Hardwood floors Sound treatments

You might try some of the products found on the following site. They offer traps with artwork or pictures that you personally provide to them: (http://www.asc-hifi.com/picture-panel.htm). The sound panels that mount along the top of the walls could actually enhance the room decor as well. happy listening!

I have a lot of rooms that were acoustically acceptable with very minimal "treatment." Where audiophiles are involved, rooms can easily be overtreated and sound unnatural and sterile. So, generally speaking, go slowly with any approach to treatment and don't doubt your ears when something seemingly minor does the trick (it could be as little as moving a stuffed chair into the right spot).

I would advice starting with what you have and concentrate on placement of the speakers. Proper placement can take a lot of time and juggling of tradeoffs, both in terms of sonic result and lifestyle/room decor. Generally speaking, the further you can place the speakers into the room the better. Also, if you sit fairly close to the speakers (say 6' to 8' away), most of the sound will be coming to you directly from the drivers which reduces the relative contribution of the room itself. This is "nearfield" listening, which is generally preferable where room acoustics is a problem. Similarly, a lot of toe-in to point the speakers toward the listening position also reduces room effects. However, one of the tradeoff with both toe-in and nearfield listening is that the ideal listening spot can be extremely small.

As far as treatment of the room is concerned, some kind of rug on the hardwood floor would probably be helpful. Decorative wall hangings/rugs on the walls can do wonders to kill high frequency echoes. I think you would be surprised by how helpful even a single, small fabric wallhanging helps with acoustics.

In most cases with hardwood floors, and particularly with suspended floors in an apartment, the speaker and stand should NOT be coupled to the floor with cones or sharp feet. These couplers transmit sound to the wooden floor (and to neighbors below) and also acts as a large radiator of sound. I would look at devices that absorb the vibrations from the stand and turn that energy into heat. An example would be small Symposium Svelte Shelves. These are half-inch thick isolation shelves that have hard stainless steel outer layers and a soft foam core; vibration from the speaker is turned into heat by the molecules in the foam core rubbing against each other.

Good luck.

That ASC link might be good to look into,

My Old house had wood floors and wood paneling on the walls, with a large window of wood shutters on one side. I had a large area rug, and upholstered furniture, with some large artwork (canvas paintings) on the other large wall. The room was rectangular, although the back wall opened into the kitchen. I had no Echo, no brightness, even with Bryston Amp and Martin Logan speakers. That room, as rooms go,still did better than the room I'm in today (if you check my system.)

Thanks all for the feedback!