The sound characteristics of a speaker's interaction with a room is very unpredictable, as there are so many variables. Plus there are personal preferences to take into account. As some other people have said, a room with no life at all doesn't sound good to many people. Theoretically, a wooden floor offers more flexibility as you can always add rugs.
Advice needed on carpet Vs wooden flooring
- Thread starter Psilonaught
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that makes sense. I think I've decided on wooden flooring, I suspect carpet will look odd with wooden walls.
Will be very interested to hear the results of your change. Next year our lounge is due for a complete "strip & refurb" (including new floor boarding and possibly reinforcement of the joists, moving radiators, etc). With two dogs that shed needle-like fur that gets stuck into everything we are planning to go wood floor / easy-to-vacuum rugs so inevitably the acoustics in this room are going to change. Do keep us informed of your progress and how it has altered your space.
I'm wondering if there's any mileage in constructing some curves in the room corners and between walls and ceiling to help with those standing waves while we are at it - just one of those random thoughts I have from time to time!
P.S. love your Maggies! Always had an itch to listen to a big pair
I'm wondering if there's any mileage in constructing some curves in the room corners and between walls and ceiling to help with those standing waves while we are at it - just one of those random thoughts I have from time to time!
P.S. love your Maggies! Always had an itch to listen to a big pair
I am more of the opinion of the room as close to your preference first (without obvious sound panels etc) if it’s primaril for music and then tweak with dsp rather than to more heavily rely on dsp.
How is the room sounding today?
All down to taste really. I'm personally not a fan of too much wood, but I can see the appeal.
It's not really 'one or the other'. If you design the room to be acoustically ideal and it looks like s**t then you're not going to be relaxed when listening, and all the room treatment in the universe won't make up for that. On the other hand, if it looks perfect to you but wrecks the acoustics, that's not ideal either.
Plain wood floors are far from ideal for sonics, as the reflections are direct. Software treatment may be of limited use, as it tends to be mostly to correct issues with lower frequencies, whereas direct reflections are also going to cause treble problems and resulting timing nasties. That said, some serious rugging ought to kill most issues. Worst-case scenario is that you can always carpet over a wooden floor, but you can't lay a wood floor over carpet...
It's not really 'one or the other'. If you design the room to be acoustically ideal and it looks like s**t then you're not going to be relaxed when listening, and all the room treatment in the universe won't make up for that. On the other hand, if it looks perfect to you but wrecks the acoustics, that's not ideal either.
Plain wood floors are far from ideal for sonics, as the reflections are direct. Software treatment may be of limited use, as it tends to be mostly to correct issues with lower frequencies, whereas direct reflections are also going to cause treble problems and resulting timing nasties. That said, some serious rugging ought to kill most issues. Worst-case scenario is that you can always carpet over a wooden floor, but you can't lay a wood floor over carpet...
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Carpet everytime. Wood type floors look nice but crap for audio.
Plus carpet is just more comfy. I say that from a house mainly with wood flooring. Theres Pros and cons to each but if you want the best sound, carpets or at least cover as much as you can with rugs.
Plus carpet is just more comfy. I say that from a house mainly with wood flooring. Theres Pros and cons to each but if you want the best sound, carpets or at least cover as much as you can with rugs.
Carpet for sure. Unless you want it to sound like a Californian mansion.
Also remember a flat response is not the be all. You could tweek a wooden floor version to be flat, but the floor will act like an acoustic mirror, so you will be getting two sets of sound arriving at your ears, the direct and the reflected. These will be the higher frequencies, where it starts depends on room size, distance you to the speakers etc etc etc.
Thing is the reflected sound will be taking a longer path, so will be phase shifted, and the frequency responce of the system in room does not reflect that.
I think a wooden floor with a rug and underlay in between the speakers is fine. I can’t remember seeing pictures of recording studios with fitted carpets. I would think too much carpet will only damp the treble too much.
The question is - what is the existing floor (under the tiles) .. if the floor is concrete? The reason I ask is if it is not you might like to consider speaker placement and if the existing floor is on wooden joists then to put concrete plates in an area where you intend to stand the loudspeakers (this avoids the first problem with wooden floors - vibration from the cabinets and isolation).
If it is a concrete floor there is now the provision of being able to apply a polished concrete surface (people are using this method for work tops now as well) which gives a lovely durable finish . easy to clean and no worries about water damage. However, the problem of sound reflection remains (as for wood) but without the problem of it vibrating annoyingly (as wood can) .. the sound reflection problem can be sorted with nice heavy rugs or big rug .. this too will help with wooden floors.
The final advantages of the concrete floor is you can also consider some of the vinyl floor coverings which are now very durable and hard wearing and come in wood finishes (the colouring of the top layer of vinyl looks like wood) or you can have it looking like stone flagstones. My daughter has her kitchen diner all done in this (a grey wood grain plank pattern) and it looks fab (we have our kitchen done for many years in one that looks like slate tiles). The big advantage of this is it is almost acoustically inert and MAY have the advantage of reduced sound reflections .. but again you can stick a thick rug on it. If the sound reflections are awful and cannot be contained then you may decide to sling a carpet down.
