Can I Live With A Hardwood Floor?


Hi All,
I could certainly use some advice on this matter. I have Quad 2905 ESL's in my attic and my attic has hardwood floors. I recently moved into this residence never having experienced hardwood floors previously. My speakers are on cones and isolated with Herbie's titanium gliders. I've been able to position the speakers so that they are given enough room to operate effectively but those hardwood floors are brutal at times. My thought leads me to the only obvious solution, 12 feet by 12 feet carpeting. Are there more cost effective ways of approaching this?
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks as always!
128x128goofyfoot
Hi goofey.  I think the tri corners where the walls meet ceiling will definitively help if you clap and hear echo slap.  I sent you a PM.  
I have lived with hard wood flooring for 28 years with horns, ribbons, electrostatics, including the original Quads, big dynamic drivers in the BMC Arcadia speakers, and monitor speakers. Everything up front is on Star Sound Audio Points or their Rhythm platforms and racks. I am on a persian rug that runs from about a foot in front of the speakers to about a foot behind me and about four or five feet to my left and right. Finally, I have a set of Zilplex resonators in the room. The latter are the eight room treatments that I've tried.

One thing that I have definitely learned is that no cables should have contact with the floor and that a ceramic isolator is the necessary standoff.

Another is that I could get no bass out of the Quads nor could I find any subwoofer that worked well with them. I first heard Quads in 1962 and was shocked with what I heard. In the early 1970s, I had double Quads in a rack. They gave me much more satisfaction.

In short I don't think your hard wood floors are your biggest problem. A thick rug would probably help. I don't know about having Quads on rugs. I put my double Quads up on points on a concrete floor. I think they greatly benefitted from isolation on points.
tbbg, I appreciate your experience with Quad's. I've tried a number of different things and can narrow the problem down to two effective antidotes. A) put the ESL's, with spikes and titanium gliders on a wool rug and B) buy the Akiko Audio Corelli. This I believe, will resolve my issues to the best that my issues can be resolved. There will be tweaks along the way no doubt (because I believe in a few) and it will take some time to accomplish, given that the Corelli is roughly 1,800. euro. But that's just a part of my journey. 
I have a friend who a while back added bass panels to the Quad 63's and he said that the 2905's are in general the same however I tend to believe that the 63's have a little fuller midrange. I've never had the chance to hear a refurbished or mint original pair of the 57's. I do know that they were initially produced for monophonic listening so were sold by the single speaker rather than by the pair. A tech that I know of has a pair of Accoustats and brags about those and the inability to arc them. I'd love to hear those ESL's as well.
Check out the discussion regarding the use of posts to structurally add support to the floor from underneath, substantially stopping the wood floor from vibrating. If you are on 2nd floor, probably too much hassle. If you are on a suspended first floor with a crawl space or basement, its the way to go and inexpensive.
kavakat1, thanks for the advice but I do live on the second floor and I rent, so it's out of the question. The spikes, titanium decouplers and wool blankets have helped significantly. I also ordered some acoustic foam and so will begin treating the walls.