The ceiling panels are GORGEOUS!! I wish the wall with the holes in it looked like the ceiling panels. It's the only change I'd make if I were doing that room. I also love the side walls with the solid plywood.
I think the (unpainted) wood gives it a classy, slightly retro 50’s modern look that says: “I am a very intentionally, and precisely, engineered space, and I’m not afraid to show it.” Thanx for a glimpse at the current state of your room.
You created with your own hands - it deserves respect! You spent time measuring room responses and trying to figure out what to improve. Man - big respect to what you do!
It's definitely working, man. A few mins into this video I was wondering if I had something set weird on my amp and it occurred to me that actually i was just not HEARING as much room as I'm seeing.
John, I'm enjoying your new content. I watch you as much for the general creative problem solving as for specific woodworking. I'll certainly stay subscribed, regardless of the particular projects. Thanks for sharing your process.
Very cool. There's nothing like listening to music in a room designed for doing so. I've had the pleasure of recording in a number of studios and it always made me appreciate the science behind it all. I think the room you've built is awesome. "The Altar" haha!
Love the look of the room, if you really want to paint something, how about a 6/8 inch wide stripe all the way around about shoulder height? Just to break up the solid plywood look
Hi John, thanks for sharing your knowledge and skills, I really appreciated. Back to your question for a description of the room, to me it looks like a piece that modern Swiss wooden architecture. which is inspired to the Bauhaus movement of the European 30ies. You could also say, it is a kind of listening instrument - what you like to have almost as a piece of furniture between your speakers and your ears. To me as an architect it looks absolutely nice, my compliments for your efforts -and of course for sharing your experience. Kind regards from Thailand Olivier
I will now give you advise on how you should have done that room...as I watch this video in my kitchen on my laptop through a small bluetooth speaker. I'm impressed with your knowledge and ability. That room looks really cool and that door. I've always wanted a secret door. My daughter and I sometimes talk about how we can make a secret door in our home.
Hi John, the room looks amazing. Your work is impeccable and inspiring. I have a room of similar dimensions and want to caution you about building the quadratic diffusers on the back of the room. If you don't have enough space between the rear wall and your primary listening position, they can create the phase issue which in my case was very audible. I end up using the absorption (behind my head) and curtains since I had to cover 3 windows.
Beautiful smart work Sir! I would describe the current look of the room as practical and warm. IMO paint is not needed. The only issue with bare wood is dust, and you can use your favorite water-based poly finish to smooth surfaces and produce a pleasant "sheen." The idea of using screws only is smart. You can change things as needed. That allows for fixing any loose or rattling components as you use and "flex" the room. Lots of good ideas here John! As a studio designer and audio engineer, I'd say you have a solid grasp of how audio equipment and acoustics work. Also from experience I'd like to add, the pursuit of perfection is both good and bad. To enjoy a room, we must at some point STOP working on it. If there are small anomalies in reverb times or frequency response, let them be. That's true of control rooms, studios, mixing environments, theaters or nightclubs. You are plenty smart enough and experienced enough to make practical decisions. Only YOU can decide when it's good enough. So long as walls are not parallel, you'll avoid the nightmare of standing waves. And if you use the LEDE ( Live End Dead End 80/20) approach, almost any size room can sound good. Even in the high-end studios I've built or engineered in, we are better off knowing the slight deficiencies or "character" of the room, rather than trying to chase "perfection." We can always EQ or adjust furniture and wall treatments to fix small problems. Perfect audio does not exist. But really good audio does exist and it's achievable. Always remember, most of your favorite recordings are nowhere near "perfect" in any sense. Most great rock records were done in a hurry, in improvised or cheap environments. And many rock recordings were performed by very intoxicated players! Many great classical and jazz records were recorded in one take, then mastered, warts and all. Judging solely by your previous videos any those acoustic measurements you show, I think your room is as close to perfect as any home audio environment ever need be. I hope you enjoy it!
