My long, one-car garage studio, construction phase

[Bigsby]

Hello again--
Time for a bezel update. Before I start that, Stuart, I'm hoping you'll have a chance to review my most recent REW test (with new, improved descriptive names ) This REW was done after all the wall treatments were in, along with the cloud. I explain all of that in my previous post. Thank you in advance!

Ok--on to the bezels....

First, I made templates using luan (cheap, 3/16" plywood) which I ripped into strips, temporarily stapled to my sub-bezel, and hot-glued together:

bezel template left.jpg

bezel template right.jpg

Then I clamped the templates to the back side of my 3/4" maple plywood and traced the pattern:

bezel template tracing.jpg

Using my circular saw and a fence clamped to the plywood, I cut the bezel from the back side, thereby avoiding having any splintering on the finished face of the bezel. To finish the cuts from the back side, I used a Japanese hand saw. Next, I created my top speaker vents, using three holes as a guide:

bezel vent hole close up.jpg

I prepared my sub-bezel by stapling black cloth over the vents:

bezel before.jpg

...and then applying construction adhesive, before using trim-head screws to fasten the bezel in place. The screws down the center are visible in the pictures; there are also screws that are difficult to see along both sides. I was quite generous with the construction adhesive--I will never be able to pull the bezels off in one piece!

bezel installed left.jpg

bezel installed right.jpg

I decided when designing the bezels that I would have a removable frame that surrounds the speaker, enabling me the remove the speaker for adjustments/repairs, etc, without having to remove the entire bezel. If I didn't have Adams (with their unusual shape) for monitors, I wouldn't have approached it this way, but I feel this is the best solution for me.

Here is the rough speaker frame, from the back. I used a router to rough it in:

bezel speaker surround rough.jpg

And here it is after I smoothed it out:

bezel speaker surround finished.jpg

Finally, here's what the bezels look like (almost) finished. I'm planning to attach a 1/4" strip of walnut around the speaker frame (where there is a visible gap) to give it a bit of an accent:

bezel finished left.jpg

bezel finished right.jpg

bezel monitor close up.jpg

So that's where I'm at presently. I have purchased some black fabric for behind my slats, and I've been reading up on the subject of slats. At this point, I'm leaning toward a broadband design, with 2", 3", and 4" slats and perhaps 1/8", 1/4", and 3/8" slots, but I find the more I read on this subject, the less I feel I know. Any guidance on slats for my particular room is much appreciated!

Thank You!!

Mark

[Soundman2020]

Sorry about the delay Bigsby! Been fully occupied the last few weeks trying to fix some acoustic ... errr ... "oversights" in the design of a meeting room for 250 people....

I'm looking at your REW data, and I'm a bit puzzled: the "both" SPL curve should be about 6 dB higher than either the "left" or the "right" curve, but it is about the same, and in fact even a bit lower in some places! Are you sure you kept the levels the same between tests?

The good news is that the improvement is very evident in the graphs! That cloud is certainly doing its job, really well.

Bezel varnish: I don't think it will make any real difference if you apply multiple coats or just one coat. That's more of an aesthetic decision than an acoustic decision. Do as many (or as few) coats as you need to get it looking the way you want.


- Stuart -

[Mike Toor]

Hey! Great job so far. Wow!!

Stuart, perhaps Bigsby is calibrating the SPL meter to read 80 between tests. That might be causing the issue in the REW levels.

[Bigsby]

Hello all--

I've been busy the last couple of weeks, so it's time for an update. First of all, Stuart, regarding my last REW tests:

I'm looking at your REW data, and I'm a bit puzzled: the "both" SPL curve should be about 6 dB higher than either the "left" or the "right" curve, but it is about the same, and in fact even a bit lower in some places! Are you sure you kept the levels the same between tests?

I think Mike was right (by the way, thanks for your kind words, Mike!); for some reason I reset my levels when I was testing the speakers individually to match the db of both together. Kind of a brain fart, I guess. I didn't do that for my latest REW tests.

So anyway, I went ahead and installed the slats. I decided to go with John's broadband design as I understand it, using 2", 3", and 4" slats with 1/8", 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" slots.

Here are a couple of pictures as the cloth was going up. I should apologize for the poor photos; I'm just spending all my money on this build--none left over for a new camera!

cloth on L wall.jpg

cloth on R wall.jpg

I cut spacers to make sure that I was precise with my slots:

slat shims.jpg

Here is a shot with the spacers in use--this approach made installation very easy:

shims in use.jpg

I would have loved to get a custom panel made, but it just wasn't in the budget, so I ordered 4 gang panels from Redco, which will go here:

panel.jpg

Here's a couple shots of the finished slats:

slats done left wall.jpg

slats done right wall.jpg

panel done.jpg

Next, I covered my cloud in cloth. The color in the pictures is short of pinkish, but it's really more of a cranberry color. I started from the center of the cloud, folding the cloth over a batten to give it a clean look:

cloud cloth 1.jpg

cloud cloth 2.jpg

cloud cloth batten close up.jpg

….reached my attachment limit--part two coming up!

