Calming wall twang down was a good step in the right direction but the frequency of damped wall vibration still depended on what kind of wall the contractor had built. We needed to get rid of the damped wall/stud frequency all together and so we added very flexible metal springs called RC (resilient channel) between the studs and then double layer damped sheetrock to both sides and the damped wall shudder completely disappeared. By now it was around 1988 and we called this trick wall our “MusicalWall” because the rooms sounded so great when they played music.

Later we dropped the romantic aspect and just called it our IsoDamp wall system (note: it is now called IsoWall, but the original text remains for posterity). It is how the walls and ceiling of the 2C3D Reference Rooms were and are still built. We had it tested and it produces STC 51, which is pretty good soundproof rating for a single stud wall, but the main reason for this wall design was because it let high power audio play music as loud as anyone could want.

All audiophiles know how loud they can play their room. It might be around 75 dBA, or maybe 80 or even 85 dBA.  But whatever it was, you just can’t play the room any harder without it falling apart. Here we have an interesting limit in audio. No sense buying high power audio if your room can’t handle the power. What this limit is about is friction.

Everything has inherent friction, which is why things tend to stay put, instead of sliding around all the time. Rooms also have inherent, natural friction. As long as you don’t put more power into the room than the room can naturally dissipate, you are playing in a stable environment. However, every room has its threshold, above which, the room cannot dissipate any more power, and when that happens, the room transforms into a vibrating, quaking, thundering twanging badly built giant guitar box.

The room will “break-up” just like a loudspeaker cone will break-up.  This is the reason for sound level limits in listening rooms. But, when the room is built like the ASC IsoDamp Musical Wall System, there literally is no limit as to how loud you can play the room. These trick walls and ceiling can handle any pressure which means there is no upper limit as to how powerful your speakers, cables and amps can be. It’s amazing to watch our clients build good rooms and then decide to upgrade their entire electronic chain because now they finally have a place that can actually play high power audio.