On this forum you deal with control room issues, but how about a listening/real-living room? After all, control rooms exist for making music, and music is listened in living rooms. A lot of people that enjoy music would like to have as good acoustics in their living room, as they can get. It could be said that the advance of the Internet brought this issue into focus of common people (not just the professionals), so there is an increasing interest in this subject. And this can spread like an avalanche. Because, if you invite your friends in a room with good acoustics, probably they would like to have the same, and they would talk about this to others.
So, here is my room. I am from Croatia, and here we always lack money, so this project will advance slowly. But this means that I have time to examine this properly. This also means that my living room is smaller than in some countries.
As you can see, I have brick walls, plus I have stone from outside. In my case noise isn't a problem, so there is no need to deal with it. I have enough space above head (room is 275 cm high) so I can put dropped ceiling. I have construction problems in three corners. In one I have gas heating device (unmoveable), in other I have gas pipe, and third is't at right angle. I don't know if forth corner is a problem, or is it a solution. Right now big closet fills this space.
The problem with living rooms is that you cannot place your speakers flush mounted, and you cannot put them at 38% depth. It is more like you will place them 1 meter from front wall. Also the listening position isn't at ideal place. And there should be wider listening area, since I would like some 4-5 people to have good conditions for both, watching tv and listening to music.
Also, in living room you need to find place for other things, as well. This is what I have in my room (those things are components in SketchUp file):
Closets [4+2]:
Big closet is filling that big hole in corner. Actually it is mostly empty, although I do like to hang some things in it. But, I don't need all this space. 60 cm wide place to hang things would be enough.
Narrow closet is the most important, because I place underweare and socks there, plus some cables, electronic parts, and things like that.
In other two closets I mostly keep books. I need about 5 meters of book shelf. I heard that books are good diffusors. I wouldn't mind to put books in the open, for acoustic purposes. But I do need some closed space to keep my computer wheel, HOTAS (flying joystick), games and things like that.
I also have two narrow commodes.
Dimensions (H x W x D):
Big closet 236 x 93 x 60
Two closets 236 x 93 x 40
Narrow closet 236 x 48 x 60
Two commodes 72 x 48 x 40
It would be interesting if all those closets could be incorporated into acoustic solution.
Since I would like to have as much sitting space as possible I am thinking about placing all this storage space in upper level (like a kitchen closet), and leave space in lower level for sitting.
Sitting [3+1]:
I have a cauch, chair, taboure. If I move cauch close to wall I have enough space to place chair. But if cauch is away from wall I cannot find enogh space for chair, so chair is gone (bye-bye).
I can list a rug here, as well (300 x 200).
Computer [4]:
Computer, table, comp. chair, monitor (21").
Hi-fi [8]:
CD, amp, two sat receivers, two speakers, tuner.
I can list tv (29") here, as well.
So, that's it. I hope I didn't overdo this. It would be nice if this could somehow be done in two phases. Phase 1 would be to retain closets as they are now (possibly only to get rid of big closet, and incorporate 60 cm of hanging space into some acoustic threatment), and phase 2 would be to get rid of closets and place things in upper level.
Oops, now I really overdone this,
. I don't want to abuse your precious time, just drop an idea or two. Thanks. -- Mario