John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Barefoot,

I've been picking Steve and John's brains, so I thought I'd make it a hat trick...

This is sort of in between "Construction" and "Speakers."

I read your long post on monitor walls, angles and such, and was also intrigued by the solution you gave another poster about building a simple portable "wall" of plywood with a shelf and a hole.

Here is a detail from my design, vetted somewhat by John et al. I don't know if this satisfies the specs you laid out in the long post. I fear the approx 6ft between speakers/8ft. total width might kill it.

Anyway, I would like to build the rectanglular structure marked around the speaker as a freestanding frame. Two reasons: to isolate speaker vibrations from the walls and ceilings and to make them portable within the room -- I may have to swing the whole deal around 180 degrees depending on how the ceiling works out.

I would attach a front face to the frame -- probably plywood or drywall -- and flush that up with the adjacent walls w/ a slight space to be caulked up. I also would leave a space between the top and the ceiling for air to circulate (powered speakers -- no exact model chosen yet). The whole deal would be filled in with insulation.

Would this structure be massive enough? I had planned to "float" it on floor felt or something -- would I have to attach it to the floor (concrete slab)? Most important, would it work? A picture of the whole room as planned in approx scale is in the "I Invite Your Comments..." thread in Studio Design.

Long question, I know. Thanks in advance.

Jay

Hey JRSG,

would you happen to have a sideview as well?

My main concern is that the entire "wall" would resonate with the speaker and therefore adversely influence flatness of the frequency response. I reckon it would be very hard to properly decouple the speakers and the wall if the speakers rest on a part of the wall.

Would it really be that much of a disadvantage to have the speakers on seperate stands?

I could put them on stands, but what I've gleaned from these forums is that flush mounting them will have good benefits. Let me try to be more clear.

I want to flush mount, just trying to come up with a method.

What I am suggesting more specifically is a sturdily built rectangular frame of 2x4s, approx 18" x 18" x 6'10" (2" shy of the 7' ceiling) with a box for the speaker on a plywood platform at the appropriate height. The whole lot packed with insulation and faced with a plywood sheet with a hole for the speaker. I might leave the bottom open to the insulation for some trapping.
Pushed into the corner at 30 degrees to match up with (but not be fastened to) a 12" deep centered trap and an angled slot resonator at the side. (See diagram.)

I ask again, would this be heavy/stiff enough without attaching it to the side walls? Would it help to fasten it to the concrete floor?

Is this daft?

Jay

So if I understand you correctly, you want sort of a soffit "module" with a footprint like the blue shaded area below that you can pull out and move to an alternate location?

Thomas

JRSGodfrey wrote:I could put them on stands, but what I've gleaned from these forums is that flush mounting them will have good benefits. Let me try to be more clear.

I want to flush mount, just trying to come up with a method.

Jay

Flush mounting and using speaker stands aren't mutually exclusive. I'd even dare to say that most designs I have encountered so far that use flush mounting also make use of some form of speaker stand (the best solution being a concrete speaker stand built as a part of the floor it rests on).

So if I understand you correctly, you want sort of a soffit "module" with a footprint like the blue shaded area below that you can pull out and move to an alternate location?

Yes -- but I don't mean to stress the portability more than the functionality. It doesn't seem that dissimilar to some the the soffit designs I've looked at on John's site. Good/bad idea?

Flush mounting and using speaker stands aren't mutually exclusive.

Of course --- I didn't get your drift. I thought about that, too. Besides building a concrete pile, any other best practice for that?

Stepping back, I tried to just copy the front profile of the garage studio on John's site and cram it into my little room. It appealed to me, and I thought it might solve some of the small room problems with bass, at least in the front of the room.

To flush or not to flush?

Thanks for the responses so far.

Jay