Author Topic: Elco's Listening Room Build (Updates on Page 5)  (Read 26801 times)

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Offline elco

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Elco's Listening Room Build (Updates on Page 5)
« on: Sep 29, 2016 at 06:20 PM »
Hi guys. I've been a lurker since 2011, but I closely follow PinoyDVD threads to learn. Those who know me know that I was previously heavy into car audio. But I do have a simple 5.1 theater system in the bedroom my wife and I share. :)




Above: Wharfedale 250 left and right speakers, 220C center channel, Denon AVR-4810 receiver and Sony 50-inch W600 TV. Media player is an old Xtreamer Sidewinder 3. Not in the photo are the left and right rear Wharfedale 220 speakers. :)



I'd like to share a recent build. This is a spare room at home that was turned into a music listening room. No video for now, just audio.

The room is small, 15ft x 15ft with a 12ft ceiling. All walls are concrete. The ceiling is concrete. The floor is wood parquet over concrete. Definitely not ideal acoustically. So early on, it was decided to divert funds for acoustic treatments into building a "ROOM WITHIN A ROOM."

The first benefit is the ratio of length x width x height could now be made more acoustically friendly, and room modes plus standing waves would be more predictable and thus easier (less costly) to treat.

The second benefit is soundproofing. A "room within a room" whose walls are filled with sound absorbent material easily lowers the noise floor 30dB, making it easier to hear quiet portions in music and enhancing the listening experience.

The third benefit is again soundproofing. High or loud listening levels will be kept inside the room and will not bother those outside.

Here are some photos:



Above: The room is a square, so we tore down the old walls and ceiling to check the electricals and resize the room. Create a room-within-a-room with dimensions that were more acoustically friendly.




Above: Vertical wooden joists spaced 2-feet apart. Rockwool insulation will be placed between those joists for soundproofing.




Above: Lots of Rockwool purchased for the build.




Above: This is the dense kind of Rockwool. There is something denser, 100kg/m3, but is a bit harder to find. 80kg will do. :)




Above: A split-type inverter A/C will is mounted on an acoustically separate platform. Any vibrations from it will not go into the walls of the listening room.




Above: A regular "HAT" channel is turned into "resilient" channel by trimming off one side of the "hat." The black dot on top is a wood screw that fastens it to the vertical joists. The rest of the channel is free to absorb vibrations. Hardieflex drywall will be screwed into the flat portions of the channels, avoiding the joists.




Above: More joists and hat channels going up. Those windows have big gaps that let sound through and need to be sealed. So new doors will be built over them.




Above: Rockwool insulation going into the walls. These are not fastened, but are simply fitted between the joists. Air spaces in front of and behind the Rockwool help sound isolation.




Above: Rockwool insulation between ceiling joists. For the ceiling, no trimming was done on the HAT-resilient channels, as they needed to support the weight of the Hardieflex drywall.




Above:New doors covering the windows and more HAT-resilient channels have gone up. Rockwool will go between the joists before being covered up with Hardieflex.




Above: The Hardieflex drywall is thin on purpose because the room is small. Rigid walls are good for big rooms like 20ft x 30ft, but in my small 14ft x 11ft room, 4.5mm-thick Hardieflex on the walls and ceiling will flex and act as quasi-bass traps. So essentially, all walls are bass traps. Not as effective as purpose-built traps, but conserves space. :)




Above: This is the new entrance into the room. More Rockwool is waiting outside, to be placed inside the walls is via a solid door. Not made of wood, but of Versaboard. It can be sanded and painted just like wood, but is actually made from sandwiched layers of PVC plastic. Damping is excellent. They do not "ring" when knocked. More information on Versaboard doors here: http://www.stjosephtrdg.com/versaboard-pvc-foamboards-and-versa-solid-pvc-doors-and-jambs/versa-solid-pvc-doors-and-jambs/




Above: Hardieflex drywall has gone up, with white primer. Dimmable LED spotlights have already been wired-in.




Above: Here is one of the dimmable LED spotlight used in the room. I got it from Wilcon Builders. The electrical circuit they are on is separate from audio mains.




