Blank Canvas - Point me in the right direction please

[markpf]

I've read through a lot of excellent advice in these forums, but as a complete clueless novice, I need help.....

I have a basement room, 8m x 4.3m x (only) 2.1m high, currently I have stripped it back to the bare breezeblock.

I intend to put a projector screen at one end and suspend the projector from the ceiling at about 3m or so with the viewing position directly underneath.

My questions are around the setup....

I intend to use rockwool, plasterboard, Green Glue, plasterboard on the walls, and rockwool, plasterboard on the ceiling.
I have read recommendations to put carpet on the walls as a sound absorber I don't like the idea of this much aesthetically - I have also seen the threads on profoam - If I was to use this how much would I need ?

Also what would anyone recommend for the floor (currently concrete) given the lack of height I can't have too much thickness ?

I also want to future proof as much as possible while I have carte-blanche with the cabling - could I fit two 7.1 surround back speakers in the ceiling behind the listening position ?

Sorry for all the questions at once, don't want to make any mistakes before I start.

[Steve Collier]

I can't answer many of your questions, but in a similar situation I laid laminate flooring onto the concrete. I think the professional layer put some thin foam from a roll in between. Secondly, I found that normal furnishings helped the acoustics OK, once I had some curtains, media racks, sofa, bookcases, etc. Rugs actually made any bass boom sound worse since they in fact suck out more of the mid. I think the same would apply to carpeting, whether on the floor or everywhere.

A few remaining problems were cleared up with some acoustic foam sheets at first reflection points on side walls, front wall and ceiling, a partial home-made corner trap, and a subwoofer with digital room correction.

I'm not a fan of in-wall speakers since my system is always changing so I have carte blanche to trail cables behind a kind of double skirting board in a trough.

[mattym]

looking at a plot of the room sizes you gave, the mid/low end is the area you will need to deal with most, so profoad layered will take care of the 100 - 300hz, it wont go any lower than that though, a problem at around 80hz will require something else to treat.

[markpf]

Thanks guys....

For the foam, what would you recommend in terms of coverage, i.e. to what height and what portion of the walls ?
Are we taking about a metre high, wall behind the screen, side walls as far as the viewing position (3m ish) ?

Like the idea of laminate flooring as opposed to carpet, I thought the idea was as much "soft" material as possible hence the carpet was my first thought.

[mattym]

some people place the foam at the bottom half, some the middle, the foam is 1200 in length.

If you have LF issues and treat the HF, you will accentuate the LF and make it worse, so sometimes placing rugs and carpets down just places an emphasis on the problems. if you like a laminate floor, buy a rug for it!