House built around studio design/build thread

did they have your plans when they priced the job?

Just the basement room dimensions and the instructions that I did not want anything hanging down and taking height away from those rooms. In order to get the mortgage (the rate went up an insane amount on Jan 1 of this year), we had to sign the purchase agreement. In order to get the blue prints (floor joist layout), we had to sign the purchase agreement. A week or two after we signed off on everything, I finally got the joist layout. Within days of that happening, I designed the HVAC system and figured out the exact joists I'd need to run my sleeves through. Some emails I have show that I was trying to get the plans in order to figure out the joist spaces I'd need. I then met up with the plumber and HVAC contractors one on one and emailed them everything. They verbally assured me that "with communication" everything could be done. Then, after letting the girl at the home builder know that the meetings went well with the contractors, she email responded saying "“Hi Greg thanks for the update this is good news and I am sure our team including yourself will be able to work things out.” So, I thought I had everything locked down and it would all go great. Here I am. I've been advised by my lawyer to do some things, so I'm following his advice. I'll keep you posted and have some news early next week for all of you! Thanks for the kind words of encouragement and all of your advice. richroyc, my lawyer said the same thing about being nice to them. He said I need to be firm and "insist" and "request" from now on. Lastly, I cannot stress enough how amazing the framer guys have been. Seriously, like, want to invite them over for Christmas dinner hahaha Greg

Here's a pic of the roof truss in my live room going up. It's looking cool so far!

How you going Greg? Any news on your builder situation?

Any updates?

