NEW ---The Maverick 2CC--- NEW
The Maverick 2's
The
Maverick 2C
The Subwoofer project
Theater Construction Notes:
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For the acoustic treatments of my theater, I used information I found through the Internet for almost every step of the way. I was going to paint the upper section of the walls and carpet the lower section, but after going on the AV Science Forum and talking with people, I found that the better solution would be to treat the walls. Here is a Word Document that shows it. To do this properly for a theater, it means that the bottom half of the wall (below ear level) should be absorbtive and the upper section should be reflective, with slight diffused properties. To accomplish this you install furring strips, basically 2" wide strips of 3/4" plywood or some other wood, that allows you to staple fabric to it later. The furring strips get screwed to the wall so they are secure enough for holding the fabric as it is applied and stretched as well as having wood trim nailed to it. Inside the furring strips is where you apply the sound-board that you can buy at Home depot on the bottom half.with 4 oz. polyester batting from Jo Ann Fabric stores on top of the sound-board. The sound-board gets trimmed with a utility knife and straight-edge to fit between the furring strips and then screwed to the wall. The batting gets stapled to the sound-board. The upper section of the walls receives 12 ounces of batting in one layer or two layers, 4 oz. batting and 8 oz. batting combined equals 12 oz. batting. This gets cut to fit and stapled to the sheetrock. All of this gets covered with Guilford of Maine FR-701 acoustically transparent fabric available from Silent Source for $15 per linear yard (66" wide). The fabric is stapled to the furring strips and is stretched as you go and staple to give a taut feel to it. The fabric seams are then covered with wood trim, I chose to use the baseboard/chair-rail/crown molding combination. I also decided to drop the crown molding down from the ceiling about 5 inches to allow for rope lighting to be installed in the tray that is created by the crown molding. This allows for some really nice indirect lighting while watching movies. Here is a diagram of how to do it: 
The pinkish piece is an angled piece of wood that allows the crown molding to be nailed to it as well as bringing the tray area up some. This makes mounting the crown molding easier and gives it support since you are not supporting it against the ceiling. |
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Instead of using the Home Depot sound-board, get 1" thick furring strips and John Mansville Insul-Shield 1" thick acoustic roll material. It comes in 4' wide by 100' long rolls and is much easier to apply than the sound-board. It is more expensive, about $300 compaired to $100 for the same size room. To install, you simply cut with scissors and hold in place with a few nails allowing the head of the nail to hold the piece in place. This also means that you need to use 16 ounces of batting on the top, but nothing down below ear level. If you have the luxury of working from scratch, one thing you can do to help absorb the sound and keep it in the theater is to do an offset stud wall. Here is a diagram if that: 
The bottom sill plate is a 2x6, the 2x4's are on 8" centers, offset. The sheetrock is 5/8" on the far side, 5/8" and then 1/2" on the inside. Add insulation in between the walls and this will help keep the sound in the room. |
| Additional notes:
-Buy an electric staple gun. For about $25 you can pull a trigger instead of having to squeze a handle to apply the staple. -Good scissors are a must for trimming the fabric. -Always measure twice and cut once, especially when cutting expensive moldings. |
If you have comments or suggestions, email me
