Carpet Killed High Frequencies In My Music Listening Area


My basement play room is 14’x30’.  My music listening area is 14’x12’ of that. The remainder of that room holds my pool table.  I decided to install new floors.  In the pool table area and the rest of my basement will be “luxury vinyl” flooring.  In my listening area, I went from an area rug to wall-to-wall carpet.  

Now, high frequencies are faint and some music sounds dull. Bass is fine and the mid range sounds better than before.  Vocals and most instruments sound better.  Gone is the cymbal decay, solid ringing of bells, and other percussion sounds are dull.

The carpet is a week old, the rest of the flooring is scheduled to be installed on October 15th.  I’m tempted to have the carpet replaced with luxury vinyl and go back to my area rug.  I’d rather find a way to increase the high frequencies because I like how my system sounds otherwise.

My system,
PS Audio BHK pre amp
PS Audio BHK 250 power amp
PS Audio DSD DAC
PS Audio Stellar phone pre
Innous Zenith MKII streamer
Technics SL-1200G TT
Tannoy DC8 Ti speakers
Transparent super XLR interconnects for my digital gear and Transparent RCA interconnects for my TT
AudioQuest Rocket 88 speaker cables

What can I do to bring out the high frequencies?  

  
128x128oldschool1948
I appreciate the helpful responses.  Since installing the carpet, I've been tinkering with my system setup.  I placed my speakers on 1" bamboo butcher blocks so that I could move them easier, and I'm still using the stock Tannoy speaker footers.  The speakers are not resting on a completely stable surface as before.  I will remove the footers and the butcher blocks so the speaker spikes are resting on the floor.  Hopefully, this will help.

Because my room is small, I've positioned the speakers (tweeters) 48" from the front wall and 29" from the side walls. The tweeters are 80" apart. My sitting position is 94" perpendicular from the speakers.

Ultimately, I will use  ISOACOUSTICS GAIA III speaker isolators with the speakers, and the speakers sitting on Butcher Block speaker stands with spikes.

I am using cable elevators on my speaker cables and power cords.  I've toed the speakers in where the tweeters are pointing just outside my left and right shoulders.  I will tinker with that a bit and post my findings.

Thanks again for the suggestions.




My dealer told me when I was about to install new carpet NOT to use any synthetic material but only natural like a wool based material. When I changed it from the synthetic to a wool tweed what a difference. Highs were so natural and open. 
The carpet should be run at low volume levels for at least 2 weeks before doing any critical listening. Also, remember that carpet is directional. Make sure it's situated properly. Lastly, remove the carpet's fuse. 
Oldschool1948, please do not jump to fast. Your new situation may actually be more accurate. 

Rooms with to many hard surfaces create a high frequency haze if you will. With the addition of some deadening the room will sound as if it has a high frequency depression. It probably does not but you are use to all that brightness so from a relative standpoint the system sounds too dull.
You relate your mid range sounds better. Sit in your listening position and play something simple like a jazz quartet. Close your eyes and listen to the cymbals. My guess is that they are actually imaging better. They are easier to localize, more contained. 

Live with it for a while. Try to get to a live venue where you can listen to an unamplified band so you can get some comparison. Once you get use to this probably more accurate presentation a situation like your old one will sound too bright. IMHE many are listening to systems that are on the bright side. The best systems usually sound a little dull to start until you sit and listen to the image and realize that yes, that is how a cymbal should sound.

If you want to be able to adjust the tonality of your system any way you want and since you are all digital anyway sell your preamp and get an Anthem STR, DEQX Premate, MiniDSP or Trinnov Amethyst.