Hey guys. So basically I've been locked out of my house and told that once all the rough ins are done (HVAC, plumbing and electrical), then we can do the walk through. At that time I'll also be allowed to put insulation in the walls of my kids bathroom and our laundry room (which is beside our master bedroom). Having said that, I will use OC R24 (as it's the cheapest solution to absorb the resonant frequencies of those walls) but it's 5 1/2" thick going in 2x4" walls. So I guess it will get a bit messy as I strip them thinner :-S At that time, I will also be allowed to put my 20', 18' and 16' LVL stud into the basement for storage as I don't have windows in the basement to get them down there in the future. Talking with my lawyer, I may gain unlimited access at some point here though. We'll see. I'm honestly not too worried as I've found peace within myself with the project. Sadly, I'm starting to just realize that I'm getting screwed and I'll deal with it as it comes. I'm sick of losing sleep over it. Other updates: The builder and I had a verbal argument (which I recorded) on the phone regarding the garage in floor heating. I told them I wanted to put it in myself and then either have them pour the concrete on top or else just not have them pour it at all, and I would hire a company to do it. They basically said no, that they were contracted to do it and they are sick of me doing things myself. So, I got screwed. I can't afford the extra $10,000 they quoted me to rough in the lines (yes, just roughing in the lines. Not even hooking it up to a boiler or anything) and add a garage floor drain (which I thought they were doing already, but apparently they aren't). So, I guess I will have chilly garage/live room floors. Hopefully with proper heat in there, a bit of underlay, some laminate flooring, and a few throw rugs it will be decent enough. Fingers crossed. Here is a pic of the garage slab poured. They also did some crazy crap with the front of our house roof line that is weird and the builder played it off by saying the architectural guideline people made them change it. Later on, I will request to see the email demanding the change and if they can't provide it, I will get my lawyer involved to cause some hell. I'm hoping to throw this builder to the wolves at the end of the build. Regarding the HVAC worry, I've come up with 2 possible solutions in my head. 1. I requested that the HVAC supply be run on the studio room side of the hallway. Yes, still in the hallway, but have the supply on that side of the hallway. That way, I could maybe run the silencer sleeve right through the wall directly into the supply trunk. 2. Depending on if they used up my return floor joists and/or option 1 doesn't work for my supplies, I will hope and pray that there are enough free joist spaces (that have I-beams and not glued studs near them) above my rooms to run my duct work through and then cut holes through the I-beams and split my silencer boxes Y style to get the necessary cross sectional area. Then, from those, I can run other duct work through the joists to get to my registers. WAY harder job, but maybe a solution if need be. At least for whichever silencers I'm screwed on. The biggest thing that bums me out about this solution is the smaller spring gap between my inner and outer leaves that will exist. I mean, I'm already going to have to box in any duct work or plumbing that is run through the joists as it is. I am lucky that the joists are 14" deep, so I have quite a bit of room compared to friends houses that only have 9 or 11" I-beams! As a side note, if anyone cares, I got a house gig at a casino venue. It's a beautiful room based off of a 1970's Los Angeles venue. 5.2 million dollar build for the room. The main bar is directly in front of the stage. The stage is actually really solid. I thought it was a solid concrete stage. It it around 7ft tall. I found out though that the stage is hollow underneath, but I think it's a concert slab. Probably could put about 8 grand worth of insulation under the stage, but it actually doesn't seem to be a problem thus far. I filled the drum riser with OC R24 and threw 2 bags worth of insulation in dropped ceilings in the corners furthest from the stage. I've never heard corners of a venue sound that good before. Like almost no bass build up. The PA is rented and twice too small. It was all hung before I got there. Hung at the 1/4 wavelength of the room. Flown subs with mid highs below the subs. They really need a cardiod mono sub cluster in the middle of the mid highs and to raise the mid highs up and add more boxes to get the throw better up in the balcony instead of using smaller delay fill versions of the mains. But hey, I'm just happy to have the job. Anyway, the reason I wanted to share this is because there is a restaurant right behind the stage. There is a ton of bleed. I couldn't believe it. The wall separating the two spaces is a crappy steel stud 2x4" wall with ultralight 1/2" drywall and NO INSULATION in it! The stage is about 50 feet long and I can see about a 1/2" gap along the ceiling with light coming through from next door. I banged on the wall and figure the resonant frequency of the wall is around 400Hz. It's insane. The HVAC is huge (it's a large venue) and I can see it going right through the walls with no silencers on it. Classic -- a dumb architect making a room look beautiful but neglecting to take acoustic isolation into consideration. I've given all of the higher up people my advice and luckily, they realize they have to fix the problem. So, I was told tonight that the builders have a relationship with an "acoustical engineer" who they worked with in the past. He's coming to the venue tomorrow night during the show to check it out. I requested to meet the guy. I'm going to quiz him to see if he knows much. I hope he does. But I've studied up pretty hard so I will be sure to grind his gears a bit in front of the decision makers. I'll start throwing all of the terms and figures at him ;-) I'll keep you posted on this as it should be somewhat entertaining! Thanks for following. Once I get in the house and see what they've done with my joists, I'm sure I'll be going hard for a week on SketchUp re-designing my HVAC. So I'll update you with some pictures and plans of attack at that time. Let's just hope I can make it work, otherwise I've talked with my lawyer and I have grounds to either halt the build until I resolve the mechanical routing or else fire the builder and go from there. I really don't want it to come to that as the house will be amazing if it works out. Greg

Jeez man, that builder seems like a real jerk. I do construction for a living and thrre is NO WAY that we could pull anything like that and stay in business. I really hope your lawyer can find a way to stick it to them when its all said and done, and I hope you'll also be picky as can be come punch list time. They can flex their muscles all they want, but at the end of the day, you're the man who writes the check so they better keep you happy. I really hope it all turns out well for you. And congratulations on the new gig. Thats great news!

JasonFoi wrote:

Jeez man, that builder seems like a real jerk. I do construction for a living and thrre is NO WAY that we could pull anything like that and stay in business. I really hope your lawyer can find a way to stick it to them when its all said and done, and I hope you'll also be picky as can be come punch list time. They can flex their muscles all they want, but at the end of the day, you're the man who writes the check so they better keep you happy. I really hope it all turns out well for you. And congratulations on the new gig. Thats great news!

