What does your dream listening room look like?

I had some meetings cancel this morning and found myself with some free time and a notebook with grid-lines nearby. Started sketching out the dream listening room I've had in my head for awhile.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one here who has fantasized about what I might build if funds were unlimited. My sketch is below and I'm adding some pics of designs that inspired my thinking.

Let's see yours!!!



My dream room would be on the giant size and be horn-based. No tiny room for me.

I've always felt that the room should be designed such that it is part of the speakers, so my dream room would take this approach.

Ideally, the very low bass would be a part of the structure of the building and be poured concrete. A friend helped design a giant horn system where the low frequencies vented from the floor in front of the listening position.

I like that approach, but would rather have the vents coming from the ceiling. Obviously, that would be far more challenging and expensive to pull off, but this is a "dream" room, so practicality is thrown out the window here.

A lot of the inspiration for me came from these giant horn systems that integrate the horns into the walls. This design from a guy in China really nailed the front wall aesthetic I've had in my head.



I've seen a few additional design sketches for this room, but can't share. This guy nailed so many of the design ideas I've had in my head and his room is gonna be among the world's coolest when finished. Hopefully he will share the finished room pics.

In my mind, the rest of the horns would sit in the throat (time/phase aligned) and the shape of the curves would help radiate the sound waves to (hopefully) create a wider-than-normal sweet spot. I don't care too much about imaging, but obviously I'd want the front wall to help with that.

I'd want the front wall curves to gradually become part of the sidewalls, so the room would flare out wider than this guy did (assuming this makes sense acoustically).

The overall aesthetics of the room would be inspired by the bar from the casino scene of Black Panther.

When I saw this movie in the theater, this scene was kinda distracting for me because I immediately started thinking about how this was exactly the look and feel I wanted for my dream room (but obviously scaled down a bit).



I also always wanted built-in curved shelves for record storage. I wasn't sure how to make this work with my other goal of having a bar in the room, but that turned out to be easily solved by making the bar round.

Ideally the bar would serve double duty as acoustic treatments (primarily diffraction, but absorption if needed).

One thing you may notice is that the equipment is not out in the room. Since this is a "dream" room and system, I'm less concerned about practicality.

What I do want is all custom built electronics that match the various horns I implement. What I would love is essentially 3 different electronics systems all matched to the drivers & horns but taking different approaches. Ideally, I would just move the speaker cables to whichever "system" I wanted to use at the time. Something like this aesthetic is what I would do for the wall of electronics...





So that's my dream room & system. Obviously, not super practical, but maybe one day I can build it.

What would you create?

 

A shed with a midi system

 

I admire your lofty far-east-esque goals Brian! I wouldn't mind hanging out in your dream room. For my own space I'd want something homey. This guys on Audiogon nails it for me:

 

Mine would probably look like a planetarium mixed with some opium den/orgy room decor.

And of course it would have plenty of room “treatments”!

 

I don't know. Every time I wake up I see my room, and the dream vanishes...Dagnabbit!

To be honest though, my dream listening room would most likely NOT be perfect sonic chamber.
I would want a room many could enjoy, that could also house my dream gear with enough space to let them breathe should the desire hit me.

 

Rectangle with shag carpet a few windows and wood treatments. Oh and lava lamps. Mainly a rectangle.

 

I would like a room that allows enough space to walk behind the components. All components, except amps, would be about 4ft high. This makes it easy for maintenance. I want a fairly large room, but not cavernous. The room would be professionally measured and treated. Side rooms for media storage and record cleaning. Of course a bathroom off to the side. Room would need a small wet bar with a Kegerator. Room would be sound proofed from other parts of the house or maybe separated from the house with a closed walkway to enter from the house. Air conditioning and heat would be configured so that no sound enters the room. The room would need some windows with a nice view.

 

Definitely something smaller than what you envision, but recreating a live music venue is not high on my priority list. In fact, I own only only a couple dozen "live" albums.

