Soundzipper Acoustic Consultant: Adrian Lo, Johnny Lee, Julian Martinez
Soundzipper Project Manager: Johann Tan
The Challenge
Audio Exotics approached us to create their flagship showroom experience in Singapore – giving us a simple keyword to work with: “Wow”. From design to final build, the Wow experience was part of our vocabulary. To achieve this, we designed based on 3 principles – focus, purity, and excitement.
Analysis
The showroom, true to Audio Exotics’ style, was situated in a nondescript industrial building. The floor plan was divided into 2 spaces – Studio 2, a living room-style audio space and Studio 1, a dedicated, built-to-purpose space for audio.
The Design
To create a focused space for listening, we started by defining how quiet each space should be. Studio 2 was assigned a “quietness rating” of Noise Criteria (NC) 30 while Studio 1 was assigned a quieter level of NC 25. The ratings were chosen based on our experience of how quiet a space should be while allowing full appreciation of sound without creating discomfort. Sound insulation walls, air-conditioning and ventilation were sized appropriately and installed.
Through workshops with Mohan Veloo, Audio Exotics’ partner, the ethos of Audio Exotics slowly but surely permeated our thinking. We discovered that Audio Exotics’ culture encapsulated an essence of playful curiosity. An idea sparked about making Studio 1 disappear. Taking a leaf out of the Audio Exotics playbook, we developed a speakeasy concept for Studio 1. A first-time visitor to Audio Exotics’ Singapore showroom will often notice, on first entry, a green wall rich with vegetation. He or she may be totally unaware that behind this green wall lies a secret. When triggered by a hidden button, the green wall moves aside and reveals the entry to Studio 1 inviting the visitor to explore further. To focus is to strip away the non-essentials. In this case, the intentional concealment of Studio 1 heightens the focus on Studio 2.
Having achieved focus in our design, we moved our attention to purity and excitement; or simply pure excitement. To achieve pure excitement, we decided that every visitor to the showroom should be served a 2-course menu in sound. The simple living room sound of Studio 2 would serve as a starter to the bold sound character of Studio 1.
To shape the sound of Studio 1, we chose to use acoustic timber panels from Topakustik, a renowned Swiss manufacturer. Topakustik panels were integrated into the front wall behind the speakers to reduce sound cancellations due to the reflections off the front wall. The dense natural vegetation of the green wall further absorbed any side wall reflections preventing flutter echoes. Material and space of Studio 2 was optimized based on creating a simpler, more intimate sound.
Conversely, Studio 1 was built to impress upon listeners a sense of scale. The room volume of Studio 1 is twice that of Studio 2. Creating pure excitement for Studio 1 involved retaining maximal sound energy and removing unpleasant resonances. To retain energy, no direct absorptive acoustic panels were used. For the side walls of the room, we custom designed a wave-profiled full wall timber diffuser panel. For the front wall, we selected Alps-W diffuser panels from Portuguese manufacturer Artnovion. To reduce unpleasant resonances in the bass frequencies, the room dimensions were chosen based on optimized acoustic room ratios. Custom brass- coated metal bass traps were placed on the front wall and hung as clouds on the ceiling. Additionally, the differing cavity resonances of the side wall diffuser act as panel resonators that provide broadband taming of bass resonances. The impulse response of the room was checked in industry acoustics software Olive Tree Lab and AFMG EASE to ensure a watertight design. A sofa and carpets were selected to soften the flooring reflections and provide a sense of focus in sound imaging.
