SIMO Studio - Construction Phase

[simo]

... part 4 ...


And finally it was the resonators turn:

First I made sure that everything was sealed...

above

IMG_1220.jpg

and below

IMG_1219.jpg

I painted the frame in black, so it won't be visible through the black cloth:

IMG_1099.jpg

IMG_1438.jpg

stapled some garden netting on the back of studs to help hold the rockwool in place (even though this is probably not necessary, as if you pay attention to cut the slab precisely to the cavity measures it does stay firm there…)

IMG_1441.jpg

lining the cavities and loosely filled them with fluffy insulation, and as per usual covered 'em with the ubiquitous rockwool slab:

IMG_1421.jpg

IMG_1429.jpg

IMG_1442.jpg

and this is where I am at:

IMG_1940.jpg

IMG_1929+1930.jpg

well, that's all for now…

Ciao
Simo

[Soundman2020]

It's looking pretty good! And that's a great idea to paint the front faces of the framing black, to reduce visibility through the cloth.

- Stuart -

[simo]

Thanks Stuart.

Always good and a relief to know that you are around to watch my back…


Quick question about the speaker soffit construction:

If I use 18mm plywood for the baffle plate, would it be ok to use a veneered MDF sheet as the finishing layer over the plywood (it comes in 19mm thickness)?

Simo

[Soundman2020]

If I use 18mm plywood for the baffle plate, would it be ok to use a veneered MDF sheet as the finishing layer over the plywood (it comes in 19mm thickness)?

That would be fine. No problem.

- Stuart -

[Ro]

aaah, pix! studiobuild porn! thanx simo.
broken hands don't make a quick build, sorry for that!

I'm in the middle of building corner absorbers myself, will update soon. It make a nice comparison threat

[simo]

Thanks a lot for the "all clear" Stu !

Not at all Ro…yes, I do think that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm sharing the pics to give something (good or bad) back to the forum that helped / is helping me so much…

I'm following your extremely neat build closely. Great job man! Looking forward to your next update !


Simo

[simo]

Hi all

As the next thing I'll tackle is gonna be the speaker soffit, I'm toying around a bit with a venting system idea before starting.

The speaker case (made with 18mm plywood and lined with 5mm sorbothane), is the same height and width of my Genelec 1031A.
The case depth is instead 60mm deeper (the maximum I could go before touching the rear framing), to create the heat sink behind the speaker.
This is to allow the air to flow from below the plane where the speaker is resting --> behind the speaker --> through the "tunnel" --> to the vent on the front baffle (and timber finish) above the speaker.


Now, here comes my question for today:

I was thinking of using a rectangular flexible PVC hose that I found as the "ventilation tunnel" (substituting the often used chicken wire) which I think will do a good job keeping the air flow path intact and preventing the insulation getting inside the speaker case.

Rectangular PVC flexible hose.jpg

Only thing is that it has a slightly different section than the opening at the top of my speaker case (i.e. 222mm x 92mm).

So I was thinking to get around that by building a kind of "vent-to-hose connector" attached to the back and side of the case…here are a few pics of what I'm planning…hopefully they will explain it better than what I'm writing

Simo speaker case 1.jpg

Simo speaker case 2.jpg

Simo speaker case 3.jpg

Can you see any problem why I shouldn't go that route?

Thanks for your help as always !

Ciao
Simo

[Soundman2020]

Looks fine to me!

- Stuart -

[simo]

Great. Thanks Stuart much appreciated

[Charlie B]

Looking good Simo. Thanks for posting the pics. It is helping me with my design.

-Charlie

[simo]

Thanks Charlie!
I'm glad to hear that…pics are very helpful for me too, that's why whenever I can I try to return the favor to the community

[simo]

Taking advance of a lapse of few decent days of weather I decided to go ahead and box in the fresh air system … (as previously mentioned I was forced to install the fans and silencers on the outside of the building, as the void between outer and inner ceiling was way to small for them).

IMG_1451.jpg

IMG_1461.jpg

IMG_1464.jpg

covered them with 12mm exterior plywood

IMG_1474.jpg

and painted to mach the building colour

IMG_1478.jpg

and then I've done the same to cover the air con unit on the opposite side

IMG_1479.jpg

I mean these things are built to live outside, but hey..this is England… and the rain is at home around here, so just a little help !


Simo

[simo]

I finally decided to dedicate some time to pass the cables between rooms:
Here is the design for my wall box:

Simo Wall box.pdf

I made three separate conduits.
The bigger one is for all the mic leads, the medium one for the data (1x ethernet, 2 x Cat5, 1x BNC, 1x Display) and 2 small ones (1x speaker and 1x guitar leads).
The latter ones are basically continuos leads passing through the wall box. The first one is to be able to have the player in the control room and the amp in the live room, the second one is to add the option of having the amp head (with player) in the CR and the speaker cabinet in the LR.

I passed some leftover rope inside the conduit as a "fishing cable" for future expansion, probably unlikely but I preferred to cover my back anyway…

IMG_1877.jpg

IMG_1871.jpg

I cut a 2.5cm section on each conduit and wrapped that gap with a thin piece of soft packing foam to de-couple them and avoid creating a mechanical flaking path between rooms (hoping that the wires themselves won't flank much!).

IMG_1870.jpg

IMG_1885.jpg

IMG_1888.jpg

Each entry of the conduits through both leaves were sealed (front and back) to avoid the sound traveling between rooms like an open tube.
Firstly I stuffed insulation into each end, then I cut and placed a strip of foam (the one used to fill in expansion joints in walls) around the pipe (like a baker rod) and finally applied a generous amount of caulk to seal the lot airtight

IMG_1861.jpg

IMG_1897.jpg

IMG_1900.jpg

When all the wiring was done, i put some soft insulation in the gap between rooms, then mineral wool slabs between studs and covered the frame with the two layers of 15mm gyprock.

IMG_1893.jpg

Lastly, I made a cover for the wall box to keep it firmly attached to the wall.

IMG_1943.jpg

I will cover that with a nicer wood finish (perhaps ash, or oak, or pine…let's see what mr.wallet has to say when the time comes…)


Ciao
Simo

[Soundman2020]

I cut a 2.5cm section on each conduit and wrapped that gap with a thin piece of soft packing foam

Not so good. I would strongly suggest that you replace that with proper rubber sheeting. That foam has almost no mass at all, and sound leakage into the conduit is going to be very high like that.

The rest looks fine, but I would really replace that foam with rubber.

- Stuart -

[simo]

Thanks for your answer Stuart

I actually spent a bit of time searching for a material able to close the gap but not linking the two sections of the conduit together, and thought that it was a good compromise
I thought that the priority here was to de-couple them.

Actually I was going to use a little leftover of the sorbothane sheet that I'm using for the lining of the speaker case, but than I thought it was "too rigid" and although being a very good material to absorb vibrations, it could have contributed to connect the two conduit sections….

Also, I felt that since the points where the conduit enters both walls are sealed - around and inside it - on the front (from inside the room) and on the back of the plasterboard - it would make it quite difficult for the sound to escape from there and eventually leak in the gap between the walls from the conduit break point.
And even if a portion of it does leak, then it would encounter the same "resistance" to get out the conduit on the other wall…(?)

…so... I guess I could use that sorbothane leftover, but it would require knocking down quite a bit chunk of wall and redo it…… let me think………