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Home Theater Systems |
Sound Proofing Solutions For Your Home Theater
Now that you have spent thousands of dollars on equipment to build the media
room of your dreams, I provide in-depth details on implementing an effective
soundproofing solution that will help you achieve two goals:
1. Keeping noise inside your home theater 2. Keeping exterior noises outside
of your home theater
If you live in a multi-dwelling building, it is likely that your neighbors
complain when you blast your stereo or favorite movie. Not only will you
appease your neighbors by properly soundproofing your home theater, it is
also easy to make your audio system sound as if it cost two times its actual
cost. (Side note: Don't you wish I told you this before you invested in your
equipment?)
Before I tell you the proper soundproofing techniques, you must first
understand a few principles of acoustics and soundproofing. For your home
theater, you must understand Sound Transmission Class (STC) to determine
what you desire for your home. In short, STC is the average decibels (dB)
lost through a barrier across the range of frequencies 125 Hz to 4000 Hz. A
high-end home theater will typically produce sounds as loud as 100 dB to 110
dB. To compare this, a quiet room typically hovers around 40 dB. To properly
balance this, the wall between the two rooms would require an STC rating of
60.
Typically, an interior wall composed of stud construction with drywall on
both sides has an STC rating of 30 to 34. If the separating wall were to
remain non-soundproofed, the dB in the room adjacent "quiet room" would
increase to 70 dB (100 - 30 = 70). Considering that a loud home theater, at
100 dB is too loud to hold a conversation, the adjacent room at 70 dB would
be too loud to hold a conversation.
One common misconception in soundproofing is that filling the wall with egg
cartons will reduce noise transmissions between rooms. In actuality, test
results have shown that filling your wall with egg cartons will not produce
any measurable reduction in sound transmission between rooms.
To achieve the best results, you should use the proper materials such as
faced acoustical foam, egg crate studio foam and mass loaded vinyl barrier.
One company that distributes these products is American Micro Industries
under their Soundproof FoamT brand at http://www.soundprooffoam.com.
Although you should not substitute the proper soundproofing materials with
unproven methods for noise reduction, there are a few combinations you can
use to improve the transmission of sound between rooms. Below is a table
outlining these:
Method Possible Reduction Add another layer of drywall 2 dB Put insulation
in wall 3 - 4 dB Plain foam barrier < 3 dB
Purely from an economical standpoint, egg crate studio foam is the cheapest
way to soundproof your room. For those desiring a properly soundproofed
room, it is recommended that mass loaded vinyl barrier be used in
combination with egg crate studio foam, or the more aesthetically pleasing
faced acoustical foam (available with in both black and white facing at
http://www.soundprooffoam.com).
While people have spent thousands of dollars soundproofing their rooms,
desired results can be achieved for as little as a few hundred dollars.
Soundproofing your home theater has become a do-it-yourself project with
only a few hours of time investment required.
About the Author:
Jesse Barron is with American Micro Industries, a global Distributor of
acoustic and soundproofing products. You may email him at jesse@americanmicroinc.com
or visit his company's Web site at http://www.americanmicroinc.com
You can reprint this article (if not stated otherwise above) on your website
or publication with notice and a link to
Article Courtesy of
http://www.zongoo.com
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