Hardwood floors vs Carpet

Khrys -

Reverberant floors and walls help carry the sound from a tiny instrument all the way to the back of the hall. This is good so you can hear the music from far away.

Some reflection in your listening room is good, but too much is bad because you loose the accuracy of the recording. You are sitting right up close next to the speakers and you want to hear the music accurately from the speakers, not the walls.

About a year ago I went from a fairly "dead" room to a large, asymetrical and extremely live room (stone tile floor throughout). The room was so live that echos were literally everywhere.

After my initial panic I found that it was relatively easy to treat the room through the use of a large rug, paintings, etc. All in all I thnk I'd rather start with a room that is too live and tone it down rather than start with a room that is on the "dead" side. I think it is more difficult to bring the latter back to life.

Having the speakers five feet from the side and front walls minimize side reflections. Also, since my esl's are line sources, the only major issue was direct reflections. Easy to deal with via a large rug. YMMV with other speakers.

All you guys and your "first reflection" nonsense. Care to guess what happens to the second reflection if you eliminate the first?

Khrys - If you think treating "first reflection" points is nonsense perhaps you should explain. There are alot of recording studios that could save money if they didn't have to use room treatments. I am seriously interested in hearing more details about your position - especially given the cogent explanations of acoustic theory in the Master Handbook of Acoustics. Just a guess, but I bet builders of orchestra halls take into account the acoustic characteristics of their designs. And while the orchestra does play on hardwood floors, the floor on which the audience sits is in fact carpeted - at least the one in which I have listened to the symphony orchestra once a month for the past two years is.

Khrys and I hashed this out in a thread you can search for called "Best Carpet Padding". I *thought* he had conceded. Guess not!