Will bass traps help reduce sound travel through the home?

[heboil]

Hi everyone.

I have a home theater/listening room in my basement. I have treated the wall reflection points, have carpet, acoustic tile (+ air gap and then roxul in the joists), solid core door, wrapped the HVAC pipes with insulation and have my basement HVAC only connected to my main floor (my 2nd floor has a separate furnace and HVAC system).

The room is pretty silent while listening on the second floor, but if I'm booming away, you can still hear traces of what I am listening to. Sound travel appears worse with music as it is constant if at a substantial volume).

I haven't added bass traps into my room. Aside from what it will do sonically by reducing reflections, will the addition of bass traps reduce the bass that is escaping into the other floors of my house? I would instinctively think not (or not much), but if the purpose of the bass trap is to absorb bass, would it absorb "some" of the bass that is traveling through the house?

TIA.

Thanks.

 

[Moonbase]

It’s most likely your hvac system allowing sound to transfer to other rooms. It’s very hard to prevent this happening and need some ceiling/floor decoupling to prevent.

 

[Bjorn]

The answer is basically no. Sound isolation or transfer to other rooms requires a different approach.

 

[DVDdoug]

They should help a little, especially with the resonances (standing wave anti-nodes). But they are absorbing the otherwise-reflected bass so you still have bass in the room that can vibrate the walls. it might get worse at the nodes where the waves no longer cancel...

 

[Dunring]

Low frequency bass can go through solid walls, like hearing a car coming with a subwoofer and all you hear is the bass bumping away. Quietrock drywall absorbs 7 times more than the same thickness of regular stuff. I've used it and it really works. Putting a layer over existing is possible with longer screws and bakers scaffolds and a gypsum lift to hold them up if working alone for a ceiling.

 

[kemmler3D]

"Some" will be absorbed, yes. Will it make a big difference elsewhere in the house? Probably not. To @Dunring's point, if all of the walls and floors already in place aren't stopping the bass, what is a bass trap the size of a refrigerator in the corners going to do?

 

[heboil]

Pretty much what I assumed...

My front wall, right wall and back wall are all concrete (end of the basement). The left wall is the only true escape point. However it isn't as "easy" for me of putting an extra layer of drywall on the left side... although I could. The panels I made and hung, are also functional. I cut a hole in the wall and affixed the panel to a hinged door that fits into the wall and I have my gear inside the cubby (in the furnace room). That part of the wall has Rockwool inside it, but the left wall on the other side of the room (unseen in photo) is a shared wall with a central staircase that is very open and goes up to the 2nd floor. Perhaps I need to do something to the left wall on that side of the room?

 

[anotherhobby]

Pretty much what I assumed...

My front wall, right wall and back wall are all concrete (end of the basement). The left wall is the only true escape point. However it isn't as "easy" for me of putting an extra layer of drywall on the left side... although I could. The panels I made and hung, are also functional. I cut a hole in the wall and affixed the panel to a hinged door that fits into the wall and I have my gear inside the cubby (in the furnace room). That part of the wall has Rockwool inside it, but the left wall on the other side of the room (unseen in photo) is a shared wall with a central staircase that is very open and goes up to the 2nd floor. Perhaps I need to do something to the left wall on that side of the room?

Flanking noise will almost certainly ruin any half-measures. It'll still go thru your ceiling and your door(s), and it'll vibrate the drywall, which vibrates the studs, and then the stud vibrates other stuff. To do soundproofing effectively (which still isn't actually SOUNDPROOF) you really do need to create a room in a room, where all walls/ceilings are 2 layers of drywall with green glue (or whatever your choice here is), and whatever that drywall is attached to needs to be decoupled from the rest of the home (RSIC brackets). No drywall inside the room can have a solid connection to the house (other than the floor usually). Then you must also diligently deal with all penetrations thru the drywall (backer boxes on all outlets and lights, mufflers to trap HVAC noise problems, soundproof door and seals (or double doors), and the list goes on.

An alternative idea may be to create a DSP config for when you want to not bother people in the home, and then one where you can let loose. Lots of AVRs have this kind of stuff built in to help as well. Sometimes choosing when to play loud is a better option than building it so you can play loud all the time.

I'm about 50% done with mine right now. Hope to be done in the next few months. For me it's worth it to build the room so I can play loud all the time, but I'm also starting with an unfinished basement.

 

[Dunring]

The only thing else I could think of that would seal some of the noise would be sound insulation for cars that come in sheets. In a hung ceiling it would be easy to cut and place. It's just the frequencies sail through things when it comes to bass. What about the flooring above, anything like a thick carpet padding? I think it's just tough without a major renovation. I think Anotherhobby has it right with EQ profiles to level the bass off for some times when people are above.

 

[heboil]

The only thing else I could think of that would seal some of the noise would be sound insulation for cars that come in sheets. In a hung ceiling it would be easy to cut and place. It's just the frequencies sail through things when it comes to bass. What about the flooring above, anything like a thick carpet padding? I think it's just tough without a major renovation. I think Anotherhobby has it right with EQ profiles to level the bass off for some times when people are above.

I could look at that too. As far as carpeting, nope... hardwoods and loud everywhere else in the house. In fact, this is almost the only quiet room in the house. The open nature of the stairs through the middle of the house and the hard surfaces make it easy to talk to family members on different floors without the use of Google Home or Alexa .

 

[anotherhobby]

My home office system has 4x 8" subs powered by a total of 2kW. My wife's home office is across the hall. Do I ever get to rock out when I'm working? Yes, when she runs errands, goes to the doctor, meets up with a friend, and every other reason that gets her out of the house. The rest of the time I'm a thoughtful domestic partner and I listen at reasonable levels, and I listen to music where I know my subs won't be annoying.

The soundproof room I'm building in the basement isn't to keep sound in, as even with doing everything right, thousands of watts of subs will still blow thru 1.25" of drywall. The soundproof room is because I live in the city and I'm not too far from the airport, and I just want a nice low noise floor.

 

[heboil]

My home office system has 4x 8" subs powered by a total of 2kW. My wife's home office is across the hall. Do I ever get to rock out when I'm working? Yes, when she runs errands, goes to the doctor, meets up with a friend, and every other reason that gets her out of the house. The rest of the time I'm a thoughtful domestic partner and I listen at reasonable levels, and I listen to music where I know my subs won't be annoying.

The soundproof room I'm building in the basement isn't to keep sound in, as even with doing everything right, thousands of watts of subs will still blow thru 1.25" of drywall. The soundproof room is because I live in the city and I'm not too far from the airport, and I just want a nice low noise floor.

Yep... I get that. My window for listening is later in the evening when everyone goes to sleep. Usually, I "rock" out to some jazz at late hours to keep the peace. But, I still want to listen to whatever, at whatever time.