Couldn't agree more! Absolutely. I have NEVER heard of a situation like this before. It's so strange. I would also be reeeeaaaallll slow about writing the final cheque... call in plenty of independent experts to inspect everything, and document it carefully, and look for every last code violation they can find. - Stuart -

Hello friends! Well, things are moving forward. There have been things I've fought for and lost. And other battles I've won. Ultimately, things SHOULD work out in the end. The HVAC guys did a decent job with my joist spaces: Space 1 - They ran a 6" supply duct to my control room (obviously I will replace it, but they did leave me the joist!) It should be an 10"! Space 2 - The dumb plumbers decided my precious joist space should be used for running a bunch of water lines. Luckily, they moved them for me. Also, the electricians ran 3 wires through it. I also made them move those. Then, I covered the two big holes from the plumbers in the floor above that joist space. Space 3 - They did run the basement return air through it. So I MIGHT be able to situate a return silencer through it. They did run another 6" supply duct down a different joist space. It should be an 8"! Space 4 - This is a space I needed to run conduit from my basement out to my garage. They ran a duct through it, but placed it such that my conduit fits in with it. So that's great! Space 5 - They ran HRV flex through it, but I should be able to re-route that and bring it back around. More unnecessary work for me, but hey, it's possible. So regarding my joists, worst case scenario, I will have to give up on Space 3 and build silencers in joists. In order to double the cross sectional area of the boxes, it looks like I will have to basically split an 8" RD duct into 3 4 " ducts down their own joists and have both leaf boxes in there. So a total of 6. The issue is, this means I need 4 joist spaces. My 4th one has some stuff down it. So I'm not sure how I'll make that work. It's possible in my head, I think. Here's a pic: (the far left "empty" looking one actually has some water lines and crap for our island in it) Also in the basement: - I'm glad I beefed up the rim board when I did because they sprayed spray foam type insulation all around it. It would have been impossible to get that crap off. - They cut 2 big holes in the rim board for the HRV. I'll have to box all that in. - I asked them to use wood instead of steel studs for the frost wall. That will allow me to cut and modify it as possible (fixing/boxing the rim board holes) - The HVAC guys did a good job overall, but they screwed me. Here's how. I talked to them before and said I would like to make sure I have a variable speed furnace and I gave them the specs for my basement air needs. Hoping they would make sure the furnace would sufficiently handle the house and my spaces. But, since communication was basically cut off due to our builder, they put in their standard run of the mill bargain furnace. A single speed 80,000 BTU unit. Well, I went and ran a thermostat wire to our second floor. That would allow me to re-work any duct work they did in the basement to allow for zoning the place. In other words, being able to properly control the air in my CR and ISO room. From what I understand, zoning with a single stage furnace is basically silly. But I can't afford to replace a brand new furnace and duct work. I'm not sure how I'm going to work this into the budget. I spent a few days going into the house (I made some arrangements so I was allowed thank goodness) and I put in 10 bags of Rockwool Safe n Sound around every bathroom, the laundry room, and below the 2nd floor drains and laundry (so in the ceiling joists of the main floor). I hate hearing people shower above me. So hopefully it helps some. Other screw ups: - Electricians cut a 4" hole and a small other one on the front of my garage where they put the lights in the wrong spot, then moved over and put them in the right spot. I had the builder fill them. But they used Green Glue Compound around it. No backing. Glued and screwed 2 layers of 3/4" OSB. I just took notes and pics so I will remember to yank that out from the inside and fix it when it comes time to build that room. - Insulation was installed before I had the chance to build and install boxes around the exterior garage wall outlet penetrations. Again, not a big deal as I will be yanking all of it out eventually anyway. Just would prefer to do some little crap like that now so I have less to do later. - A 2ft jut out in the basement had the frost wall installed 9" away from the foundation. According to my ray tracing, that will screw me up, so I'm making them move it to the standard 8". - Not SUPER studio related, but for the stairs to my basement, they framed a 2x8 wall floor to ceiling. That made for a narrow hallway and poor access for moving supplies or furniture down. So I made them put in a 2x4 wall where I can install my own railing. Sadly, there's some glue on the floor now. I told them to try and get that off so I don't have to fight with it. - There were other things throughout the house, but no point in mentioning them here. Here's the house a few days ago. Here's the basement 3 days ago: I finally got the LVL stud delivered. Luckily I got a friend to help me get it into the basement. It was like 30 degrees celsius out and this stuff is heavy and there was quite a bit of it. It was a challenge trying to get them into the basement with lots of them being 20 feet long. I have no windows in the basement so we had a tiny little slit we had to angle them down through. Here's the basement 2 days ago after we got the LVL down. I also gave the electricians my studio sub panel to install on the other side of the house (where the main panel was supposed to be) and told them to install another small sub panel for the A/C and mini-split to run off of. The deal is, since they put my main electrical panel on the wrong side of the house, that they will wire in these new panels for free. Anyway, that's it for now. They're supposed to start drywalling today. I buddied up with the guy doing the siding, so hopefully he does an extra good job for me. I've taken more measurements and pics in the basement, so I can start Sketching Up the new silencer box designs and such. Thanks for the support everyone! Update: I measured the height of the basement now that the slab is poured and I'm pumped because it is 9'10" +/- 1/16" everywhere. Initially I was told it would only be 9"8 1/2". So hey, it's a small increase, but as you all can understand, that extra 1 1/2" is HUGE to us (that's what she said).

