting? Obviously there are thousands of available options... and I do want to have at least the new lighting circuits on wifi controllable dimmers. Line voltage or low voltage? LED is obviously a desireable choice, but even Lutron warns LEDs can buzz/hum/flicker when dimmed. And the fixtures run about 5-10x the price of incandescent fixtures.

Thanks in advance y'all!
 

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
7,007
515
1,740
Snohomish, WA
www.pugetsoundstudios.com
I have recessed lighting in the soffit/bass traps and track lighting in the front and back of the room. Thing is, they are on Lutron dimmers, but totally separate circuits from the room. The rooms are furnished current via an Equi-tech balanced wall unit and the lights are on the dirty current of the house.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1931.jpg
    IMG_1931.jpg
    185.9 KB · Views: 416
  • Studio 1.jpg
    Studio 1.jpg
    258.7 KB · Views: 416

Bobvin

VIP/Donor
Jun 7, 2014
1,715
3,071
665
Portland
www.purewatersystems.com
Thanks Bruce, I'll have my gear on dedicated lines, but for now they'll be run from the same panel as the lighting circuits. When I have the electrician pull the wires for the audio gear, I'll be sure to leave a few feet extra at the panel so when I get around to adding something like the Equi-tech I won't have too short of wires.

Are your track lights low voltage or line voltage?
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,319
1,429
1,820
Manila, Philippines
I have halogen lighting when doing set up stuff but normally they are off when listening. For ambient lighting I went with LED RGB rope lights. DC is fed to them via power/control boxes. One box for every 20 feet or so. These are DMX units that are synched up with a master DMX controller (Stick) that is mounted on the wall above the bar.

stick3_dmx_led_bw500.jpg

With a laptop, you can program any number of scenes. 7 scenes can be saved on the controller's internal memory.

I haven't really taken any pictures but here is a combo of 6 scenes taken by and linked from a blogger friend's site of my room with my old speakers in place.

03-Tile-JackD.jpg
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I have halogen lighting when doing set up stuff but normally they are off when listening. For ambient lighting I went with LED RGB rope lights. DC is fed to them via power/control boxes. One box for every 20 feet or so. These are DMX units that are synched up with a master DMX controller (Stick) that is mounted on the wall above the bar.

View attachment 28211

With a laptop, you can program any number of scenes. 7 scenes can be saved on the controller's internal memory.

I haven't really taken any pictures but here is a combo of 6 scenes taken by and linked from a blogger friend's site of my room with my old speakers in place.

View attachment 28212

I can vouch for the fact that Jacks are gorgeous. I use rope lights as well but only one color ( blue as seen in top middle). My rope lights are dimmable)
 

Bobvin

VIP/Donor
Jun 7, 2014
1,715
3,071
665
Portland
www.purewatersystems.com
Jack, your setup looks terrific. I have a couple questions...
1) you have a nice ceiling cloud 'wave'—who is the mfg? Is that an RPG product?
2) in the front corners, are those notched columns bass traps? Are they independent or framed in? The notches are different... acoustic benefit?

Like you, my plans include some LED lighting on whatever turns out to be my cloud. I like your wave. My front wall is similar but different in that in the center I have a large picture window, and on either side a glass door. There will be sheer blinds that can be raised/lowered, and also curtains customized by the acoustician (like Steve's). I have a wall off to the side that will have a panel I intend to put a halo around like you have on your middle front section. You've got me thinking about adding a rope light or LED tape light at the toe-kick area.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,319
1,429
1,820
Manila, Philippines
Hi Bob

The cloud is a custom job as are the bass traps. They are made of Almute (so named in the USA) but the Japanese company is eCalme. The design is a copy of what they did for Sony Studios but we manufactured the wave here. As for the bass traps the notches have no benefit except to look cool. A 3-D CAD drawing was sent to eCalme and the shot out the absorption coefficients to my acoustician who then proceeded to work around those figures. :)

Steve should be sleeping right now. We had a LONG day :D
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing