John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi Guys,

My long wait for a contractor is over and in a few weeks we will begin framing my basement studio. You can see the basic plan in this post.

I’m using resilient clips (Resilmount A96R) for the ceiling, but it’s not clear to me if I should use standard 7/8” hat channel or half-inch double leg RC2 resilient channel with the clips. I’ll be attaching a single layer of QuietRock ES (5/8” thick) which is ~90 lbs. per sheet, compared to ~70 lbs. for standard Firecode X.

Cost and availability are roughly equal. I’ve got local sources on double-leg RC2 resilient channel and you can get 7/8” hat channel just about anywhere. My question is what will perform best.

The one functional advantage of RC2 is a shallower cross-section (half-inch vs. 7/8”) which will allow a slightly higher ceiling. Intuitively RC2 would seem to make sense, but there are plenty of counterintuitive principles in audio/isolation and I sure don’t want to make a mistake.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Todd

hat channel.

gullfo wrote:hat channel.

Interesting … Is it just that the resilient clips are designed for hat channel?

I would have thought RC2 would provide additional decoupling, but the last thing I want to introduce is a resonant buzz or some other side effect.

Todd

the RC might provide some undocumented benefit in combination of the iso clips. but likely not enough to warrant the additional cost and the hat channel will be stronger as well.