Floorstanders on wood floor, help


Here's the setup:
- suspended wood floor, joists accessible from below
- jute carpet pad, very dense
- carpet, very dense/tight pile
- B&W N803's

We want to eliminate bass bloom while preserving attacks and PRAT. Here's what we've tried so far...

Nothing, flat on the carpet...
soft attacks/PRAT plus lots of bass bloom; worst of both worlds

Speakers on sorbothane footers on wood boards...
eliminated bass bloom but killed attacks/PRAT; deadly dullness

Spikes long enough to pierce carpet/pad and reach the floor...
great attacks/PRAT but enormous bass bloom; coupling to a 13 x 17 x 8 bass drum is not the right idea!

Spikes just shorter than the carpet/pad thickness, so not quite touching the wood floor...
great attacks/PRAT but still annoying bass bloom on some recordings; best we've tried so far, but could be better

Any ideas to preserve attacks and PRAT while controlling bass bloom? TIA.
dougdeacon
Holy wow and flutter! Thanks for all the ideas everybody.

Seems like there's a concensus to spike or float the N803's above lots of mass, possibly with an absorbing layer beneath that. Maybe I can use those Sorbothane hemispheres after all, if they're not touching the speakers maybe they won't absorb transients and microdynamics. Seems a shame to waste the 10 x $2.25 they cost me!

Twl - I checked out your system page. Most of us can only imagine how much fun, and work, you've had assembling such a unique rig. Hats off to a real pioneer. I know you love the Sistrum stands, have you heard them beneath fuller range speakers than your Lowthers on a lively wood floor? Seems to me (pure speculation here) that the better they channel energy to "ground", the more that ground will shake.

Cdc - There's no question our CDP and power amp need upgrading, but our present front end really does produce *either* pretty clean bass *or* good, fast transients. The problem is getting both at the same time. We need to let our system's transients and microdynamics through, while preventing the speakers from exciting the floor.

Thanks again to all,
Doug
First thing to do is get good spikes then speaker placement will help a great deal and consider bass traps of some kind! Concrete slabs or mdf wont solve your problem but will only create another!
Just my two cents! Happy Listening
Jsawhitlock,

Unfortunately, there's little I can do about speaker placement. They're centered on the TV, about 10-12" farther into the room. Any position change causes audible differences in image or soundstage. We've put a lot of listening time into getting those right.

What would better spikes do? Wouldn't they just feed *more* energy into the bass drum/floor? (Admitting my ignorance.)

Bass traps. There's an idea nobody's mentioned yet! Any suggestions for good ones?

Thanks,
Doug
Dougdeacon, Some spikes will do a better job coupling the speaker to the floor as I find brass spikes work best for both audio componets and speakers. The tube traps or Echo Busters both work great. I use the Echo Busters and Bass Busters and improved my room. The tube traps also work good. Happy Tuning!