soundproof

Amateur tinkerer Ian Anderson works in a wood shop and wears earphones to protect himself against a constant exposure to loud noises. To add a little music to his day, Anderson considered buying a set of noise-canceling headphones before committing to make a better pair himself.

Anderson started with a pair of Koss KSC75 clip-on style titanium stereophones that feature the same 60-ohm drivers found on the highly regarded Koss Porta-Pro model.

He embedded the KSC75s into a pair of Peltor 105 Professional Noise Cancelling Earmuffs using the tools in his garage and came up with a 3.5mm-compatible stereo … Read more

I occasionally get e-mails asking about cheap and easy ways to soundproof a listening room. Readers want to minimize the amount of bass and sound leaking into neighboring apartments or rooms in a house from their home theater.

Bona-fide soundproofing is neither cheap or easy. Anything short of building a "floating" (isolated) recording studio type listening room won't totally soundproof a room. You see, a floating room's ceiling, walls, and floor are acoustically and structurally isolated from its surroundings. Prices vary, but plan on investing at least $10,000 for a professionally installed floating room. After the floating room construction techniques, you can attain more limited success with double sheetrock on the walls. That is, install new double sheetrock walls with an air gap between them and the original walls. Double sheetrock can make a big difference, but it's still far from a cheap or easy solution.

A friend put a layer of lead sheeting under his apartment's finished wood floors to reduce bass transmission to the floor below. It worked, but I'm not so sure about the health concerns from living around that much lead.

But I do have a few tips to reduce sound leakage from one room to another, or between floors of a house or apartment that won't break the bank.

Before we go any further, let's define our goals: sound isolation isn't the same thing as improving room acoustics (I'll cover that in another blog).

Sound is transmitted from one room to another either through structure borne vibrations (wall, ceiling, or floor movement), or through the air. Thick carpets or wall pads won't do much in the way of soundproofing, but they may improve sound quality in the room.… Read more

The "Cone of Silence" finally comes to life! The "WhisperRoom" is created by attaching 1-inch-thick soundproof walls called "Seam Seals" that are designed to keep your conversations private from those snoops you're certain are listening in. (It will also provide much-needed sanctuary from the noisy brats next door when the Ritalin wears off.)

For added security, you can bolt on ceilings and floors as well, essentially creating a room within a room. Red Ferret says prices start at $2,760, but we know that cost is no barrier when it comes to keeping … Read more