Divorce.

Seriously though, not sure what your land situation is, but a separate building is what I ended up doing.

Loud as in volume? Loud as in the attract mode sounds/music? Loud as in the mechanical noises and clacking?

Hard, smooth surfaces reflect sound. Without refinishing your whole space with surfaces that absorb sound instead of reflect it I think walling the games off would make the biggest difference.

Games are loud especially with speech and music turned up, but even with the sound off the electro-mechanical noise is high.

My games are adjacent to the family room and luckily there is a door between them and the people in the family room.

When the grand-kids play, my wife immediately shuts the door and that's enough to make it acceptable.

Without enclosing the machines with a floor to ceiling "barrier" they will most likely always be too loud to play and hold a conversation simultaneously.

Robert

If you want to keep the piece, this is probably your best option...a wall with glass. At least you can see your machines.

Remember, if you wall them off to make sure you have the size of the area correct, or you will later be pissed off when you are 2 inches short to add another machine or other item.

Robert

Unfortunately sound isolation is an all or nothing strategy if done properly. You might have some luck trying to hit reflection points, but you're still going to run into flanking issues.

You can test it out by temporarily hanging a few OC703 panels on the walls, but I'm not sure how much good it will do. Linacoustic does a good job but once again, flanking is going to be an issue.

The doors between the games and the family room at my place are french doors with 10 panes of glass in each. They knock down the noise substantially when closed.

Robert

If you do put walls up, it's going to get hotter than heck in there. So plan for good return air flow and additional cooling to the space.

The STC for glass is pretty low, unless you go for the high end acoustical glass that's going to cost a fortune and be a few inches thick. You'd be better off with a solid core door with seals, but once again, flanking is going to be the big issue.

Your biggest problem is all those hard surfaces. Anything that generates sound is going to seem amplified as the sound bounces off the hard surfaces. Your home theater is also going to sound pretty bad. You need a lot more soft, sound absorbent stuff to tame the noise in that room. Acoustic panels would go a long way in helping, but won't kill it all together. You can get nice looking ones, but they aren't cheap. Otherwise a lot more couches/chairs, carpet/rugs, etc will help soak it up some, but pinball is noisy no matter what you do.

If you want to wall them off, then put a 3 foot or so wall in and put 3 feet of glass on top of the wall and then wall on top of the glass to the ceiling.

The glass will then be minimized, while still allowing the games to be shown off and seen.

A room needs to have a door, and unfortunately where there is a door, there can be no machine or other stuff. That's sort of the downside of having a room, other than the cost and non-adjustability of the size at a later date.

Robert

Sell your machines. Move to a library.

What about Dynomat inside the cabinet to absorb sound and vibration?it works in cars.

If you are worried about sound passing thru the glass, put in a series of double pane windows like these:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/JELD-WEN-47-5-in-x-35-5-in-V-2500-Series-White-Vinyl-Picture-Window-w-Low-E-366-Glass-THDJW141600039/205797862

If you are serious about reducing sound pollution, a room is really the only option. All the other solutions have 2nd or 3rd order order affects.

Robert

Pinball ProSound and a giant sub underneath each game! Then they won't just be loud, they will shake the building. Otherwise maybe sell them all and pick up a nice multicade.

The dynamat inside the cabinet is a good idea. Other than trying that or a few acoustical treatments, you're going to have go the soundproofing route and reconstruct the room.

Where are your games in relation to the tv’s? Pics don’t show.

Oh, another thread about some whipped dude.

what took you so long man.......

Great looking basement! Tough call, I like the open staircase but makes it hard to enclose that space. Maybe just a partial wall to deflect the sound from the theater side may be sufficient. A row of 4 or 5 pins there will look too pretty to close off though

There are a lot of hard sound reflecting surfaces in that room.

Thick pile carpet will help some what, with it placed under the pins. Change out the leather furniture to cloth can also help. Another is fabric stretched over large shallow square framed boxes, open at the back, with just fabric, and hung on the walls. Acoustic tile on the ceiling, walling off the bottom of the stairs. Or build an open 'L' shaped wall beside the stairs to block the sound traveling up the stairs. Ask your theater guy, he may have some suggestions.

There are many options.

He's going to say that to be done properly and be guaranteed to work, you're going to need to decouple the walls and ceilings from the framing and add mass with multiple layers of drywall and green glue. That's the only way to be sure.

And that was my first suggestion about an hour ago.

Keep in mind that acoustical treatments are not the same thing as soundproofing.

You need the Delux Clicking Eliminator

BAE24781-9705-4E3A-91DB-A88D51030B47 (resized).jpeg

Kick her out of the house...and all of your problems go away.

Lmfao

Move the pins to the playroom temporarily and then you will have an idea of what a room does to the attenuation of the noise.

Robert

Not sure why wifey is getting so much flak! For me, 4 pins going while watching the game is a non starter. The only thing I could suggest is adding some glass separation like those basement workout rooms.

Yeah. How old are your kids who use the playroom? They will transition out of the room and sit in front of the tv to play video games and watch you tube. Once that happens take over the play room.

Sound proof the room with egg cartons.

How To Use Egg Cartons to Soundproof (resized).jpg

Rug, unhook knocker, turn off sound and then put the ahesive foam strips for padding around the all the popers and bumpers and kickouts should about qiet it down

Acoustical ceiling tiles, the type you see in commercial spaces in 2x4 sheets could be attached to the wall near the machines and/or added to the ceiling. A thick carpet with carpet padding underneath will help as well. You can't win completely without sealing the area off, but this would be a good start.

That would be a tiny room if it was to scale.

Yes this exists from Pinball Centre.
I used it on WNBJM and BBH as I too hated the mechanical noise that the latest Sterns made.
They now sound like a Bally/ Williams machine and not such a harsh clunk.
You need time and patience to install but definitely worth the effort IMO

http://www.pinball.center/en/shop/pinball-parts/pinball-rubber/miscellaneous/7197/low-noise-kit

The best solution is to adjust your mindset. If you stop thinking it's a problem then it's not a problem.

I can stand im the middle of 10+ pins being played at once by 20 people at pinball league and still carry a conversation just fine.

Same goes for my game room. Hosting a quiet tea party with scones and crumpets 10 feet away from the pins ain't going to happen, but that's not how I entertain. If that's how you entertain then best not install arcade games. Having them and keeping them off when you party is blasphemy.

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Agreed! A little meditation before the gathering and your all good man....

Another option...

Maximum-Protection-Soft-Foam-Ear-Plugs-10-Pair (resized).jpg