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Bass Response and concrete floors

I was talking to a Dynaudio dealer the other day and asking about the Confidence 5's in comparison to the rest of the Dynaudio line. The 5's are apparently being cancelled with two new models being released in the Confidence line, based on the Evidence technology.

Anyway, he asked what type of flooring the speakers would be on. I said concrete with thick pile carpeting. He said the bass response on a concrete floor, even with carpeting, would be muted, that the Confidence 5's need a floor with give to produce decent bass. He said that the bass would roll off around 50 Hz on a concrete floor.

I've seen so many very positive comments about the 5's, but I suppose that people who are satisfied may well be using them on a main floor built on joists. The dealer indicated that I'd be a lot happier with the 3's on my floor.

Anybody know why this would be? More importantly, is this a common behavior of floor standers on concrete floors? Is it a general "rule" that if you have concrete floors, you'll get better performance from a high quality monitor? Thanks for any info -Kirk

kthomas
abstract7
541 posts
 
Many speakers couple to the floor and resonate through the floor. Concreate floors don't resonate (or not at a useful frequency). You could consider a pergo floor over your concrete. I did this in my audio room and it worked remarkably well. I put in an oriental (wool) area rug for some sound absorption, but carpet on the concrete (which is what was originally there) sounded very muted.
maxgain
526 posts
 
This sounds very odd! It seems to me like flex in the floor would hinder the pressurization of the air in the room to get proper bass. Have you ever tried to get real bass in a room with a drop celing? It can't be done IMO. I have always had great sound on concrete floors, this is new to me. If the speakers were designed on a floor using wood joists I suppose they voiced the speaker for that? Any other ideas? Sounds like a perverted tone controll to me. Loudness contour anyone?
mg123
192 posts
 
I have a concrete floor in my listening room and must admit that my bass was not that super until I added subwoofers and now there is no question about bass. I think the downside of wooden floors is that you then have to worry about boomy midbass. I would believe the salesman, though, if he says one model works better with concrete floors.
krell1's avatar
krell1
250 posts
 
I laid a 3/4" sub floor over my concrete floor using furing strips every 12" in my audio/video room. A local dealer suggested this to help the bass travel the room for a realistic feel for movies. I used to have my dedicated audio on a first floor of a house, but now prefer the lower level or basement for isolation reasons such as any outside noise or distractions. The effect is good but not as much as I had thought. I agree with Mg123 about boomy mid bass in that I have never had such a great sounding room. I would take a less forgiving boundry any day and feel no matter the cost put into the room there will always be compromises.
karls
332 posts
 
Using the floor to radiate bass is certainly one way of getting bass, but it is a LOUSY way to do it. It means you are driving resonance into the floor (or more accurately, driving the floor into resonance), and the frequency response and transient response will be horrible compared to being on a concrete floor. Be thankful, very thankful, that you have a concrete floor, and wish that you had concrete walls as well. In the meantime, buy a really high quality monitor like the C3, a really good set of stands, and a REL Stadium III; this combination will absolutely blow away the C5, not only in bass but in every other aspect as well.
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