Hardwood Floors

PeteG · « **on:** 13 Oct 2003, 06:03 pm »

I'm getting hardwood floors soon and I'm a little afraid of ruining the sound I have now, I will get some rugs and small room treatment for the corners.
But has anyone gone from carpet to hardwood floors with out a problem.

jqp · « **Reply #1 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 06:12 pm »

Obviously Hardwood floors have different reflective/absorptive properties than carpet over a carpet pad.

But I think that can be handled by area rugs, and furniture and if needed, some of the larger "room treatments" (as you said).

I think the biggest issue is: are you over an empty space under the floor? As opposed to being on 6 inches of concrete...

For example my friend has one of those floating wood floors, but it still floats on a slab of cement.

PeteG · « **Reply #2 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 07:15 pm »

jqp
It's on a 2nd floor so empty space underneath. One problem is
I can only have a little room treatment because of the room decor.

Sedona Sky Sound · « **Reply #3 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 07:16 pm »

As long as your hardwoord floor has a manageable resonance frequency, you should be OK. With a little work, your sound should improve. Carpet on hair felt has an absorption co-efficient of .69+ for frequencies above 1 kHz. For many people this means that the carpet absorbs too much of the high frequency sound but does nothing to combat the high frequency slap echo caused by the walls. When folks add more absorption to fix the slap echo the room becomes lifeless.

Ideally, you want the absorption spread out through the room and not in one place (i.e. the floor). A large throw rug between you and the speakers is somewhat manditory (you want to kill the first order tweater reflection). You will then likely want a few rugs/curtains/etc strategically placed on the walls to give you the correct amount of absorption for your room (a decay [RT60] time of about .6 seconds for all frequencies). For the treatment of the higher frequencies effected by removal of the carpet, wall treatment/panels will likely have more effect than corner treatment/traps.

Best of luck.

Julian
www.sedonaskysound.com

PeteG · « **Reply #4 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 07:24 pm »

Quote from: Sedona Sky Sound

Carpet on hair felt has an absorption co-efficient of .69+ for frequencies above 1 kHz

Thanks.

beat · « **Reply #5 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 07:37 pm »

I have always had a big wool rug over my maple floor (which is glued to a concrete slab using a troweled on rubbery glue) I removed the rug a few days ago and I like the difference. There is brick on the right wall and a short nap rug hanging on the left wall. There is no real distortion to speak of and the room seems to have more life.

JLM · « **Reply #6 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 08:50 pm »

My typical 50 year old 12 ft x 20 ft x 8 ft living room has oak flooring over a basement. I seasonal use an 8 ft x 12 ft rug, but the speakers rest on the floor with or without the rug. In warm weather I roll it up and leave it behind the couch just as a change of pace. I've found that my system actually sounds better without the large area rug rolled out.

Maybe my speakers are too duddy, but with the hardwood floors you'd have the option.

jeff

tkp · « **Reply #7 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 08:53 pm »

I just went through just what you asked. I got maple hardwood floor put in my entired house and the second system in listenning room upstairs sounded horrible. I found out pretty quick that a large, thick area rug between the listening chair and the system helped big time. The next item on my list is to treat the corners with some high WAF room treatment.

Marbles · « **Reply #8 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 10:07 pm »

Quote from: tkp

The next item on my list is to treat the corners with some high WAF room treatment.

Sorry, that would be an oxymoron!

I'm really interested in what you come up with. The eigth nerve stuff works in my basement because my wife has no say there, but it would NEVER, EVER fly in our family room.

PeteG · « **Reply #9 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 10:31 pm »

Quote from: Marbles

but it would NEVER, EVER fly in our family room.

That's the problem I have now, my other place I had a dedicated room with lots of room treatment, I guess if I keep all the acoustic panels white
it might pass.

Marbles · « **Reply #10 on:** 13 Oct 2003, 10:40 pm »

Acoustical crown molding type treatment might work. I think Eigth Nerve worked with someone here with that.

rkapadia@ROOP · « **Reply #11 on:** 14 Oct 2003, 07:01 pm »

Pete,

If you go with Eighth Nerve type of stuff, for higher WAF I'd stongly reccommend going with the framed/floorstander type of treatments. The clean, rectangular lines and taught cloth are much easier on the eye and able to integrate into decor.

Regards,

Rup