Good news update: I texted the HVAC dude I initially met up with and told him how bummed I was that he installed a single speed 80,000 BTU furnace even though I had told him that I want a variable speed one, and one that is big enough to handle the extra CFM I'll need for my spaces. Remember, he has been ignoring my texts and calls for a while (I'm sure the builder told him to ignore me and have any communication go through her). In this text, I said "please please respond". He did! He said that the furnace in there right now is owned by the builder and is temporary just for this building stage. He will put in whatever one I want come HVAC final. I also mentioned that I need a 10" and 8" for my CR and ISO room plus at least a 4" for the hallway. He suggested that I run a designated HRV for my rooms which I think is smart. I just have a lot of designing to do and get some assistance from my HVAC friend. With my in floor heating, I'm sure I probably never need to run from the actual furnace. I'll probably only ever need to get heat from the HRV. Then for cooling, the motorized dampers will route the A/C to my room. So yeah, I'm feeling so much relief right now. I'm sure I'll have to pay for an upgraded furnace, but if so, I'll pay him directly and avoid the 10 fold margin the builder makes. Greg

I'm leaving for Disney Land in California in 2 days, so I tried to get some design stuff done before hand so it wouldn't be eating at me the whole trip. So, in case I don't get anything done on it tomorrow, here are some pics. I measured and drew up the joists over the ISO room. I really should have taken a few more minutes and measured the ones in the middle of the CR. But I guess I'll do that later. Anyway, here it is: I also just super quickly put place holder duct images: I'm missing at least 1 at the bottom of the stairs that I don't have a picture of, so I don't know where it goes. Also, I'm obviously missing plumbing and central vac pipe. There is next to none over top of my rooms thank goodness. Lastly, I haven't drawn in the HRV flex duct at all. Anyway, as you can see, my previous designs are not going to work exactly as planned. And as mentioned before, I think I'm going to zone the house which means replacing that main supply trunk with 2 (one for each floor) and then just run my 10" and 8" ducts via an HRV set up. My HVAC friend will draw that all up for me so I don't mess anything up. Well, it's officially a start with real life measurements. No more day dreaming about how rough ins will be run or anything. Greg

Greg, Have fun in Disneyland! I have been following your thread and I can't believe what you have had to deal with. Looks like it is getting a bit better. :D I look forward seeing your future progress! Howie

