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Re: [CQ-Contest] Soundproofing?

To: k9yc@arrl.net
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Soundproofing?
From: Tom Hellem <tom.hellem@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2021 14:54:29 -0600
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Yes I should have added that when this heavy membrane stuff is employed,
the quality of the installation is critical. We have consulted with sound
engineers
on it and they always recommend taping, caulking, sealing all joints and
penetrations.
It's hard to imagine that small cracks, butt joints, joints at corners,
etc. would
make that much difference, but it does.
We recently completed a house where the entire finished basement was sound
proofed
with the membrane, both on the walls and the ceiling. You absolutely cannot
hear
a person making noise in an adjacent room. It even cuts off the sound of
footsteps
overhead. It's so quiet inside the space, it feels like you're walking
around with a
pair of super noise cancelling headphones on.

Tom
K0SN

On Thu, Nov 4, 2021 at 2:11 PM Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com> wrote:

> GM Steve,
>
> In that case, the advice from K0SN is in the right direction. But that
> part of soundproofing can be quite difficult, especially for low
> frequency sounds. Sound can leak through holes or gaps in the sort of
> sound proofing that he describes.
>
> Sound is air vibrating, and it goes through walls by making them
> vibrate. That's where mass comes in, making it more difficult for them
> to vibrate. Low frequency sounds are the most difficult to block. Higher
> frequencies are easier. We can beef up walls, but sound leaks through
> doors, even when closed.
>
> I designed sound systems for major projects -- theaters, churches,
> stadiums, jazz clubs -- and was working closely with heavy duty acoustic
> consultants whose job it was to both make the room ultra quiet and to
> make it sound good for listening to music. Over the years, I learned a
> lot by paying attention.
>
> Inside rooms, sound bounces off all the surfaces, conserving its energy
> and making it louder. Sound sources (speakers, for example) couple to
> surfaces they're mounted on, making them vibrate, and the sound they
> make bounces off of surfaces. We can reduce the overall level of sound
> in rooms by making as much of that surface area "soft," and
> concentrating on surfaces near the sound source and that the source is
> pointed at. Surfaces that speakers are sitting on will be vibrated by
> the sources, and we can reduce that by placing thick soft "stuff"
> between the speaker and the surface. All of this reduces the overall
> sound level in the room, so there's less to leak out through walls,
> windows, and doors. In one project I worked on, the Staple Center, lots
> of large, thick fiberglass bats mounted to both sides of plywood are
> suspended from the ceiling for this purpose.
>
> Doors need to be heavy, and the seals need to be very good. Studios and
> entertainment spaces have heavy double doors, with space between them.
> Vibration through walls is minimized by building "rooms within rooms,"
> where the studio sits on carefully calibrated springs, and the room has
> no connection with walls of adjacent spaces.
>
> Sound also leaks through HVAC ducts.
>
> So -- I would start with "fuzz" -- thick layers of sound absorption on
> walls you're facing, use headphones rather than speakers, beef up the
> walls as K0SN has suggested, look at doors and windows. The cheapest
> effective "fuzz" for walls is thick fiberglass facing the wall. I used
> that in the house I owned in Chicago -- there was a fabric store that
> would build a frame to which they would mount their decorative fabric. I
> put thick fiberglass on it and hung it from a wall. On another wall, I
> hung a decorative shaggy rug with fiberglass behind it. In my shack here
> in W6, I've sat my power amps on soft "stuff" and put "fuzz" on the
> walls behind them to minimize fan noise.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
> On 11/4/2021 10:46 AM, k7lxc@aol.com wrote:
> >  >  Define "soundproof." Do you mean to prevent outside sound from coming
> > in, or do you want to prevent it from reflecting sound that hits it from
> > inside the room?
> > Hiya, Jim -
> >      I don't care what happens in the shack. I want to keep my noise out
> > of the adjacent room and keep their noise out of the shack. I want to be
> > able to operate a phone contest and not disturb the neighbors.  I want
> > to be able to operate in relative privacy - it's a shared wall.
> >      And it should be cheap. I don't need a sophisticated expensive
> > solution. So far another layer or 2 of wallboard may be the way to go
> > according to my feedback so far. Thoughts?
> > Cheers and tnx!
> > Steve     K7LXC
> > PS - I bought a bunch of "acoustic" tiles which appear to be a bunch of
> > holes bonded together. I put 3 layers on each ear and figured there was
> > about 1 dB attenuation. Pretty useless.
>
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