Just auditioned a rug

[schneice]

Not sure I thought I would ever type that. But we are replacing the area rug in the listening room. Picking the color etc...looked nice. But had to give it a proper audition prior to the final ok.

I was pretty surprised at how much more dampening a pile rug has vs a flat weave. Definitely gives my room a richer sound.

Makes me wonder if the system sounds better with our without me in the room

[chessman]

Originally Posted by schneice

Not sure I thought I would ever type that. But we are replacing the area rug in the listening room. Picking the color etc...looked nice. But had to give it a proper audition prior to the final ok.

I was pretty surprised at how much more dampening a pile rug has vs a flat weave. Definitely gives my room a richer sound.

Makes me wonder if the system sounds better with our without me in the room

With

[doggiehowser]

Unless you had another rug that looks like this

[Glenn Kuras]

Originally Posted by doggiehowser

Unless you had another rug that looks like this

HA HA HA.. Now that made my day!

[edkoz]

The system will even sound better once it burns in!!

[Parabellum]

Just wear a fur coat when listening

[John49]

Originally Posted by Parabellum

Just wear a fur coat when listening

And nothing else!

[Soundserge]

Originally Posted by schneice

Makes me wonder if the system sounds better with our without me in the room

You will never know. So what was the salesperson's reaction when you asked, OK, but how does it -sound-?

[Rilands]

Originally Posted by Soundserge

You will never know. So what was the salesperson's reaction when you asked, OK, but how does it -sound-?

That would be hilarious to see his face and what his answer might be.

[Mike82ARP]

If you really want to hear a difference, put a wool or cotton rug on the floor between the speakers and your listening position. If your wall-to-wall carpet is made synthetic fibers as most are, you will hear a more natural sound with the wool/cotton rug.

To check this out yourself on the cheap, do this:
1. Make sure your wife is out of the house for a bit.
2. Get as many bath towels (usually 100% cotton) as you can find and lay them over your w2w carpet between the speaker and listening position.
3. Listen to your favorite music.

You will notice a difference. This was demonstrated to me about 15 years ago when I was reviewing for SoundStage!, Pascal Ravach, from Mutine-importer of CEC, Audiomat, came to my home to deliver the phenomenal Arpege* integrated amp. I thought I had my room pretty well set up- treating front wall, back wall, side wall first reflection, etc. My wife was out on a business trip so I grabbed every towel we had- about 20- and covered as much of the w2w carpet as we could. Listening to my usual test discs, the sonic improvement was clearly noticeable.

*the Arpege was intro priced at the time for $1990.00 at the time. A friggin’ steal, IMO! I actually quit reviewing and opened a small boutique shop in my home because of this review. Picked up some more dealers and sold quite a few of these along with their stablemates. The Arpege now sells for about $4500., in a “reference” edition.