Hey guys! LA was a great trip with great weather. The kids really enjoyed themselves. The flight with them was... crazy. Anyway. They are pretty much done drywalling the house. Legally, they have to put up drywall in the garage and tape it for fire protection. They actually used 5/8" drywall which is cool, other than the fact that I'm sure I paid out the ass for it. As you know, I will have to pull all of it off, fix some of the screw up areas in the outer leaf, then build my inner leaf. Hoping I can salvage some of this 5/8" to use for modules in between the rafter joists. You might be wondering what I mean here. For the garage, in order to save as much height as possible, my plan is to build the outer leaf similar to inside out design. I'll build modules (inside out style) that I will stuff in between the rafter joists. That will be my outer leaf. It will allow a decent gap between my inner and outer leaf. Then, my inner leaf ceiling will be full-bore inside out style. The garage will heat and cool via a mini split. For my fresh air, I will hopefully be able to fit all the silencers and duct work in the attic. Will probably try and save heat or cold air by implementing an HRV as well. Question for you all! --------------- If I only need between 25-30% fresh air, and I'm only implementing duct work/silencers for this air (since the heat and AC is from a mini split), my duct work and such should only be sized so that it will only move 25-30% of what my mini split is spitting out right? Greg ps I have dreams about busting up the garage slab and digging down another 4-8 feet so I have a crazy tall ceiling. I don't know if it would be legal and it would cost a fortune I'm sure. Imagine though ;-)

Hey guys. I finally have had some time to work on my design further. I decided to tackle my window design before my soffits. Here is what I've come up with so far: My design so far is as follows: 12mm tempered glass. I will try and get acoustic PVB if it's available and affordable. I reached out a glazier acquaintance for some assistance to confirm my glass knowledge. I solidified the butyl tape sizes as well as the setting block sizes that were available at the store. The setting block is advertised as having a durometer rating of 80. Using the Sorbothane calculator, I determined one under each corner of my glass at a length of ~0.84" will give me a natural frequency of 20.4Hz around 20% deflection. I am unable to even guess what the extra weight or pressure from the top of the window will be once squeezed under the top setting blocks. I typed in an extra 5 pounds per pad and the deflection was still right around 20% so hopefully this will work out ok. I can always add a little bit or remove some if need be. I suppose I can measure it with a micrometer during the install if I'm that picky. I decided (after looking at the reflection in my phone when the screen was turned off) to angle the control room window by 5 degrees. The build will be a thousand times more difficult, but I think it will be worth it to be able to look up at the glass and only see my ISO room in the glass. Tilting the glass only added ~1/8" length. I'm pretty sure the guy told me he cuts the glass out of 4'x8' sheets, so I hope there won't be a problem with me giving him a specific size for each. Speaking of glass size, I figured I would make the angle of visibility better by having the ISO room window larger than the control room. The width of my front wall opening has basically been determined by my ray tracing and me trying to maintain large baffles. Using some SketchUp views, I figured out the angles it would take for me to pretty much see the one corner of the ISO room. And that was that. The glass sizes so far are: CR: 3' 1/8" x5' 5 7/8" ISO: 3' x 6' Anyway, that's it so far. Figuring all of this out and adjusting already drawn components in Sketchup took way longer than it should have. The other thing I'm going to try and learn/figure out is static pressure calculations. I have TWO friends who are HVAC journeymen and I asked them if they knew how to figure out what the static pressure of my system would be and they said "I have no clue how to figure that out. You will probably have to pay an engineer to figure that out for you." Anyway, I found an excel spreadsheet where you can type in your duct sizes, lengths, and how many turns at certain angles you have. It could be a lot of tinkering to type in the silencer boxes, but should be worth it to make sure I don't have a fan that will stall out. If anyone has any insight on this, please advise. This is one topic I haven't been able to find anything on using the search feature of the forum. It is often warned to "make sure you calculate your static pressure", but never told how to do it. I'm excited to play around with a speaker mounting method I've been thinking about for 6 months. No clue if I can make it come to fruition, but yeah. Also, I have been wondering forever how I can properly use my couch riser as an acoustic treatment device. I've read tons on forums and I may have a solution. No real math to it though so we'll see if I can dig some more. It seems you just need to have big holes in the front lip of it with a ton between all of your cavities. So much to do with so little time to do it. Greg

I decided to tackle my window design before my soffits.

