Does carpet deaden the sound too much?


I’ve always had my speakers on carpet, but alway feel my system could be a little more livelier. Is it the carpet that absorbs life out of the sound? 
mike

hiendmmoe

No, carpets are fine, the total room balance matters.

That nails it.

I have wall to wall deep shag rug in my listening room.  Also heavy velvet curtains at points, and a fabric treated ceiling.

I sit about 7 feet from my speakers.  Sounds far from dead.  The acoustics of the recording just takes over my room.

If you’re going to err on one side or the other...to me...over-damping is preferred. At least you’ll have some coherence.

In almost all cases, carpet is good to have. Only time it’s not...is if the room is overly damped...which in most cases is never the problem. In my experience, rooms are typically under-damped.

Best to treat all the frequencies evenly with a balance of diffusion and absorption.

I read this different and perhaps I have come to the wrong idea. But here it goes. I am thinking that perhaps the speakers are sitting on the carpet without spikes etc. Anytime I have just looked a set of speakers down they sound dead. I have had numerous things u set speakers cement sidewalk blocks under Maggie's, two inch think hardwood under box speakers spikes down to the floor and feet between the speakers and wood blocks. I have had steel leveling plates with hardwood blocks between the plates and the speakers. When I set a pair of speakers with down firing ports in my home theater setup. They sounded dead. I went out to my garage and picked up a couple of pieces of plywood set the speakers on the plywood much better life again. Lol that reminds me  I need to make a proper pair of hardwood plates to set those on and the beats will sing more beautifully than before. 

 

As I was thinking that he maybe talking about suck out because the speakers are not decoupled from the carpet. Just a thought. 

 

Regards Tom

@retiredfarmer - Hi Tom
Many of us now decouple using springs, others have had success with other technologies. There are entire threads on isolation with some really positive responses.

@hiendmmoe - can you share with us some information about your room and system?
Room dimensions, any treatments used, speakers and electronics?
Genre of music most enjoyed when listening?