I would suggest you explore all the options and work out what you think will be best for you and good luck in your quest
If it is a concrete floor there is now the provision of being able to apply a polished concrete surface (people are using this method for work tops now as well) which gives a lovely durable finish . easy to clean and no worries about water damage. However, the problem of sound reflection remains (as for wood) but without the problem of it vibrating annoyingly (as wood can) .. the sound reflection problem can be sorted with nice heavy rugs or big rug .. this too will help with wooden floors.
The final advantages of the concrete floor is you can also consider some of the vinyl floor coverings which are now very durable and hard wearing and come in wood finishes (the colouring of the top layer of vinyl looks like wood) or you can have it looking like stone flagstones. My daughter has her kitchen diner all done in this (a grey wood grain plank pattern) and it looks fab (we have our kitchen done for many years in one that looks like slate tiles). The big advantage of this is it is almost acoustically inert and MAY have the advantage of reduced sound reflections .. but again you can stick a thick rug on it. If the sound reflections are awful and cannot be contained then you may decide to sling a carpet down.
I would suggest you explore all the options and work out what you think will be best for you and good luck in your quest
I've just agreed a price with my carpenter for all the work including all materials plus crown cut oak veneered 3050mm / 19mm boards to cover the walls, minus purchase of floor covering.
In case anyone wonders why I'm using oak paneling, here is a photo of the same wooden wall/flooring in my kitchen. As you can see, it looks super (at least to me!).
Re flooring my wife had the brilliant idea of getting both wooden flooring and a large rug. I've found these which are 282 x 389cm. I then just need to buy enough decent oak flooring to go round it. It' means I get a nice carpet, flush with a nice floor, which then matches the oak. Better acoustics and £2k cheaper than buying 110m2 of engineered oak flooring @ £4k!
He is booked in for the autumn, can't wait!
Ever since I started working from home every day, i've been able to listed to music from 10pm-midnight every night, and still get a good 8 hours sleep. Now is the time to have a nice looking space.
In case anyone wonders why I'm using oak paneling, here is a photo of the same wooden wall/flooring in my kitchen. As you can see, it looks super (at least to me!).
Re flooring my wife had the brilliant idea of getting both wooden flooring and a large rug. I've found these which are 282 x 389cm. I then just need to buy enough decent oak flooring to go round it. It' means I get a nice carpet, flush with a nice floor, which then matches the oak. Better acoustics and £2k cheaper than buying 110m2 of engineered oak flooring @ £4k!
He is booked in for the autumn, can't wait!
Ever since I started working from home every day, i've been able to listed to music from 10pm-midnight every night, and still get a good 8 hours sleep. Now is the time to have a nice looking space.
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No offence whatsoever intended to any newbies but why do they always seem to find an old thread to post on - where on earth do they find them! I don't mind as it's nice to see some blast from the past posts often featuring persons late of this parish, but 9 times out of ten an old thread revival is from a newbie. Happy to read them so keep them coming by all means 
I blame that "Similar Threads" feature, and lack of observation concerning the dates of creation and last post. I'm sure I've been guilty of it.No offence whatsoever intended to any newbies but why do they always seem to find an old thread to post on - where on earth do they find them! I don't mind as it's nice to see some blast from the past posts often featuring persons late of this parish, but 9 times out of ten an old thread revival is from a newbie. Happy to read them so keep them coming by all means
Yes, good point, this might well be the reason. No harm in them and as I said I'm quite happy to see them, just started to notice a connection ...
Yes I wondered why this thread got resurfaced!?
I see the images I took expired, so for reference here is how the room ended up looking like.
Wooden flooring and very large rug. Acoustics are excellent but I do apply some parametric EQ via Audirvana.
My wife and kids never come in there so it's all for me
And air-conditioned.
I see the images I took expired, so for reference here is how the room ended up looking like.
Wooden flooring and very large rug. Acoustics are excellent but I do apply some parametric EQ via Audirvana.
My wife and kids never come in there so it's all for me
And air-conditioned.
I think was a spammer who has been removed. I saw it last night.No offence whatsoever intended to any newbies but why do they always seem to find an old thread to post on - where on earth do they find them! I don't mind as it's nice to see some blast from the past posts often featuring persons late of this parish, but 9 times out of ten an old thread revival is from a newbie. Happy to read them so keep them coming by all means
I trust your judgement, but I find it interesting how much the Maggies are toed in. It looks quite severe in the photo, pointing way in front of the listening position.
Not sure I've seen that before with panels, and it's pretty rare with box speakers.
Not sure I've seen that before with panels, and it's pretty rare with box speakers.
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