I noticed that you are tilting the glass on the CR side. Are you aware that will reduce isolation?

12mm tempered glass.

Why only tempered, not laminated? 12mm tempered isn't going to get you a lot of isolation. What ate the details of the leaf itself?

I will try and get acoustic PVB

If you are only going with tempered glass, not laminated, then where would you put the PVB?

The setting block is advertised as having a durometer rating of 80.

What scale? It is unlikely to be the same as Sorbothane...

Speaking of glass size, I figured I would make the angle of visibility better by having the ISO room window larger than the control room.

:thu: I often do that. It's very much worthwhile.

Also, I have been wondering forever how I can properly use my couch riser as an acoustic treatment device.

I often do that too! Studio Three, for example. The entire rear floor is a tuned device. Works fine. I just did another one for a customer in New Orleans, and he loves it. Solved some issues for him quite well. After he completed it, he sent me this comment: " my ears were definitely hearing it playing back some refs; I am now able to "hear into" the ref mixes like never before and dissect them. It is truly impressive and fulfilling because this has been my motive and goal with this whole project, and I am now hearing it finally manifest ! It makes me realize that I have wasted a lot of time for too many years playing a guessing game with my mixing. " Here's what it looks like (no finish flooring on it yet): I'm not going to lie and say it is easy to do that, because it isn't. But if done right, as part of the overall room design concept, it can have good benefits. Especially this one, which is a bit fancier as it has the front edge is curved to a poly-cylindrical shape (pseudo catenary curve).

It seems you just need to have big holes in the front lip of it with a ton between all of your cavities.

I wish it were that easy! :) To be honest, in your case I wouldn't design it until the room is built and tested. Then figure out what needs treating, what parts of that actually can realistically be treated by the sofa riser floor, and design accordingly. - Stuart -

I noticed that you are tilting the glass on the CR side. Are you aware that will reduce isolation?

Yes. However, the solving the light glare problem is more important to me simply because the two pieces of glass are 10 1/2" away from one another at the closest part. As you can see, I could move the CR glass further into the room, but I'd rather keep the room larger. If they were closer, I wouldn't risk it.

Why only tempered, not laminated? 12mm tempered isn't going to get you a lot of isolation. What ate the details of the leaf itself?

That was a total typo! Of course it will be laminated. Lack of sleep. Sorry. The leaf is going to be 3/4" OSB + 5/8" drywall. The OSB will give me structural strength to anchor the soffit framing to.

What scale? It is unlikely to be the same as Sorbothane...

Great question. I actually thought about using sorbothane since I will already have some for other parts of my build. I was going to use this: https://www.allglassparts.com/silicone- ... -16-thick/ It states Durometer hardness approx 85 +/- 5 I doubt I'd get much more info than that from the manufacturer.

Especially this one, which is a bit fancier as it has the front edge is curved to a poly-cylindrical shape (pseudo catenary curve).

Beautiful. Sadly my design wouldn't be able to accommodate a nice curve like that (lucky me because mine will be much easier to make)

To be honest, in your case I wouldn't design it until the room is built and tested. Then figure out what needs treating, what parts of that actually can realistically be treated by the sofa riser floor, and design accordingly.

