Soundproof Gaming Room: Enjoy Your Games Without Disturbing Others
If you’re someone who loves playing video games, you must know how important it is to keep the volume of your game turned up while playing so that you can really experience all the sound effects, the music, the voices, and get fully invested into the gameplay.
However, if you share your apartment with someone – be it your partner, a roommate, or your parents – your loud game playing might very well become a problem for them, especially if you tend to stay up late at night to play.
Unless you’re a really disrespectful roommate, you’ll want the person you live with to get enough sleep and have their peace and quiet.
Still, you don’t want to give up on gaming, and you absolutely shouldn’t.
You just have to figure out how to make less noise, and I’m here to provide you with some of the best ways to do so.
How to Soundproof a Gaming Room
1. Insulate the Wall
If you’re gaming in a separate room, then you might consider the obvious options – soundproofing your walls or door.
Insulating your walls is pretty easy, even if you’ve never done it before.
Two of the most common ways to do this are fiberglass insulation and insulation with spray foam.
If you decide to go for the first option, here’s what you’ll have to do.
It is extremely important to measure your walls before you do anything else.
If you get the measurements wrong, the entire process will go very badly.
Once you’ve measured the walls, you’ll know exactly how much fiberglass you have to buy.
You also need to make sure that you have a really sharp knife (preferably a utility knife) and a staple gun.
Keep in mind that you have to wear something with long sleeves and put on some kind of a mask because inhaling fiberglass can be really harmful to your lungs and can even cause a rash or an allergic reaction.
Then you’ll have to cut the fiberglass according to the measurements, and this video about cutting fiberglass can help you figure out how to do it properly.
The next step is to install the fiberglass into the walls and, finally, cover the walls with some kind of protective material.
The most common material that people use for this is a so-called vapor retarder, which is basically a layer of special plastic that protects the wall from water and other outside threats.
Lately, some people have even decided to use vapor-retarding paint instead of this.
It is still widely debated whether paint or plastic should be used, so you're free to choose for yourself what seems like the best solution for you.
It won’t hurt to take a look at this video as well, where a wall-insulation expert shows you what you should and should not do when using the fiberglass method.
If you want to try using paint, they sell it at most of the better-equipped paint stores and it’s not very expensive.
Another option is to insulate the walls with spray foam. How is this done?
What you need to pay special attention to if you decide to do this is, once again, the measurement of the walls.
The foam expands in size quite a bit when it hardens and you have to be well aware of that when taking the measurements.
You can figure out how this is done step-by-step by clicking here.
There is also a video on this website that describes and explains the entire process.
2. Soundproof the Door
If your doors are not made of solid wood, then it’s likely that the sound will travel through them to other rooms.
You can simply improve the density of the door by reinforcing them, but this would probably require hiring a carpenter.
The easiest (and the most affordable) possible solution is to buy a door sweep and put it under your door so that the sound can’t pass through the gap between the door and the floor.
You can also soundproof a door with household items.
3. Redecorate Your Room
There are also some even simpler options that are not as effective as the options above but still can contribute to making the room a bit more silent.
You should especially take these options into consideration if you plan on redecorating your room a little bit.
Getting some new drapes, putting a bunch of pillows against the wall, or placing a big wardrobe or a bookshelf against the wall – all of these are valid solutions for preventing the sound leaving your room.
For instance, check out this cute and soft Nintendo pillow on Amazon.
You can simply fill your room with a bunch of these, get a nice bookshelf, and the entire room will look incomparably better than before, and, more importantly, there will be less noise.
What to do if you don’t a have a separate gaming room
Still, you must be wondering what on earth you are to do if your favorite gaming spot is in the same room where your roommate is sleeping in?
What happens if you live in a really tiny apartment and there’s no way to stop the noise by putting a door or a wall between you and the other person?
Don’t worry, there are multiple solutions for this kind of situation as well, and very practical ones at that.
4. Making your own soundproof box
If you’re a person that loves DIY or fixing little things around the house, then this might turn out to be a fun project for you.
The only thing you’ll need to buy for this is an OSB board.
These boards are typically used in construction, but they can also be used for small projects like this one.
You can also opt to use plywood, which has been proven to be slightly more effective.
However, the board is a bit less expensive, so it’s up to you to choose which of the two you wish to use.
Then you’ll need to measure your computer from all sides and put together the wooden pieces you bought in order to make a big box that you can put your computer in.
Just remember to leave an open space at the front, where your screen is.
This will prevent the noise from spreading and a wooden box around your computer can actually look pretty cool.
You can try being creative and exploring your artistic side and paint the wooden box however you want, or simply put some stickers on it and your gaming room will certainly look cozier than before.
There is only this one issue that could arise here – echoing sounds from the box.
Still, all you need to do if this happens is to put small pieces of acoustic foam on the inside walls of the box.
5. Buying a gaming headset
If you don’t really like cutting wooden boards, making boxes and dealing with foam and knives, then the most obvious solution is the right one for you.
You've probably guessed it already since this is the first solution that came to my mind when I thought about this problem.
The easiest and cheapest way to make the room quiet and still enjoy your game is to simply put on some headphones.
If you already have a good pair of headphones, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.
Under the assumption that you don’t own any gaming headphones, I’ve done some research and found a number of great options for you.
The best choice for this situation would be to get wireless headphones, but regular headphones can work just as fine.
If you can afford to invest a bit more into this, then you should check out these Astro A50 headphones.
They are praised as one of the best gaming headphones ever, with their perfect sound quality and a battery life of 15 hours.
Still, I can understand if you’re not willing to spend $300 on headphones, so I’ve managed to find some more affordable options for you.
If you use a PS4 or an Xbox, then this Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Headset is probably the best possible choice for you.
It only costs under $100 and, according to the gaming community, it is among the best headsets you could get for this price.
I’m aware that not all of you own a PS4 or an Xbox, so I’ve found an option for PC gamers as well – this Logitech G430 headset is among the best-selling headsets on Amazon and has loads of positive customer reviews.
It costs around a mere $50 and works perfectly fine.
Learn how to reduce noise on your PS4 and Xbox here.
Final Verdict: On Soundproofing Gaming Room
All in all, loud gaming doesn’t actually have to be loud and doesn’t have to represent a problem to anyone if you just do the right things.
Whether you choose to soundproof your walls and doors, or simply redecorate your room a bit and get some new headphones, it is certain that this is not a problem that is impossible to overcome.
One more thing before you go – if you decide to turn to some online sources other than this article, please keep in mind that many online articles that focus on this topic tend to confuse improvement of the room acoustics with room soundproofing.
These two may sound similar, but there is a huge difference, so don’t let them confuse you.
It is my hope that you can use the tips I gave you to make sure everyone in the house is happy and everyone gets what they want, whether it is a good gaming party or a silent house.
Good luck!
Related: The Best Silent Gaming Mouse Reviewed
Soundproof Gaming Room: Enjoy Your Games Without Disturbing Others
Are you afraid of disturbing your roommates or family while playing your favorite video games? Learn how to reduce noise in our soundproof gaming room guide.
Instructions
- Insulate The Wall
- Soundproof the Door
- Redecorate Your Room
- Make Your Own Soundproof Box
- Buy A Gaming Headset