I know this is a late reply, but I'd seal that beautiful wood & let the gorgeous grain show thru, baby!!! I'm 62 & have designed & built speakers, subs, etc in nearly every studio, worship, residential & the Mobile Audio stting & imaginable config: T/L, Iso-Barik, Slot port, standard port, folded horn, line-array, di-polar open-air with dynamic drivers (those were the line array's) & of course the old reliable sealed box, lol!!! I think your room is awesome & your design is just like I would build... not locked into just ONE config no matter what. I have a killer finished basement in my house that I'd LOVE to sub-divide the cavernous main room (gotta leave the 1 bdrm, 1 bath part alone) & construct a "room within a room" in the huge 16' x 34' open (living/ fireplace room). Too bad Stage IV Metastatic Prostate & Bone Cancer in my hips has brought my "project life" to a stop while I fight the immediate threats. The Postate stuff is getting under control, my lifestyle changes have produced chages in my bone strength that the specialists term: "unexplainable". 2 ops & 6 months of grueling re-hab (training; former tri-athlete here) an I can finish my original room plans so my Fam & Frens can enjoy it all! I love your room and approach to building things!!! All Success, My Man. JW in NC
Reminiscent of a mid 90's studio control room which gives me a dose of nostalgia. Though it sounds a little brighter than most control rooms. The binary diffusers are very BBC. I'm no expert either just a former Comms and Video Engineer.
John, this series of videos has been SO inspirational to me. I'm moving to a new flat soon and plan to build a 5.1 setup to listen & watch but also to mix, and I'm thinking back and forth on what treatment measures to choose... this documentation, especially the waterfall measurements, are pure gold. Thanks so much! And re the looks: It looks awesome, the wood surfaces shine nicely with the lights. I like wood :)
your room looks like the Blown Away Guy from the Maxell ad should be just waiting for his cocktail to slide into reach. i'm impressed and jealous at once.
You definitely shouldn’t pant that beautiful room man, in my opinion. I absolutely love the aesthetics! I bet it sounds great too. I have a recording studio and I wish my Control room and live room could look that classy Great job man!
The look of the room suits you and your sensibilities. Please yourself, it's your house. Those of us old enough to remember "real" knotty pine walls tend to view plywood with skepticism tho. Still, I appreciate the sound of your room. Our house shakes from the drive-by sub-woofers.
I don't know much about sound but my ears tell me the sound from that room is really lovely. I like the wood look. You've built an escape pod there, my only advice would be... never take your phone in there.
We are building a new cottage. I got a space for stuff my wife doesn't want in normal living area. So I originally called it my hobby room. My vintage stereo was going there anyway. But I have changed the main focus to be a 2 channel listening room. 15 foot wide x 9 tall x 24 long. Wife wouldn't let me do plywood. Not even for the ceiling. I did get pine planking. 2x6 insulated interior walls spaced an inch away from exterior 8" concrete that has 3 inches of Styrofoam on each side. Interior walls also have those isolated rails. Will do some room treatment after we move in.
Honestly I think painting a few things black, or maybe even staining it like espresso or something would really add to the room. I also was thinking that hanging curtains between the lights, kind of like they do in movie theaters, would be a cool look. Some dark carpeting or area rugs would also add to it I think. Obviously everyone has their own taste, but that's my input.
Very cool room John, how you got your head around designing for reverb, response etc is impressive. Kill 1khz straight up. Was always a issue I found no matter what room we set a system up (auditoriums, halls, arena's, outdoors amphitheatres, theatres etc) I did live production in my late teens early 20's
I think some fabric wall mounted panels in probably any color would help break up the plywood monotony. Super jealous of the room, wish I could really hear how it sounds. I bet a nice Walmart sound bar would sound killer. ;)
I don't know if it is my imagination, but the tonal quality of your voice is much better than other videos. Your voice is clear and natural sounding, bearing in mind I have never heard you speak in person, as if you where talking to me in a wide open space.
I'm using a lapel mic in this video and the room is already very good for recording, while I use a boom mic in my workshop for the others. The workshop acoustics are pretty good, but nothing like this room.
Freakin crazy John!!! Love this!! Keep up the great work BUT hey… don’t let it be so long between videos next time we wanna follow along 😉 We know it’s tough to video while you’re going through a project because it slows it down tremendously but we really REALLY appreciate it!! Thank you for sharing this with us sir!! 👏🏼👊🏼👍🏼
It’s the large sheets that make me want to suggest paint. The front wall is great. Plain sheets...maybe not. A strip or something to break it up might do the trick too but if you like it, it’s your plywood dungeon of sound. :)
T Like I said at the end, there will be acoustic panels in front of those walls and that'll make a difference. Also I'm think of painting the cloth on the acoustic panels with my favourite album covers, so that'll add a little something.
