Wool Rugs

New Zealand is known for quality wool, you'll probably be fine. Their wool industry shears live animals from what I've seen. Just make sure the rugs you consider feel soft and velvety. If one feels coarse and scratchy like burlap, avoid that rug. By the way, decent hand make rugs don't have to cost a fortune. I've seen plenty of machine made New Zealand rugs that cost as much as a lower end, but still very nice, hand made rugs. Rugman.com sells very decent, well made rugs for quite reasonable prices. (Not affiliated in any way, just a satisfied customer.)

Before moving on to the rug I suggest you stop a future problem by laying down a plywood floor over 2x4's. While it will not stop a flood, it will give ample protection from small spills. You can put the vinyl over the plywood and still use the rug.

I have had many suspended wood floors and two concrete ones and the latter are much better sonically. I am taking other precautions against a recurrence.

I've just hung a Tibetan wool rug on my smaller (very smaller) listening room wall using an IKEA rod and rings with alligator clips so it's a couple of inches off the wall, ho ho... and my word, the glare took its hat and the door. Wool rugs sound like a very good idea to me.

Stan,

If you decide on a large area rug over tile or wood..I would suggest you look into a jute underlayment instead of the typical rebond foam pad. The jute/hair/wool has more surface area and will act as wider bandwidth filter less tuned to a specific frequency band unlike the foam pad.

Tom