soundproofing my bedroom?
Hi,
I'm a night time gamer and enjoy gaming in 5.1 surround sound. The problem? my family despise my speakers and gaming habits because of it. I hate using headphones to play but want to soundproof my room. Does anyone know of any special stuff that can be fit between the walls? my room was plastered and painted like 2 years ago so tearing it down for nailing in those acoustic pads would be a no go but from the loft i could slip extra materials in. I'm just wandering if there's anything that's like insullation but have really good sound proofing properties.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
The bass will be what carries the most, and potentially you can isolate that a bit, but not really. Headphones are your only real option.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Without a lot of work your only real option is a good set of headphones. I started having to wear them due to the need of a headset but now much prefer to play with my Astro A40's than with speakers - I play better with them as well as it's easier to hear movement with them.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
You could try lining your bedroom walls with these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-Acoustic.../dp/B006I1J25E
Or here
http://www.efoam.co.uk/acoustic.html
However you will need to raise the speakers off the floor to reduce vibration through the structure of the house via the floor joists. You need to ensure that the foam is fire retardent as foam may give off lethal fumes when it burns.
You will also get low frequency sound transmitted through the window - if that is a problem you could get an acoustically insulating window made.
http://www.ceswindows.co.uk/windows/...ws/index.shtml
Is just one company.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
erudito87
I hate using headphones to play
Any reason why? A decent set of headphones should be comfy to wear and give you comparable sounds.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Sound proofing your room would be a very expensive exercise. Simple things are to seal it well, as air gaps are the easiest way sound is transmitted - get foam/fluffy draft insulation around your door, use draft excluders etc.
Then it's about your speakers - downsize and make more directional. Get rid of the subwoofer as bass is both less directional and also travels through floors etc. more easily. Go for tighter fronts that give you the impression of bass without actually needing low frequencies. Make sure directionality is towards walls that aren't shared with the rest of the house if possible, and break up the reflectivity of the wall the sound is pointing at.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
You won't be able to isolate your 5.1 noise without extensive alterations, installation of resilient mounts, panel absorbers and similar. There's a whole design guide dedicated to achieving acoustic isolation between properties - and to try to achieve it on internal partitions is nigh-on impossible without serious rebuilding of your flat. It would be easier to build yourself a perspex drum enclosure on a raised dampened floor and play your games in that. Fit some form of cooling though, those things get HOT. Fans won't work - they'd reinstate the acoustic pathway. You'd need to set it up as a fridge, with the heat getting dumped outside of the booth, preferably to the outside.
Got to say I just use headphones. Not ideal I agree, as I like to play music from my hifi too at the same time (which headphones prevents) but it is far easier than upsetting the neighbours.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Thanks for the input. It looks like I need to get some headphones. My main problem with them is that I dont like wearing bulky headphones but would need to if I want 5.1. Any recommendations on a good 5.1 pair(wireless preferable but not absolutely necessary) that would work on my ps3 too but also can play dts?
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Are you sure you need 5.1 headphones? I have a reasonable pair, (forget the model name one of the high end asus ROG ones) and actual find I'm not using them, I prefer my Grados. positioning isn't really a problem I find.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
My vote will always be for the Astro's - http://www.astrogaming.co.uk/a50-wir...SET-ASTRO.html
Expensive but hey it will still be cheaper than sound proofing :P
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
+1 to herulach - I just use some standard hi-fi headphones with the onboard mobo sound driver set to headphones and it sounds great.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
You could asjust your night time gaming habits :P I joke. I don't really think you have many options here and I cant think of anything that hasn't already been suggested. Though I do think proper surround sound trumbs headsets.. I find positioning of targets through footsteps and other noises to be extremely accurate. Must admit since I stopped playing COD:MW2 and moved to Skyrim there hasn't been any real advantage of it :L
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Luke7
You could asjust your night time gaming habits :P I joke. I don't really think you have many options here and I cant think of anything that hasn't already been suggested. Though I do think proper surround sound trumbs headsets.. I find positioning of targets through footsteps and other noises to be extremely accurate. Must admit since I stopped playing COD:MW2 and moved to Skyrim there hasn't been any real advantage of it :L
but that's the thing, I get directional sound on my cans - not sure what does it, there is some mobo/driver trickery going on I'm sure, but I get the sounds of footsteps coming from behind and can hear direction of grenades going off etc.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ik9000
but that's the thing, I get directional sound on my cans - not sure what does it, there is some mobo/driver trickery going on I'm sure, but I get the sounds of footsteps coming from behind and can hear direction of grenades going off etc.
As do I - just with the standard mobo sound, but set to 5.1. Infact most '5.1' gaming headsets only have 2 speakers, and do a half decent job of positioning.
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
lol adjusting my habits are easier said than done.
Wow those astro headphones are expensive.
What do people think about the g930(around £80 on ebay)? I dont care about mic as i seldom chat in online games but would i get surround sound etc?
Re: soundproofing my bedroom?
Back in my day we used to put egg boxes on the wall for soundproofing.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_RzbVbx_mJ-0/SX...0/image069.jpg
Everything else I can think of makes me sound very old.