Floating ceiling or sheetrock between joists

[Jesser]

Okay, so here's my dilemma. I've settled on a plan for building my basement recording/mixing room. It will fit in a space just a little over 19' x 13'. I would like it to be a decoupled room within a room with a floating joist ceiling. The new joists would go in between and drop just below the old ones. I had planned on a room with 8' ceilings using the 1 : 1.60 : 2.33 ratio. The problem is that with flooring and two sheets of 5/8" sheetrock, the final height would be 7' 10 1/8".

Should I go with that plan or should I layer sheet rock up against the underlayment between the existing joists? I care a lot about isolation, but quality of sound is always #1. Will the drop in sound between 8' and 7' 10" ceilings be great enough to outweigh the superior isolation?

[Jesser]

BTW I do lurk the forum quite a bit and I strongly suspect that the two inches won't make a huge difference, especially if I scale my room with that height in mind. I just want to double check with the wise and helpful brain trust in case I've come to the wrong conclusion.

[avare]

The improvement in isolation by using the dropped ceiling is substantial.

Andre

[Jesser]

Well, it looks like I'll go with this and have my final design be 7' 9 7/8" from floor to ceiling. I wish I could talk to younger and dumber me 5 years ago and tell him to buy a cheaper house with a big yard and just build something out there. ;p