My similiar experience - Jim

I made a dedicated listening room in my basement with nearly an identical situation. I studded, insulated and sheetrocked the side walls (Wisconsin climate). I didn't want to carpet the floor so I used an acid stain on the concrete floor which turned out very nice. I then covered the floor between my listening space and the speakers with a thick area rug.

I dislike drop ceiling and didn't want to bother with sheetrock so I used the acoustic tile-like material that comes in 6 inch x 4 ft long tongue and groove planks. They have a wood-like grain on the surface and you staple them up to the rafters with a staple gun. The rafters were spaced a little too wide so I had to nail up some 1x2 cheaters (16" on center as I recall) perpendicular to the rafters for the acoustic tile planks. This worked very well. The drawback is that you don't have easy access to the rafters that you would have with a drop ceiling but it would be easy to just pull a couple out and replace them if needed. These planks are a little less reflective than sheetrock (just like the acoustic tiles in a drop ceiling). I did have to frame out a few places for some duct runs.

I then made some Jon Risch corner tube traps and 4 of his wall panels for the side and rear wall 1st reflection points. The room was fairly bright without these treatment devises but with these installed, the acoustic properties of the room are excellent (the best I have ever heard). The room treatments made more improvement in my system than any component upgrade that I have ever made.

I also installed dedicated AC lines for my components. It was a fun project and turned out far better than I would have expected. Here are a few pics although these are kind of old (much better chair now, etc.).

Room Pics (Open in New Window)