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| Noise control and sound isolation can be one of the most important components to a great sound room and listening environment. It does you little good, if when the air conditioner kicks on, or someone walks around in the room above your home theater or media room you hear these interuptions. Ideally we would like the noise criteria to be around 20. This is just at about the level of human hearing. In many environments this can be very difficult to achieve, but with proper planning and acoustical engineering and design it can be done.
The quieter the room is, the better every detail, every nuance throughout the movie or musical experience is heard. You perceive better dynamics, and more inner detail than you ever though imaginable. It's also far easier to relax in a quiet environment without distraction.
Noise control, or environmental acoustics may sound new to you, but in fact you already have a similar experience with video that you can use to understand how important this is. Imagine going to a movie theater where they didn't turn down the house lights. What would the picture look like? Washed out and dull, without the contrast for a great picture. Sound is the same as light in this respect. If we can't make the background noise very quiet, then the sound we want to hear will be washed out, without the contrast and dynamics we would like. Here's an extreme example. Imagine going to a movie theater that didn't have a roof in the middle of the day. You probably couldn't even see the image on the screen. Now imagine trying to listen to your stereo in the middle of Times Square. Probably couldn't hear a thing either!
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A chain is only as strong
as it's weakest link... |
This is a very good analogy for sound isolation or noise control. When isolating a room from external sound or conversely keeping the sound in the room, so that others in the home are not disturbed by Bruce Willis blowing up the world in your home theater, one must consider what the weakest link is.
Usually the problem is not in the design, but in the execution of the design. For example, if you create a sound barrier at the ceiling and then the decorator goes in and puts in recessed can lighting, they've cut a hole right through the sound barrier. This will become the weakest link, and all the money paid for sound isolation is thus wasted. You must be sure that plans are followed very precisely for sound isolation to be effective. You won't regret it.
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| Articles on Sound Isolation and Noise Control
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