The Home Crowd

This is going on the short list of “Things I want”. Quiet Solution’s soundproof drywall boasts that one 5/8″ sheet is acoustically equal to (8) layers of standard 5/8″ drywall. Not many of us have the square footage to spare by packing in an additional 5 inches of drywall to the interior of your homes. Also, don’t count on any of your doors functioning properly to account for that. That would never happen of course, as it would be simpler just to construct a masonry wall, than build up a mountain of gypsum.

photo credit: djweitzner

Seeing as how the average interior wall has an STC (Sound Transmission Class) value of about 34, good enough to separate your family but still hear their conversations through the wall. Partition common walls separating apartments, townhomes and condos are required to have and STC of 50. Which is good enough to keep your business your own, yet still allows your neighbors to share their musical tastes with you….like it or not. Most of Quiet Solutions’ QuietRock products sport an STC of at least 50. They have an interactive sound example page at their website which allows you to experience the contrasting STC values as if a garage band was playing in the next room.

The best possible soundproofing solution they currently have has an STC value of 80, which is meant for home theaters and can be reached by adding two layers of their 1 3/8″ to a stud wall. This assembly, I imagine, when used in master bedroom applications, will bring upon the end of the phrase “Stop it! You’ll wake the kids!”

HGTV’s “I want that!” showcases the QuietRock product in the video below

There are other uses of course. Making your home feel solid and quiet and every sound in it’s place can be appreciated by everyone in your household. Finally get that media room/home theater you’ve always wanted? Now keep it ramped up way beyond bedtime. Oh, and those neighbors you have? You know the ones, the ones who, at best buy, go straight for the stereo demos and their accompanying volume knobs until products drop from the shelves, and your sanity drops from sight? Yeah, treat your exterior walls.

The downside of course for this product is the price. Prices start at 40$ (volume purchase) for a 4′x8′ sheet, and only go up from there with higher rated products. Standard drywall is of course, considerably less, but to gain a comparable STC rating using a combination of standard drywall, resilient channels and other various products would bring the project budget closer to what you would have spent by just ordering soundproof drywall.

- Quiet Solutions’ Website

Sony recently showcased their newest OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display.  The display boasts an 11 inch 960×540 pixel resolution screen, but most importantly a screen that is 0.3 mm thick.

Now, we all know there will be some will see the as both “Must Have”, and “Must have right now” and will shuck out major bucks to have a pretty, thin TV first.  But do yourself a favor, wait it out a bit.  Enjoy the giant LCD/Plasma you bought last christmas “for the family” (yourself) and have nicely affixed to your living room wall.  There’s still debate going on with which to get of those two “should I have a bright picture or better picture, or better picture and not so bright?”.  You can almost bet though, that by the time that battle has been won, OLED TV’s or possibly the next ‘big’ thing in TV’s will be available.  Right now, as it stands, LCD’s and Plasmas consume alot of energy.  Plasmas suck alot of energy, and LCD’s use a backlight as a source of their brightness.  The OLED screens, however generate their own light and are more energy efficient.  The downside right now of the OLED is that the organic materials used in manufacturing degrade and break down over time, rendering the picture diminished much sooner than the LCD/Plasma units on the market today.

But inevitably, you’ll be able to replace that bulky flat panel on the wall, which of course, replaced that giant plastic box you had sitting in an entertainment center with something that resembles the thickness of the posters on your kids’ walls.

From Engadget

Got an old rear-projection TV and a wall?  Then you’re in luck…

Plus, think of all the money you’ll save by not having to buy a wall mount!

Unsightly speaker wires are just expected for those in apartments but it’s understood as it’s a temporary home. But FlatWire has another option for those tenants/homeowners looking to clean up the mess of wires without punch holes in your walls. And perhaps even that’s not an option sometimes. Perhaps you have shared walls between condo units you don’t wanna pierce, wall cavities full of spray foam insulation, or as in the case of many high rise apartments, a concrete wall.

(During Installation)

(After FlatWire is applied to walls, finished, and repainted over)

But what about folding the wires 90 degrees, just fold it upon itself. My big concern about this would be the heat generated by electrical cables as it is, but it seems to be directed at speakers, and low-voltage lighting, not providing the juice to that 500 watt home theater receiver, so I can’t imagine the paint or wallpaper bubbling itself off the wall. Seems like this may be useful for some of us, but just make sure you remember where you ran the FlatWire, so you don’t go and drive a nail through it years later while hanging a painting.

You can order it off their site, but it’s a little steep. 37$ for 25 feet of the speaker wire, or a home theater package for 250, plus their special adhesive, tape, labor (mudding, sanding, repainting or wallpapering if you choose)

Or you could just just run a wire, and paint over that. Sounds terrible, but you know you’ve seen it done before…

FlatWire (via Lifehacker)

Lifehacker also has a great post of “10 ways to get cables under control”, a how-to guide to keeping those cables under control and out of sight.