The room would have either a mid-century modern or steam punk vibe. The latter would definitely be the "dream" room, as that sort of gear often commands stratospheric prices.

The room size would likely be similar to what I have now, but a taller ceiling. Any corners would have built-in bass traps, and I would integrate the decor in the diffusion/ absorption plan.


Fun thread. Thanks.

 

Love it!!!!!!

 

People will sleep through your orgy with all that opium!!!

 

Love this. I am working through a room re-build right now, in the design phase. When I think two channel room my thinking drifts to space designed for optimum acoustics. Then, I look Jtycho's pics from Agon and think maybe a visually stimulating room would be better. Somewhere in between is where I need to end up. I can't wait to see what other post.

 

Like that of SME

 

Walk behind your system.... that would be great.

 

My dream room need only have a female, middle aged Jesus and Mary Chain fan and me making dinner.

 

Something like this but with a pair of monkey coffins:



I'd want it small enough to be cozy, intimate, but large enough to support speakers big enough to present a decent sense of scale.

 

Except beautiful wood shelves would have records and cds.

 

This one doesn't suck.

 

And no tables.

 

A big a$$ window view of the lake!

 

This response will likely getting buried, but I'm curious if anyone knows of any free/cheap software for doing 3 dimensional higher fidelity room design mockups.

 

I try to be realistic about "the room" and stick to affordable designs that I can own instead of "castles in the sky."
I try to choose a room that my system will LOVE the acoustics.
I want my result to bring the performance into my house in 3D (Stereo is really 3D when recorded properly).
If I succeed then I get to listen to a couple million dollars of talent and sound and have a time machine that takes me back to being a fly on the wall when Miles Davis performed "Kind of Blue."
And the price of the room doesn't matter so much.
It is now a two million dollar room because of the performances I can hear in it!
My priorities which I think are affordable:
1) A view of something interesting behind the speakers as I will be pointed at them for hours at a time.
This could be a large picture window, or a fireplace for example. Just NOT a TV as TV shuts out concentration on talking and music and being civilized doesn't belong there.
2) Comfortable furniture that doesn't interfere with the soundstage being formed.
I want a place to put a drink down although this does mess up the front soundfield as it is always preferable to not have anything in front of my chair but the speakers and their back wall.
3) A cabinet that is remote located and NOT in between the speakers where it messes up the soundfield. The more remote (yet accessable) that the gear is the less my turntable will be subject to feedback for instance. This is why God made balanced cables by the way. For long runs without noise.
4) Good lighting that sets a mood. Obviously a lava lamp must be in the plans somewhere!
5) Some good weed to help with channel separation.
6) Tons of great performances to savor.
That is my basic list and it is affordable and do-able even on a tight budget.
The attention to speaker placement comes first of course.
This may dictate what kind of furniture I will need AFTER the room is singing.
But that doesn't cost a lot and thrift stores are your friend.
My two cents.

 

I keep the TV in a different room. I don't want it co-mingling with my music system.

 

Have you tried Sketchup?

 

I'll preface this by saying there are a lot of times I'm more or less in the mood to listen to music when I don't because I don't feel like being in that room. A lot has to do with positioning of windows, some times of day its sunny and cheerful and others its a dark cave. Where as others implement acoustic treatments, I look for "lighting treatments" of various sorts.

So where I'm going with this is I don't think I'd want to spend much time in a purpose-built room designed for sound first with acoustic treatments everywhere and such. I'd rather have a cozy space where I can get lost in the music. No, it's not mutually exclusive, but I've removed acoustic treatments in the past because I thought they made the room less inviting.

 

Are you looking for strictly room design software like Sketchup to do floor plans or something that will model acoustic properties?
The later can be extremely expensive and take years to learn but I've played around with programs like EASE Focus and Meyer's MAPP XT for free just to see what they do.
There are lots of options for floor plan software but Sketchup is probably your best best as there is a great library of pre-designed furniture, etc. which is also free.