I really like the Mid-Century Mod look. If it was my room, I'd Shellac the wood. Give it that nice warm feel. But I love me old Shellac'd panels and ply furniture from childhood cottages (you and I are probably the same 'vintage'. LOL!)
It's cool. Definitely love the ply look. You could stain or treat sections but don't paint and lose the grain. Black stain maybe on accents or sections.
Hi John, I know that this is an old video I can’t seem to find update on this video, I have noticed when you were showing the bit where you are screwing the strips on the ceiling you only fitted the end surely the strip would vibrate over that length which will probably cause your problems, I don’t know how big your room is but is it worth putting acoustic panels like picture frames on the walls. ? And carpet on the floor either dust in front of the loudspeaker cabinet or the entire floor, Because I live by myself I don’t care what my place looks like in some respect but I have put thick cotton material up on some of my walls, I think The material I believe is called a duvet quilt that you put over a bed something that was used years ago, if anything is made room feel warmer and I cannot hear the music outside or it seems very muffled. Phil from the moulin
Hi John , love the room ! What did you do for insulation above the ceiling slats ? I thought about fiberglass, but you don't want that raining down on you lol. Also did you put a black backing above the slats like the bass traps on the wall? Thanks in advance
this audio room looks remarkable, and from what you described about the sound improvements based on the measurements and on the actual sound perception / feel I assume it is starting to sound to kill too. the only thing I will never understand is that you went with the PVC upholstery, instead of forking few bucks for the cowhide leather. you will be sitting on it for 1000s of hours in years to come. I seriously can't imagine myself sitting on the plastic. but hey! probably you will upgrade your chair after a while of sitting on plastic anyway. I would consider adding some LED strips at the floor level not to disturb your eye level while watching movies, and still giving you some ambient light, so you don't feel like sitting in the dungeon.
I'm a studio musician and recording engineer. I love the thoroughness of your approach to designing the acoustic treatments for the room. I wondered - do you have formal training? How did you learn about acoustics? It seems an arcane art. I've been in recording studios all my adult life and I still am not sure exactly why the great ones sound great and the shitty ones, well...don't. Where did you learn? BTW, I like the look of the room, but there are too many people who listen with their eyes. Hopefully it all recedes into the background when you listen to music.
No formal training, just a lot of reading books and online and a lifetime of interest. I was going to hold off until I had the room completely done before giving it a listen, but couldn't resist with the latest progress and it doesn't disappoint :)
How do you open the secret door from the inside? I didn't see any handles? This room have always looks like a church to me, the straight lines reminds me of the pipe organ, TV reminds me of the alter. Not the traditional church but the one designed by architect from the brutalism or mid century modern era.
Nice listening room, John. I think it looks good overall (we all like "wood", of course), but maybe a bit lonely and uninviting/character-less. Reminds me more of an anechoic chamber rather than somewhere I would enjoy listening to my music. It's JUST an Opinion, nothing more... But it's hard to judge seeing it all lit up just for this video. I think just using the wall sconce "mood lighting" would make the room more inviting and "comfortable". Assuming it is a basement room? But just judging from your lapel lav mic, it sounds pretty balanced and relatively reverb free. It will be interesting to watch your other video with the acoustic response after hanging the wall panels...gonna watch that next. What speakers do you plan to build? I guess I should read more about it on your website link. And nice laptop stand as well, LOL! Keep it up.
think the room looks great, the diffuser panels don't really stand out to me as needing paint( there's enough contrast with all the holes), the big walls look a little odd with the large sheets at the center, but I imagine that will change with the panels you mentioned hanging up in future. any plans for the floor?
Why didnt the notification appear for this? 5 days later its on the homepage. Sure would love to purchase a design file of those wall panels with holes. The audio seems like you’re right next to the camera. The thumbnail for the vid is impressive.
I like it too. IMHO, the diffuser wall already breaks up the plywoodiness of the room because of the holes with the black background. So I really don't think that wall is the one I would attack to break things up. Honestly, I like it. Perhaps you could come up with a way to break it up by going after the side walls? I dunno, just spitballing. I like it as is.
I like your 2 channel stereo approach. I like the design of your room. But I would myself not be happy hanging out in there because it would feel like a hole in the ground to me. I prefer natural light through windows, even when it's dark outside. I know that those create more acoustic problems. Looking forward to see your future speakers been build.
I think the industrial vibe is from an "unfinished" look. I'm into that, maybe some blacked out accents here and there using something like Vantablack, Blk 3.0 or carbon fiber?