Above: There is a "beauty board" with handles over the A/C. It is easily removed in case the A/C needs cleaning or servicing. On the right side of the photo is one of the new window doors ajar. You can see how thick it is. It is 4-inches thick, just like the wall it is mounted on, also with Rockwool insulation inside.




Above: Here's a better view of the door that covers the glass windows. Those white thingies on the jamb are magnets. We used many of them to keep the foam weatherstrip seals in contact with each other. Gaps in the door and jamb allow sound through. Strips of foam rubber are on all mating surfaces so there are no gaps. But foam weatherseals are elastic, so lots of magnets were used. It actually takes quite some force to open the door with all those magnets in place. :)

Oh and that white thing over the doors is an LED emergency light, In case there is a brownout, it automatically switches on. :)




Above: Finally some color on the walls. That electric fan stayed on for several days to ventilate the room. :)
« Last Edit: Apr 07, 2017 at 11:51 AM by elco »

Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #1 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 06:21 PM »
Now off to build DIY room treatments. :)


First, some "superchunk" corner bass traps.




Above: Rockwool insulation was cut into triangles and stacked in a DIY wooden frame. The long edge that faces the room is 2-feet wide.




Above: Each superchunk is 8 feet tall, going from floor-to-ceiling.




Above: heavy-duty casters were mounted underneath, to allow for easier moving and positioning. Well, not really easy. One superchunk ended up weighing roughly 90 kilos. :)




Above: Now to wrap them with acoustically transparent fabric. This is from Fabric Warehouse. Cheap at under ₱ 30 per meter. Blow through them and they offer very little resistance. They also stretch a bit, too. Easy to staple down on the wooden frame.




Above: Here they are, positioned in the corners of the front wall. Overhead is a 4-inch-thick DIY Rockwool sound absorber "cloud." It is 4ft x 4ft and is suspended 6-inches from the ceiling.




Above: lots of semi-circular curved diffusers from the one and only Master Nelson De Leon. There is acoustic foam behind each diffuser.




They go on another ceiling cloud of 2-inch-thick Rockwool. They are arranged alternately, like fish scales. Sound enters the gaps between diffusers and is absorbed by the Rockwool on top.




Above: Another view of the diffuser cloud.

Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #2 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 06:22 PM »
Now for the electricals. :)


Mains voltage in my area is high, usually over 240VAC, and fluctuates a lot. So two servo-type Automatic Voltage Regulators feed a stable 220V to my audio gear. The relays and servo motors inside make noise, so these are outside the listening room.

Also, power into those two AVRs is from a dedicated breaker. This avoids interference and noise from other household appliances.




Above: The two AVRs. The one on the left is a 3kW model, for the amplifier. On the right is a 2kW model, for source electronics.




Above: An AC Power Filter from Boss Obet (Narayan). This cleans up what comes out of the 2kW AVR.

Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #3 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 06:23 PM »
How about the source of music? :)


This is an all-digital system. Music is stored in external hard drives connected to the computer in the 3rd Floor bedroom.




Above: Sorry for the mess. Haha.. This is the computer that my wife and I use. Inside are an Intel Core i7-4790k cooled by a Corsair H110 with push-pull fans, an Asus Z97 motherboard, 16GB of RAM and a Samsung 250GB SSD boot drive. The power supply is a 700-watt unit from FSP and is true-rated. This computer runs cool and is never switched off. On top are seven 4TB external hard drives where various media (music and movies) are stored. NAS? Yes, soon. I don't have one yet, but I will get one soon. :)




Above: A close up of the external drives. They are on a custom wooden frame that lifts them 4-inches up for better airflow. On a hot afternoon, drive temperature (via CrystalDiskInfo software) remains no higher than 47 degrees C. At night when the A/C is on, it drops to around 32 degrees C. Not bad for hard drives. More info on the software I use here: http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html


The Xtreamer Sidewinder 3 that I use in the bedroom (the very first post above) gets movies from this computer without any need for uPNP software. It also DTS-HD Master and Dolby TrueHD pass-through which the Denon can decode.


For music, I use MINIMSERVER uPNP software to serve FLACs and DSD files stored in those hard drives to a media player in the listening room below.


Minimserver is free-of-charge, easy to configure and can stream DSD files. No, it is not a player. It simply serves media. Good thing is that it is small (barely 1 megabyte and written in JAVA script) and consumes very little CPU resources (1-2%).


