Acoustic Solutions

For Your Home Theater Room or Entertainment Room

If you’ve been dreaming of building a soundproof entertainment room in your home, we are here to help! Whether you’d like a home theater where you can watch your favorite action movies full blast, a space for entertaining guests while the family sleeps or even an area where you can learn to play the drums and finally start that band, our selection has everything you need. This article will describe a typical soundproofing solution that involves building a room within a room to contain the sound within your home entertainment room. While this is the most ideal solution, there are a variety of home theater acoustic treatments that will make your space more enjoyable, even when you are unable to build a room within a room.

Existing walls in a typical building are inadequate to contain sound that exceeds 110 dB. Ideally, there should be a combination of concrete wall and metal stud or wood stud walls finished with gypsum (drywall). The studded wall may include thermal insulation that is nearly transparent to sound. So that you can assess your specific needs, it is important that we share some technical information that will help you understand the soundproofing system.

Sound in dB

So how do you reduce noise in a home theater, and what is needed to get the sound down to a level that is acceptable? Well, to answer that question, let's look at a few decibel (dB) levels that will serve to guide your decision.

As you can see, it is desirable to get the sound level below the surroundings in your area. In most cases, it may be acceptable to reduce the sound to around 50 dB.

Soundproofing System

There is a standard unit of measure that rates the performance of soundproofing materials and surface (walls, panels, ceiling, floor) assemblies. Sound Transmission Class (STC) measures the transmission loss in dB between two rooms. There is a source room where the sound originates, then a target room where the sound is measured. Measurements are taken at various frequencies to arrive at a single unit of measure that is assigned to the material or assembly. Concrete walls have a higher STC than a typical 2x4 stud wall.

The next step is to identify a soundproofing solution with an STC rating that will contain your music and keep your neighbors happy.

Let's assume that the music emitted from the movies in your entertainment room is around 115 dB. Building a room within a room using the appropriate home theater soundproofing products with an STC rating of 65 or higher will lower the sound below the level of background music.

With this in mind, SoundAway recommends the following wall assembly for your room-within-a-room soundproofing system.

Building a Room Within a Room

• Start by framing a 2x4 wall at least 1 to 2 inches away from your existing exterior wall. (figure 1)
• Install UltraTouch Acoustic cotton fiber insulation. (figure 2)
• Install SoundAway Sound Isolation Clips. (figure 4)
• Install drywall furring channel, DWFC. (figure 5)
• Install 5/8" drywall. (figure 6) leaving a perimeter gap not exceed ¼”
• Fill gap with Acoustical Caulk Sealant
• Apply two to three tubes of Green Glue to a second sheet of 5/8" drywall. (figure 7)
• Fasten the second sheet of drywall to the first sheet. (figure 8) leaving ¼” perimeter gap
• Fill gap with Acoustical Caulk Sealant

Home Theater Sound Absorption & Acoustics

Once you have contained the sound to keep it inside your entertaining space, you now need to consider tuning it inside the room for a clean sound that is free from reverberations and echo. Reflections from hard surfaces such as concrete floors, drywall, metal or wood will reverberate, resulting in a muffled and possibly unintelligible sound. At SoundAway, we offer a large selection of acoustical fire-retardant foams and wall panels to help you fine-tune the sound in your room. Our large selection of acoustical products includes just about everything needed to get the job done right.

To determine what soundproofing materials are needed for your project, measure the width, length and height of your room. Then contact our team of experts and we'll help you calculate material quantities, draft a quote and determine the most cost-effective shipping method.

Call our toll-free number: 866-768-6381. We'll customize a solution to significantly reduce the noise.