Ceiling Walls

[shadowlight]

In the process of finishing the basement and need some clarification on ceiling walls.  Is it better to have ceiling height consistent across the whole room or is it ok to have ups and down.  The way the ceiling is currently being built I have about 8" from the top of the right speaker LS6 and about 20" for the left speaker.  I thinking I should have same height but what does the group thing about that?

[BobM]

In general non-parallel surfaces are always a good thing.

[shadowlight]

In general non-parallel surfaces are always a good thing.

Layman's term please

[richidoo]

What matters more than the ceiling height above the speakers is the height of the ceiling spots where the tweeters reflect to your listening seat. Which is to say the spot where you would see the tweeters from your listening seat if the ceiling was covered in mirrors.    If the two spots are pretty close in height it will merely blur the ceiling reflection a little which is OK. If  the two spots are significantly different height then it could confuse the imaging illusion and sense of height. You could try a diffusor up there if you want to maximize the 2 channel experience. Since you put this in the HT ward it should not be a big issue for HT.  If the total distance from tweeter up to ceiling and back to you is 20 feet or more it's no biggie. If it is only 10 feet, then a diffusor might be helpful to imaging.

[mfsoa]

I think one of the good things about the LS-6s is that they have limited vertical dispersion, and will interact less w/ ceiling and floor boundaries than conventional speakers would. So maybe the height diff won't matter so much.

So how's the construction going overall?

[shadowlight]

What matters more than the ceiling height above the speakers is the height of the ceiling spots where the tweeters reflect to your listening seat. Which is to say the spot where you would see the tweeters from your listening seat if the ceiling was covered in mirrors.    If the two spots are pretty close in height it will merely blur the ceiling reflection a little which is OK. If  the two spots are significantly different height then it could confuse the imaging illusion and sense of height. You could try a diffusor up there if you want to maximize the 2 channel experience. Since you put this in the HT ward it should not be a big issue for HT.  If the total distance from tweeter up to ceiling and back to you is 20 feet or more it's no biggie. If it is only 10 feet, then a diffusor might be helpful to imaging.

2-channel is the primary usage of the room so want to maximize the setup for that.  HT is after thought for me.

[BobM]

In general non-parallel surfaces are always a good thing.

Layman's term please

If the cieling is tilted at an angle and the floor is flat, then they are not parallel to each other and there will be variable reflections and little reinforcement of any given frequency. If you can do that with your side walls and front-back walls also it would be a good thing.

That's why you see so many speakers with curved sides and not a square or rectangle. No parallel surfaces.

[shadowlight]

I think one of the good things about the LS-6s is that they have limited vertical dispersion, and will interact less w/ ceiling and floor boundaries than conventional speakers would. So maybe the height diff won't matter so much.

So how's the construction going overall?

Build out is coming along.  Uploaded some pictures to the gallery.  Here is what I mean about the uneven ceiling:

http://www.audionervosa.com/index.php?action=mgallery;sa=media;id=759

If you take a look at the picture the right side speaker is going to end up close (2' away) to the curved duct  work that you see.  The left side is going to be to the right left of the light currently hanging there.

[evan1]

Bump it out Dee . It's not that bad

[richidoo]

Looks like the height  at the reflection will be the same for both speakers. Is that right?

[evan1]

Looks like the height  at the reflection will be the same for both speakers. Is that right?

1 part of his ceiling will be 8 inches above 1 speaker and 20 above the other,but the 8 in will only go about 4 ft out

[shadowlight]

Looks like the height  at the reflection will be the same for both speakers. Is that right?

1 part of his ceiling will be 8 inches above 1 speaker and 20 above the other,but the 8 in will only go about 4 ft out

Correction on the 4 ft.  Just measured it and it is 7.5 ft.

[richidoo]

Line source shouldn't be a big deal.

[tmazz]

I redid the ceiling in my basement mancave a little over two years ago. One of the things that I did that was a big improvement for relatively little money was stapling 30 lb roofing tar paper between the joists to the 1st floor flooring.It didn't change the SQ in the listening room by much, but it did drastically cut down on the sound leakage to the rest of the house, which was a big win in the marital harmony department.  

The tar paper itself was pretty cheap (less than 1$100 did the whole room) But it was a bit time consuming cutting it and putting it up. If you do decide to do this I would strongly recommend getting either an electric stapler or a small compressor and an air gun because you will need a whole lot of staples and pulling on one of those spring loaded Arrow stale guns will get old in a hurry.

This method gives you tree separate layers of sound dampening (the tar paper, the ceiling itself and the air gap between them) and it really helped me out a lot. I don't know this from experience, but I did read that this works better than stuffing fiberglass insulation between the joists because the physical contact between the insulation and the ceiling and the insulation and the floor above and act as a sound conduit.I'm not sure how much more that insulation will conduct over and above what is getting transmitted through the joists, but that's what I read (Hey - it was on the internet, it has to be true   ) But I can say that the paper and the air gap worked really well for me.

[shadowlight]

Planning to add R13 in the walls and R19 insulation in the ceiling with 5/8" sheetrock, which I hope will cut down on the noise leakage