There are versions of Minimserver can run off a compatible NAS. More info here: http://minimserver.com/features.html

Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #4 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 06:23 PM »
Now back to the listening room and the gear. :)




Above: Loudspeakers are a pair of Bowers & Wilkins CM10 S2. They are powered by an Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 2 five channel amplifier that I purchased from Jason (Courage).




Above: Here's a close-up of the XPA-5 Gen 2. It is on a custom BB3 floor rack. Behind it is a Monster Powerlink 300 cable ending in Hubbell connectors, loaned to me by BB3 himself. The outlets go straight to the 3kW AVR outside the room (the third post from the top).




Above: Here is the listening chair and equipment rack beside it. The chair and rack were again, custom-made by BB3. They are darker than his usual works, based on my request. Fine work. Excellent craftsmanship. I'm very happy with them. :)




Above: Here's a close-up of the equipment. On top is a Cambridge Audio CXN network player / DAC. Below it is a Cambridge Audio CXC CD Transport (no audio outputs). Its digital out goes to the CXN. Below this is an Emotiva XSP-1 Gen 2 balanced preamplifier.




Above: Here's a view of the back. :)




Above: This is the back of the two Cambridge Audio components. From the left side, all power cords were upgraded to Boss Obet's (Narayan) Furukawa, with Ferrite Core filters. A Wi-Fi dongle that came with the CXN is plugged into one of its USB ports. I disabled it in the CXN setup because I am on a wired network. The bright blue wire in the middle is a CAT6 ethernet cable. It connects to a gigabit router in the upstairs bedroom, and is how music from gets to the CXN. Beside it are a violet and dark blue wire. These are coaxial and optical digital interconnects from the CD transport below. The CXN has a USB DAC which is unused. Finally, on the right side are the balanced XLR audio outputs. These go to the Emotiva XSP-1 preamp.




Above: Here is the input side of the Emotiva preamp. Since a lot of effort was spent soundproofing the room and making it acoustically friendly, I thought signal interconnects should be as quiet as possible. So I decided to forego RCA in favor of balanced XLR.

The balanced cables are DIY, from connectors and wires purchased from Audiophile in SM North EDSA. Fortunately their XLR plugs are NEUTRIK, a well-known brand. The cable is NOBELLE, a brand that is not really known, but another thread here at PinoyDVD favorably compares it to high-end balanced cables. Almost no audible difference from expensive US brands. :)




Above: Here is the output side of the Emotiva preamp. It has two pairs of stereo outputs that are active all the time. It has switchable bass management via a high-pass and low-pass crossovers. These are switched off. Since the amplifier between the speakers is far away (8-meters), balanced cables are used. Again, Neutrik plugs and Nobelle wire, DIY soldered. Color-coded stickers are on the wires to identify the channels.




Above: This is the back of the amplifier. The Emotiva XPA-5 Gen 2 is a five-channel amplifier operating in bi-amp mode. It is powerful, producing 200W into 8Ω at 0.01% THD, all channels driven. Into 4Ω, it produces over 300W at 0.08% THD, also all channels driven. The two left channels power the left speaker and the two right channels power the right speaker. The middle channel is unused. In this photo, QED Performance Bi-wire is used. It was since upgraded to... :)




Above: Audioquest Rocket 33's. These use solid-core (not stranded) wire. Separate bass and treble wires go to separate channels of the XPA-5 five-channel amplifier. They are directional cables and there is a noticeable improvement over the QED Performance. Bass is tighter, vocals are more in focus and highs have more air. Perhaps this is expected as they cost more. Haha.. :)



A few final photos...







Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #5 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 06:25 PM »
Now for some tunes. :)




Above: Cambridge Audio has a handy app for both Android and iOS devices. It allows you to choose songs and put them into a queue. Album art is also displayed.

The Cambridge Audio CXN has a 4-inch full-color LCD display for album art and metadata. The format and bitrate of the song is also shown.


Here are some songs that I listen to. :)


































Thanks for viewing. :)

Offline Nelson de Leon

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #6 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 08:35 PM »
Ayan na! Congrats! As expected, always the best for tita Elco.

