Isolation (also known as soundproofing) is important for a variety of reasons. The most commonly recognized reason is to stop sound from bothering other people in the house or other people outside the room and the house/building.
A more important reason to soundproof is to stop sound from getting INTO the room. Why is this important? In a recording room setting, it’s critical to stop sound from contaminating what’s being recorded. In the control/mixing room, home theater or listening room, it’s important to keep the noise floor down to a minimum so it’s not masking details and limiting the dynamic range of the room / equipment “system.:
Let’s look at an example:
Let’s say you have a home theater system which is capable of 100 dB peak output. In a normal room, the noise floor will usually be say 50 dB. Things like HVAC fans, dishwashers running, people walking, sound coming through windows, etc. all contribute to this. In this case, the maximum dynamic range the room/system can achieve is 50 dB (100 dB max minus 50 dB noise floor where sound will be masked by the noise).
Now, if we build a room and pay attention to the isolation / soundproofing, we can hopefully get the noise floor down to say 20-30 dB. If its 30 dB and we have the same equipment, we now have a maximum dynamic range of 70 dB (100 dB max minus the 30 dB noise floor). This results in more dynamic range, less need to turn things up as loud to hear small details and harmonics, etc.
Sound travels between rooms in 2 ways:
Sound traveling through the air is relatively easy to understand. Any holes you have in the room are sound leaks. Outlets, switches, can lights, gaps under doors, HVAC ducting, etc. are all excellent sound transmission paths.
Sound moving through the structure is much less understood. Sound vibrates your walls, your floor and ceiling, your tin ducting, etc. All of those things are connected to other parts of the building. When they are caused to vibrate by the sound in your room, the other side or what they’re connected to also vibrate and recreate that sound in other parts of the building. Even solid concrete basement floors are a flanking path for sound to get to the rest of the structure. (Flanking is a term used to describe a path by which sound ‘goes around’ the boundary of the space.)
So, how do we deal with these issues of when you install soundproofing? The answer is “It depends.” It depends on your budget, your situation, whether the room is already built or not, what your required level of performance is, etc.
It is also important to use the right soundproofing materials. Acoustical panels or foam are great to absorb noise within a space, but do very little to block sound and actually help soundproof a room.
Let’s look at a scenario:
Existing room to be used for a listening room or home theater in a home. Bedrooms are not directly next to this room but are close enough that sound transmission is an issue.
Level 1 Soundproofing
Level 2 Soundproofing
Level 3 Soundproofing
Level 4 Soundproofing
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