Juan N Only
Member
I’ve been lurking in this forum for some time now and I would like to get some advice on a remodeling project. I have owned a pair of Ascent i's for over two years and am now working on an audio/video room that will be the new home for my Logies. (Hey, if Magnepan owners can call their speakers Maggies, why can’t we call ours Logies? Or does Marties sound better? I like Logies—hope it doesn’t rub anyone the wrong way.
)
Anyway, I live in a 90-year-old house in a historic district in Detroit. (Yeah, Detroit, the source of all those great jazz musicians! Just ask me, I'd be glad to compile a partial list of Detroit's jazz talent.) The 2nd-floor room on which I’m working (see diagram of floor plan below) was formed by removing a wall between two rooms to make one room approximately 13’ x 22’. Where the wall was, I put in a pair of fluted columns (about 6 1/2" deep by 5 1/2" wide) against the side walls and a shallow header between them. This wasn’t because the wall was load-bearing, but instead was to help cover where the wall was and for aesthetic reasons. I’m hoping it will also help with sound diffusion.
What was the south room, that will now be the back of my home theater, was a sunroom, so it has lots of windows. As you can see in the diagram, the entire back wall is windows and these windows are flanked by another pair of large windows, one on each side wall. So maybe I’m crazy for trying to make a sunroom into a home theater, but who wants to go down to the basement just to listen to music? When not watching video, I will be able to open the curtains and get some wonderful daylight. Besides, the ceilings in the basement are low—here I have nearly 8 1/2' ceilings.
In the front of the room, in what was the north room, is another pair of windows on the left wall. On the right wall, near the middle of the combined rooms, is the door from the hallway. (I removed the door to the south room and put up drywall in its place.)
On the left side of the front wall is a door to a closet. I’m thinking of putting my turntable inside the closet to protect it from feedback. The door, however, presents a problem because it will be directly behind the left speaker. I would like to have some kind of sound dispersion here, but would hate to cover up or damage a 90-year-old, wooden door. Any ideas? I thought maybe a DIY lens on casters that could be moved aside to open the door, but it would be an extra obstacle to changing the record. Do you think it’s necessary to put the turntable in the closet, or do I just need to dampen vibrations coming up to the turntable from below? Do dipole speakers present a problem for putting a turntable behind them? If I don’t have to stash the tt away, it really frees up some design choices. For example, I could remove the closet door and put the equipment rack in the doorway.
I will probably get a rear-projection TV and it will go right next to the closet door. I plan on putting in a riser in the back (for the rear row seating) and wall-to-wall carpeting. I may install wainscotting on the wall space not taken by windows or doors, in order to have someplace to discretely put bass traps. Of course it would also be nice to have some wall space available to put a shelving unit to hold LPs, CDs, DVDs, books, etc.
Other questions I have:
Should I do something architecturally to tame the front corners of the room? Maybe a narrow strip of drywall, from floor to ceiling, cutting across each corner?
Any suggestions for window treatments? Maybe horizontal blinds and heavy curtains? Assuming heavy curtains, should I also put curtains over the right side wall, opposite of the west windows, so as to be symmetric?
I’m sorry about the length of this message, but hope I can get some opinions and guidance on this project. Thanks much.
-Juan
Anyway, I live in a 90-year-old house in a historic district in Detroit. (Yeah, Detroit, the source of all those great jazz musicians! Just ask me, I'd be glad to compile a partial list of Detroit's jazz talent.) The 2nd-floor room on which I’m working (see diagram of floor plan below) was formed by removing a wall between two rooms to make one room approximately 13’ x 22’. Where the wall was, I put in a pair of fluted columns (about 6 1/2" deep by 5 1/2" wide) against the side walls and a shallow header between them. This wasn’t because the wall was load-bearing, but instead was to help cover where the wall was and for aesthetic reasons. I’m hoping it will also help with sound diffusion.
What was the south room, that will now be the back of my home theater, was a sunroom, so it has lots of windows. As you can see in the diagram, the entire back wall is windows and these windows are flanked by another pair of large windows, one on each side wall. So maybe I’m crazy for trying to make a sunroom into a home theater, but who wants to go down to the basement just to listen to music? When not watching video, I will be able to open the curtains and get some wonderful daylight. Besides, the ceilings in the basement are low—here I have nearly 8 1/2' ceilings.
In the front of the room, in what was the north room, is another pair of windows on the left wall. On the right wall, near the middle of the combined rooms, is the door from the hallway. (I removed the door to the south room and put up drywall in its place.)
On the left side of the front wall is a door to a closet. I’m thinking of putting my turntable inside the closet to protect it from feedback. The door, however, presents a problem because it will be directly behind the left speaker. I would like to have some kind of sound dispersion here, but would hate to cover up or damage a 90-year-old, wooden door. Any ideas? I thought maybe a DIY lens on casters that could be moved aside to open the door, but it would be an extra obstacle to changing the record. Do you think it’s necessary to put the turntable in the closet, or do I just need to dampen vibrations coming up to the turntable from below? Do dipole speakers present a problem for putting a turntable behind them? If I don’t have to stash the tt away, it really frees up some design choices. For example, I could remove the closet door and put the equipment rack in the doorway.
I will probably get a rear-projection TV and it will go right next to the closet door. I plan on putting in a riser in the back (for the rear row seating) and wall-to-wall carpeting. I may install wainscotting on the wall space not taken by windows or doors, in order to have someplace to discretely put bass traps. Of course it would also be nice to have some wall space available to put a shelving unit to hold LPs, CDs, DVDs, books, etc.
Other questions I have:
Should I do something architecturally to tame the front corners of the room? Maybe a narrow strip of drywall, from floor to ceiling, cutting across each corner?
Any suggestions for window treatments? Maybe horizontal blinds and heavy curtains? Assuming heavy curtains, should I also put curtains over the right side wall, opposite of the west windows, so as to be symmetric?
I’m sorry about the length of this message, but hope I can get some opinions and guidance on this project. Thanks much.
-Juan