[Bigsby]

…continuing….
More photos of the cloud:

cloud cloth batten 2.jpg

cloud cloth complete.jpg

I decided it couldn't hurt to add some fluffy insulation to the top of the cloud, since there's quite a bit of space above it:

cloud insulation.jpg

I then covered this with an old bed sheet that I treated with fire retardant:

cloud insulation covered.jpg

Then I installed a "rope" of LED lights around the perimeter:

cloud with up lights.jpg

And here's what it looks like installed. I have it wired so that I can have one, two, or three of the LED lights on, or none of them on with only the rope light. This way I avoid using a dimmer.

cloud installed 1.jpg

cloud installed 2.jpg

cloud installed 3.jpg

Finally, here are some photos of the room as it exists now:

front of room.jpg

front left.jpg

front right.jpg

side view of cloud.jpg

To be continued….

[Bigsby]

Ok--last installment of this update….

My next step will be to cover the back wall, which currently looks like this:

finished back wall.jpg

My plan is to cover it with plastic (with 1" slits cut through it every foot or so, so that it doesn't act as a vapor barrier) and then cloth, and then some widely spaced slats for protection of the wall--not for any acoustic reason. My thought is that I would use 2" slats, 4" apart up to about 6 feet off the floor, and then maybe even wider spacing above that. I have a few questions, though:

1. Given my most recent REW results (link posted below), does it still look like a good idea to install the plastic now that the slats are in on the side walls? ---my inclination is yes, I should do it to brighten up the room even more. I seem to remember that John does this as a matter of course.
2. Does my slat approach for the back wall accomplish what I'm intending--something that's more or less acoustically "invisible" but still protects the wall?
3. My plan for the front wall between the soffits is to just use cloth over a frame--no slats. Should I put plastic on this wall, as well?

Here is a link to my latest REW tests:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aqvehpf2q7ekq ... alled.mdat

To review, the previous tests were named like this:

I couldn't fit as many characters as I wanted, so to clarify, #3 and #4 include the treated soffits:

1. no treatment
2. soffits only
3. walls
4. walls and cloud
…and the most recent test:
5. slats and cloud

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Mark

[simo]

Fantastic work Mark. The slats and the speaker soffit are looking great !!

Keep up the good work man !

[Mike Toor]

I agree with simo! It's looking AMAZING Mark..!

Great work!

You should be VERY proud!

[Soundman2020]

Here is a link to my latest REW tests:

Just keeps getting better and better! There's a dip around 1kHz that I can't quite figure out, and it appeared with the "walls" set of data, so that's hard to explain, but apart from that detail it's looking pretty good for a small room!

1. Given my most recent REW results (link posted below), does it still look like a good idea to install the plastic now that the slats are in on the side walls? ---my inclination is yes, I should do it to brighten up the room even more. I seem to remember that John does this as a matter of course.

Yep, I'd do that. You are still rolling off a bit in the very high end, so you could do with a bit of brightening.

2. Does my slat approach for the back wall accomplish what I'm intending--something that's more or less acoustically "invisible" but still protects the wall?

Yup! That will work fine.

3. My plan for the front wall between the soffits is to just use cloth over a frame--no slats. Should I put plastic on this wall, as well?

Try it with and without. Do a REW test without any plastic, then another one with plastic just taped in place temporarily (eg. with masking tape), to see what effect it has, then decide.


- Stuart -

[Bigsby]

Simo and Mike--thank you! I really appreciate the encouragement. It's been such a long road--4 1/2 years since I began this project by building an addition to my garage (yes, the original building was even smaller than it is now ). There finally seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel that's not an oncoming train!

Thanks for your reply, Stuart! I will continue as you suggest. I don't know what I'd do without your guidance.

[Bigsby]

Hello All--
Time for a short update. I have now completed the back wall to the control room along with the frames for the cloth in the front of the room.
Here's a couple of shots of the back wall with plastic on it, before the cloth went up. The slits in the plastic were Stuart's solution for ensuring that it didn't become a vapor barrier in the wrong location. The slits are spaced 12" apart, roughly.

