How to Build a Quiet Listening Room

A quiet room is the ideal music listening environment.

A listening room is a perfect addition to the home of a music lover, particularly one devoted to listening to music on a level higher than the average listening environment can provide. Music critics, producers, performers and experts in all fields of music can benefit greatly from a quiet listening room, as can anyone with a genuine interest in sound quality. Interior rooms without windows, such as closets, are ideal for this purpose due to their lack of exterior access.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic sheeting or vapor barrier material
• Stud finder
• Seam tape
• Carpentry stapler or hammer tacker
• Mattresses or soundproofing material
• 5-inch wood screws
• Washer
• Fabric
• Hooks

Instructions

1. Cover the entire interior surface of the listening room walls with plastic sheeting, stapling the plastic to the wall every 2 feet on each wall stud or in a 2-foot square grid around the room. Stretch the plastic tightly, stapling down all edges and in corners. Overlap the plastic when applying multiple sheets, giving at least 4 inches of extra for every seam. Cover the seams with seam tape to prevent the passage of sound between sheets.

2. Mark the location of the wall studs with a marker on the plastic sheeting after finding their locations with the stud finder. Set soundproofing material, cot mattresses or camping mattresses against the wall and drill them into the wall surface using 5-inch wood screws threaded through washers and lined up with the locations of the studs. Continue to line all walls, ceiling, floor and the door with this material.

3. Drape neutral-colored fabric over the baffling material and attach it to the baffling if possible using a stapler. Mount the fabric from hooks installed directly into the wall at the edges of the baffling material if it cannot accept staples.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a multi-chamber quiet room vent to the wall of the room by cutting out an opening for the vent and attaching it with caulking.

• The atmosphere within the listening room will be largely improved by the addition of comfortable seating.

• Position sound equipment within the room in a central location, attaching the speakers to various points around the room based on the manufacturer's recommendations.

• Plan the layout of the speakers prior to the installation of the sound baffling, and make the necessary attachment holes or hook setups so that the sound baffling can be installed around the speaker attachments.

• Ventilation must be provided for the room in some way, through a sound-restricted venting system.