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Audio room floor question

I know this question has come up before but please indulge me. I'm adding on and am building a room that will serve as my HiFi room. I'm not going the "professional" route but I do want to make the room as HiFi friendly as possible. The dimensions are set so I can't do anything about that. I have a heavy concrete floor poured. What is the best floor covering? I could use hardwood glued, floating hardwood, linoleum, or I could just leave it concrete and add area rugs and pads. I don't want to use carpet as there will be a hallway and an outside door that will bring in snow and mud. Thanks
catfishbob
rrog
1,958 posts
 
"I treated the area in front of the speakers with area carpets and used room treatment to tame any reflections."

Catfishbob, This is what you will be facing with concrete, tile or hardwood floors. If you carpet the listening room floor you will eliminate spending a fortune on room treatment and you will be much happier with the sound. Walk into any room without carpet, clap your hands and listen to the echo. This is what you don't want in your listening room.
radni
96 posts
 
Covering the floor entirely with carpet will be sure a much cheaper option compared to wooden floor . But acoustic will not be same . Also carpet is not a substitute for wall treatment and bass traps in corners , etc.
If one's budget is permitting , wooden floor will be better choice . But carpet would provide easy quick solution . IMHO .
catfishbob OP
44 posts
 
Rrog and Radni.....thank you very much for your replies. My internet has been down so sorry about my late reply. I am going to finish the concrete because of time and cost and then use a large area rug with a pad. Wall to wall carpet would be a cheap option if the area rug doesnt work out. Thanks.
radni
96 posts
 
Just one thing I can say : it is fine that you are going for concrete floor as I think solid rigid floor is better than floating one . Keep upper level of concrete such that in future , whenever your time and budget permits , you can just remove the carpet and put wooden floor of 3/4 inch thick on the concrete. S keep concrete level lower by 3/4 inch to take wooden floor in future , just in case! I find wooden floor ( plus small rugs) as the best for room acoustics .
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Sometimes I wonder if aging audiophiles all have high frequency hearing loss. Exposed concrete and wood floors all sound bright to me and these hard surfaces cause added reflections. The solution is to spend a fortune on room treatment or you can carpet the floor.

I often visit my friend who always has a great sounding system. While remodeling his home the carpet was removed and replaced with bamboo flooring. The sound became hard and edgy. My friend thought it sounded better because imaging improved, but everything else in the sound was degraded and this is with room treatment.
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