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Offline shoktongxxx

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #7 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 08:44 PM »
wow danda!

Offline flashDB

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #8 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 08:46 PM »
what a build! another inspiration...

Offline stickfighter

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #9 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 08:48 PM »
Finally you made a thread Elco. Nice to see you on the boards  ;) I have been given the opportunity to listen to this setup and this listening room is superb! We still have a date Elco with a bottle of wine as we listen to some great tracks! ;) Congrats! :)

Offline RastaSega

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #10 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 10:20 PM »
amaaaazzinnng mare!

Offline Nelson de Leon

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #11 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 10:20 PM »
Finally you made a thread Elco. Nice to see you on the boards  ;) I have been given the opportunity to listen to this setup and this listening room is superb! We still have a date Elco with a bottle of wine as we listen to some great tracks! ;) Congrats! :)
Sama niyo naman ako!!!

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Offline dencio105

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #12 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 10:36 PM »
Congrats for a very well thought out set up!

Offline vgsison

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #13 on: Sep 29, 2016 at 11:02 PM »
Any elco build is always well thought well executed. Galing!


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Offline sientobente

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #14 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 12:57 AM »
Fantabulous setup Tita! If it's from Elco, it must be good!

Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #15 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 02:14 AM »
Thanks very much, guys. I appreciate all the kind words. :)

Joseph, if you're in the area, drop by for a listen. The quietness of the room and isolation from noise make it easy to hear the difference between CD quality FLAC and DSD. :)

Master Nelson, ikaw din. You left some circular diffusers with me. When you pick them up, spare 30 minutes for a quick listen. Repositioning the speakers managed to cure the 100Hz hump I was telling you about. :)

Martin, game! Please bring the wine. I'll supply the tunes. :)

VG, salamas! Pero walang binatbat room ko sa LFA mo. Pashotgun naman minsan! Hehe.. :)



I would also like to thank a bunch of folks who helped. Without them, the build wouldn't turn out as well. :)

Offline Nelson de Leon

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #16 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 02:16 AM »
Sabay kaya ako kay stickfighter? Hehe?

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Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #17 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 02:25 AM »
Sabay kaya ako kay stickfighter? Hehe?

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Magyayakapan kami. Sabay ka rin? Hehe.. :)

Offline ninjababez®

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #18 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 03:44 AM »
nice :)
ninjababez online ..

Offline sientobente

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #19 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 04:01 AM »
nice :)
Naudition mo na idol yang kotse ni Tita. Yung malupit na FD with bookshelf-type fronts.

Offline elco

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #20 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 04:11 AM »
Audition? Sure! Just let me know when in advance. Banawe area. :)

Offline stickfighter

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #21 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 05:32 AM »
Martin, game! Please bring the wine. I'll supply the tunes. :)

Of course! I will message you once my schedule frees up ;)

Offline ninjababez®

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #22 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 07:17 AM »
Naudition mo na idol yang kotse ni Tita. Yung malupit na FD with bookshelf-type fronts.
sinong tita bro?  si elmer ba?
ninjababez online ..

Offline mykel18

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #23 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 08:25 AM »
Awesome build! I'm using Minimserver also for my other files on the PC since my NAS is currently full.


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Offline Courage

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #24 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 08:34 AM »
Awesomeness brader.... Ang gandaaaaa.... Kelan ba pwede bumisita dyan?
Walang Setup

Offline Nelson de Leon

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #25 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 08:39 AM »
Magyayakapan kami. Sabay ka rin? Hehe.. :)
I will bring breast petals. Hehe! Para hindi ka makaisa na naman. Hehe!

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Offline Stagea

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #26 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 10:31 AM »
Very nice room and setup. Congrats Elco!

Offline JoeyGS

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #27 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 10:52 AM »
What's nice about the build is that he was able to provide treatment for the square room.  Square room are just awful if left untreated.  I hope the treatment was able to tame or control the echoes and reverbs

Offline parasound

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #28 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 10:57 AM »
Very Nice..
Fullrange.. Fullrange.. Fullrange.. Fullrange

Offline Abad Santos 7

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Re: Elco's Listening Room Build
« Reply #29 on: Sep 30, 2016 at 11:07 AM »
Congrats... very well planed and build.

Cheers.