I'll be treating almost all of my treatment like this. I can plan basic treatment (like hangers and such), but like Franks build, I will be taking measurements and then tuning devices accordingly. Stuart, if you have time, could you please address these two questions I posted previous? 1. If I only need between 25-30% fresh air, and I'm only implementing duct work/silencers for this air (since the heat and AC is from a mini split), my duct work and such should only be sized so that it will only move 25-30% of what my mini split is spitting out right? 2. It is often warned to "make sure you calculate your static pressure", but never told how to do it. Thanks! Greg

It states Durometer hardness approx 85 +/- 5

Right, but not all "durometers" are equal! There are different scales for Durometer, and they all have "85" on them, but they are all different. You'd need to check what Durometer scale they measured on.

I'll be treating almost all of my treatment like this. I can plan basic treatment (like hangers and such), but like Franks build, I will be taking measurements and then tuning devices accordingly.

:thu:

1. If I only need between 25-30% fresh air, and I'm only implementing duct work/silencers for this air (since the heat and AC is from a mini split), my duct work and such should only be sized so that it will only move 25-30% of what my mini split is spitting out right?

Nope! It should be sized to move 25-30% of what the correct room flow rate would be for that room (assuming at least 6 changes per hour, preferably 8. The max flow rate of the mini-split isn't really relevant, unless you specifically sized it to provide the correct flow rate for the room when running at max speed. Which would not be a good idea anyway! Always leave a margin, so that you don't have to run the thing full bore all the time.

2. It is often warned to "make sure you calculate your static pressure", but never told how to do it.

Use the published tables / spreadsheets / calculators for that. Measure the length of all of your ducts of each size, and count the number of 90° turns for each size, and add them all up. If you have paths in parallel at some point, then treat them as you would for electric circuits in parallel. You can use the same math as for summing resistors in parallel, to get a good estimate. It's not totally accurate, but "good enough for government work" as the saying goes: it gets you in the ball park. And just like for acoustics, the best way to see what your static pressure actually is, is to measure it after you build it! If it is too high, you can deal with that by shortening paths, changing cross sections, adding additional paths in parallel, adding bypasses, etc. But you still need to do the math in advance, to check that you are not going to exceed the capacity of your AHU. Then check it after it is build, and modify as necessary. - Stuart -

You'd need to check what Durometer scale they measured on.

I'll reach out and see if I can find out what scale it was measured on.

The max flow rate of the mini-split isn't really relevant, unless you specifically sized it to provide the correct flow rate for the room when running at max speed. Which would not be a good idea anyway! Always leave a margin, so that you don't have to run the thing full bore all the time.

For sure.

Use the published tables / spreadsheets / calculators for that.

The spreadsheet I found looks like it will do the trick. If any of you have one you prefer, please share the link for all of us to enjoy!

If it is too high, you can deal with that by shortening paths, changing cross sections, adding additional paths in parallel, adding bypasses, etc.

This makes too much sense! Thanks as always Stuart! Greg

So I'm brainstorming trying to come up with a soffit mounting design that will allow me to have a base/divider permanently fixed to the framing. Here's a rough draft with dimensions completely out of whack. I just want to get some criticism here please. The opening in the middle of it will allow for replacement of T-Nuts, changing of any components like hangers or whatever. The 1/2" MDF guides will hold a 4x4 cut to the length required to raise or lower your speaker to line up it's acoustic axis to the proper height. So, when you get a new set of speakers, you'd build the base and speaker enclosure as normal. Cut the base a bit smaller than the permanently fixed divider, install guides and drill holes to line up with the divider. A front baffle would also have to be sized for any future speakers. Please criticize. Greg

I think there might be an easier way of doing it... :) I PM'd you. Let me know what you think... - Stuart -

For Father's Day, I bought myself a damned near mint condition 1988 Delta UniSaw with a bunch of accessories. This sure will come in handy for the studio build! I'll try and get on more of my design asap. Greg

For Father's Day, I bought myself a damned near mint condition 1988 Delta UniSaw with a bunch of accessories.

