Quote:
Originally Posted by jakegt3
I currently have wall-to-wall carpeting in my listening room and I'm considering remodeling the room with hardwood floors. Over the years I've found that adding a lot of acoustic damping (sound absorbers, soft furniture, etc.) has really help the sound blossom, particularly in the area of imaging and soundstaging. I'm wondering if hardwood floors will be too reflective acoustically and will result in underdamped acoustics. I know I can put down rugs over the floor but they won't be the same as plush carpeting. Anyone here have experience or advice regarding hardwood floors?
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There is no best solution as hardwood is better or carpet is better. It is all about balancing the absorption and diffusion. Different materials have different absorption coefficients of frequency spectrum. Carpet is absorbing more of high frequencies while wall is more of a reflector while stonewool is absorber of low frequencies. Sabine equation is a useful starting point for the listening room to decide if there is a balance between absorption of frequency spectrum evenly or skewed. You do not want just hardfloor and bare walls in your listening room as the room will cause too much reflections and unwanted energy (wood is similar to bare wall, ie good reflector of all frequencies). Contrary, you do not want all walls and floor completely covered by carpet or rug as it will take away too much of high frequencies. Most practical way (unless you go thru a professional or similar room treatment) is to determine the most critical first order reflection points between speakers and listening room and treat them via either absorption or diffusion as well as balancing the reflecting surfaces (hard floor + bare walls etc) with some absorbing materials (carpet, curtains, painting etc).