2. speakers
  3. 159399-143982

No "Room Correction" Topic option. Why?

I wanted to pose a question on room mods but do not see a logical place
to insert it so I am going with "Speakers" as a good, wrong choice.
Moderators, can you attend to this deficiency? 

My question: I am redoing my listening room in several ways.
Not because it was bad-quite the contrary. But because the room 
was a dark hole so I bought three new windows and replacement door.
The existing wall allowed rain water in from the patio floor outside.

 I started dismantling a 20' section of wall. As I opened the wall i found the
existing base plate-not treated wood, to be dust. Then mold on the drywall.
then termite evidence. 

Once the old crap was gone, I poured a concrete base plate 20 feet and another 6 feet
on the return. Termite damage had trashed the double sill plate and parts of two joists.

With all the wiring exposed I discovered an abandoned 220 a/c line buried in the wall.
Voila!  I had 2 dedicated 110v outlets for another part of the room. 

Might as well add 5 can lights while I was at it.

I upgraded the Streaming ethernet line from cat 5 to cat 7. Might as well
since I had sawsalled thru the old line. 
Then I learned that fiber is a better bet so I will be changing that later.

Another find! A buried abandoned entry door offering a 30" x 80" x 10" shelving
opportunity! 

I started this task by removing the old carpeting.

Now to my question. 

Shall I go with new porcelain tile flooring and plan on area rug -or-
put carpet back for its superior sound absorbing properties?

I hope someone out there has been down this road and has
an experience to share?

Thank you!


chorus
erik_squires
16,841 posts
 
The whole room matters, especially in non immediate reflection points.  I'd talk to GIK who can give you great advice and products, but it depends really.  If your whole room is well damped, rug over slate will work, but if the additional glass means you will be short of necessary absorption, go with carpet.

Also, one overlooked area for absoprition is the floor between and behind the speakers.  Damping this can often lead to a smoother sounding treble.
Post removed 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Chorus, It all depends on the room and the speakers. Carpet will absorb frequencies from about three hundred Hz up. Carpet will cut reflections of these frequencies. It will do nothing for deep bass. For point source speakers carpet or a large area rug are a good idea. For linear arrays it makes no difference. For subwoofers it makes no difference.
Frankly, I would ignore the sound and do whatever you find aesthetically pleasing then deal with the sound afterwards which you will have to do anyway. Windows always resonate so I would certainly put drapes in front of the windows. I use digital room control and measure my speakers. The Right hand speaker is next  to a window and it's upper mid range was considerably different because of the darn window. I put drapes up and there was still a difference but considerably less.
erik_squires
16,841 posts
 
Sorry, to be clear, what I meant to say was:

The entire room contributes to the decay rates so in non-direct points, if you can't have enough absorption in one location you can mitigate it somewhat by adding elsewhere.  For instance, if you have big glass doors on one side, adding more damping around the room is called for.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Another fantastic example of the futility of trying to help someone with electricity. Inevitably people with some technical or code knowledge pop up and distract the poor interested party with a pointless journey through Wonderland. 

Keep the 240 and use a step down. This will be excellent, and extremely cost effective. Or use just one 120. Those are your options if you want good sound. Study my system, read my posts, not gonna keep repeating what people only argue with anyway.
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