Wow! Nice! As in REALLY nice! You certainly must really appreciate your fathering skills, to deserve a gift like that! :) 8) :lol: - Stuart -

Dang, i bought myself wood putty. :oops:

Dang, i bought myself wood putty. :oops:

Equally as cool and necessary :wink: Greg

I thought I'd give you guys an update. I finally found some time to start my soffit design. It's far from done but here's the start: - I've blocked out the speaker mounting itself as it is closely based on Stuart's proprietary design and out of respect for him, I won't share it. - I looked through old and new speakers to see which ones I could see myself using in the future and found maximum width, height and depth measurements. Then based off of the acoustic axis I luckily only had to adjust the lowest platform supports. This would allow me to mount some tall 3 way speakers like the Focal Trio6 BE, Genelec 1238A, or the Neumann KH 420. Now, I'm not sure if this is a good thing or bad thing, but my wooden soffit face would have to go all the way down there. It would leave only a small absorption panel for the reflections. I'm only really contemplating this because I don't know if I will EVER get tall speakers like those. Here, you can see how low the speaker bottoms will be in order to have the acoustic axis at the correct height! - The support platforms will be a weird shape, so I decided to split it in half (you can see the cut line in the middle of it) so that I will be able to install one half at a time. - Against Stuarts recommendation (only because I physically can't pull it off, even though his idea is brilliant), I decided to make my speaker mounting module have a single flat 1" MDF sheet that would literally just slide in on top of the support platform and using T-Nuts and ready rod, it would bolt down. - If I change the speaker models, I will have to add new platform support 2x4's to the framing on which the support platform would sit. Really though, this isn't too big of a job. - The front mass will consist of 1" OSB or MDF, then 1/8" of steel, then 1" of nice looking hard wood or 3/4" of MDF and a 1/4" veneer. - I still need to sort out hangers and where I will have a ventilation port. Unfortunately, my HVAC duct work is on the sides of the room so I won't have my return ducts sucking up heat directly above the speakers. In other news, I'm continually checking Kijiji for a used 8" jointer. Nothing good as popped up yet for a decent price. I'm really going to need one to build nice treatment though! Greg

- I've blocked out the speaker mounting itself as it is closely based on Stuart's proprietary design and out of respect for him, I won't share it.

Thanks! Appreciated.

like the Focal Trio6 BE, Genelec 1238A, or the Neumann KH 420.

Those are all very nice speakers. Frank is using the Trio in his place (I'm sure you've seen the thread! :) ) so you can get an idea of how those can perform. I have no personal experience with the 1238A, so I can't comment on it, but I did use KH420's for a design I did for the Netherlands a few years ago, and I can recommend those too. Not sure if you are actually thinking of going with any of those, but that's my US$ 0.02!

based off of the acoustic axis ... soffit face would have to go all the way down there. It would leave only a small absorption panel for the reflections.

For large speakers like those, with very smooth response in the vertical axis, you could probably raise the acoustic axis a little if you needed to. Maybe an inch or two. Assuming you don't have the mix position too close to the speakers, you would still have your head very much in the clean, clear, smooth, even area, even if you are a bit "off-axis". You could easily set them up so your head is maybe 5°, or maybe even up to 10°, below the true acoustic axis, and you'd hear no difference at all. For smaller speakers, the vertical dispersion often isn't that good, so it's important to be on-axis, but larger speakers (especially great one like these three) often are better in that aspect.

- The support platforms will be a weird shape, so I decided to split it in half (you can see the cut line in the middle of it) so that I will be able to install one half at a time.

Yup. That's what I often do. Also, if you make it from two layers, you can split each layer in a different place, so the joints don't line up, then glue-and-screw to make a nice solid, firm, rigid base.

- The front mass will consist of 1" OSB or MDF, then 1/8" of steel, then 1" of nice looking hard wood or 3/4" of MDF and a 1/4" veneer.

Nice! That's going to be nice and heavy. You'll need a couple of people to lift that into place, and some substantial fasteners to keep it there. Work safely! You don't want that lot falling on your toes.... You might want to consider beefing up your soffit framing a bit too. But over all, it looks good! - Stuart -