Back wall with plastic 1.jpg

back wall with plastic 2.jpg

And here's a couple shots with the cloth in place:

back wall with cloth 1.jpg

back wall with cloth 2.jpg

Finally, here are a couple shots of the final wall finish. The slats are not intended for any acoustic purpose; they're only there for protection of the cloth so that it doesn't get beat up over time. The slats are 2" wide and are spaced every 4". The maple panel above the electrical breaker panel is there to protect a section of tubing for the mini-split that protrudes from the wall at that point.

finished back wall 1.jpg

finished back wall 2.jpg

Next, I built frames for the front wall, which won't be in danger of abuse, so they will just have cloth stretched over them--no slats. I used a biscuit joiner and glue to assemble them securely.

back of center frame.jpg

Here are some pictures of the frames tacked in place:

cloth frames left.jpg

The green plywood panel in the center section is there in case I get a wall-mounted computer monitor at some point:

cloth frames center.jpg

cloth frames right.jpg

Here's a shot of the center panel with the cloth installed. As luck would have it, I ran out of cloth before I could finish the two panels below the soffits:

center frame installed.jpg

Per Stuart's suggestion, I ran REW tests with and without plastic on the wall between the soffits. Although there doesn't seem to be a big difference, I felt like when I listened to music with the plastic up, it sounded brighter to me. So, unless you see something troubling in the REW results, Stuart, I think I'll leave it that way.

Here's a link to my latest REW tests:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ygnu8e4r12tq ... alled.mdat

I have to say that, while I don't pretend to have "golden ears," the control room sounds amazing to me, even for such a small room. The stereo imaging is clear, the bass is focused, and I'm hearing things on songs I'm familiar with that I've never noticed before--I get a big grin on my face when I turn up the volume. To anyone reading this who is daunted by the amount of work the experts tell you to do: The results are worth it, and they really do speak for themselves. So thank you, John for creating this forum and sharing so many of your awesome design concepts, and Stuart for being so generous with your time and detailed advice. I'm incredibly grateful.

My question at this point, given the latest REW results, is there anything more I should do treatment-wise to the room? I don't really know what that would be, since every surface in the room has some kind of treatment, but I'm open to suggestions. My Adam A7X's are set with the high shelf and tweeter level controls straight up at 12:00. The bass shelf I set all the way counter-clockwise, to -4 db. I'm interested in any thoughts about these settings, as well.

If I have your blessing, that I've treated this room as much as possible to address its inherent shortcomings, I'll move on to the live room treatment.

Mark

[Soundman2020]

It looks terrible! The only solution is that you dismantle the entire room and ship it to me, so I can re-assemble it in my garage and analyze it for, oh I dunno, maybe the next 20 years or so!!!!

Seriously, it looks damn good to me, and your comments on how it sounds tend to agree with the REW tests. Your overall frequency response is within +/- 10 dB, which is very acceptable for a small home studio, the IR looks good (no problematic reflections), the modes seem to be under control, etc. The decay times are a little low in the mid range (around 110ms), and a little high in the highs (around 170 ms) (which is unusual), but nothing that I'd be concerned about. The plastic didn't do a lot either way, so yeah, leave it in.

I just went back and re-read the early part of this thread, and I realized just how small your control room is! What I'm seeing on REW is telling me that you have done an amazing job on designing, building and treating it, as the graphs are about as near to perfect as you could ever expect for that size room. Job well done, for sure!

One thing you could try is tweaking your A7 controls just a bit: First, set your "Low Shelf" all the way down to -6, isntead of -4 (where you ave it now), to smooth out the low end a bit more. The try setting "Tweeter Level" to -2 and "High Shelf" to +4. That should tilt the high end response up just a bit. That might make it a bit too bright though, so listen carefully as well as doing another REW test. If it is too bright, then back off the high shelf to +2 (instead of +4), and see how that sounds.


- Stuart -

[Bigsby]

Stuart--thank you so much for your kind words--it means a lot coming from you!

I've adjusted the A7X's as you suggested, although I already had the low shelf at -6. I don't know why I wrote -4 earlier.

So to be clear, the current settings are as follows:
High shelf: +4
Low shelf: -6
Tweeter level: -2

My ears may be deceiving me, but with these settings it seemed a bit bright. I'll be curious to hear your opinion of the REW tests, Stuart. I have a lot of tests in the file now, so I'll remind you that the the most recent tests (before I changed the speaker settings) are called "Both with plastic, Left with plastic, Right with Plastic." The plastic being the sheet between the soffits, which I left in place. The readings I took with the speaker adjustments are called "speaker tweaks both, speaker tweaks left, speaker tweaks right."

Here's a link to the most recent REW tests:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vpkcl0560p6j ... ments.mdat

Thank you!
Mark

[Soundman2020]

I would drop the high shelf back down to +2, polish the window glass, mop the floor, dust off the chair, and call it "Done!"

I reckon it ain't gonna get much better than that, so I'd say it's time to move on to the live room. Or maybe just to sit down and enjoy your favorite music for a few hours, and take a break while you revel in your achievement.

It's just a couple of weeks early, but it looks like you gave yourself one helluva neat Christmas present!

- Stuart -

[Bigsby]

Stuart, that is music to my ears, as they say! While it's been a lot of fun building this room (in a sort of masochistic sort of way ), I'm thrilled to be able to say that I've done everything I can in there, treatment-wise, so thank you for all your help in getting me to this point! Your advice has been indispensable!