Going from a carpeted room to hard wood floors?

[Hetfield]

OK right now we live in a fully carpeted condo. Looking at houses because as I describe it, its like having a Ferrari and you can only drive 22 MPG. So the house we really have our eye on has hardwood floors throughout which I actually prefer. My question is what will this do to the sound of my HT? I have Definitive technology, SM65 mains, SM55 surrounds, CLR2000 center and a SVS PB-1000 sub. I have the isolation feet on the SVS sub. What in general will going to hardwood floors do to the sound of my HT? Any advice? Thanks for any info or advice.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

It will definitely make the room more “live,” meaning more reflections and reverberation. How much of a problem it ends up being depends on the room – for instance, it will be worse in a large room than in a smaller one. An irregular open floor plan room improves things overall, the wood notwithstanding. Sitting closer to the speakers helps too, allowing the direct sound to be much stronger than the reflected – e.g. sitting 10-12 ft. from the speakers vs. 18-20 ft. An area run between the speakers and listening position can help as well, if things are too bad, as can things like book cases and overstuffed fabric-covered furniture (i.e. not leather).

We went from a carpeted house to wood a number of years ago, and the living room was definitely more live, but not to the point that it bothered me. I got used to it pretty quick. I decided kind of liked it, makes the room sound more like a live performance venue.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Hetfield]

It will definitely make the room more “live,” meaning more reflections and reverberation. How much of a problem it ends up being depends on the room – for instance, it will be worse in a large room than in a smaller one. An irregular open floor plan room improves things overall, the wood notwithstanding. Sitting closer to the speakers helps too, allowing the direct sound to be much stronger than the reflected – e.g. sitting 10-12 ft. from the speakers vs. 18-20 ft. An area run between the speakers and listening position can help as well, if things are too bad, as can things like book cases and overstuffed fabric-covered furniture (i.e. not leather).

We went from a carpeted house to wood a number of years ago, and the living room was definitely more live, but not to the point that it bothered me. I got used to it pretty quick. I decided kind of liked it, makes the room sound more like a live performance venue.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Thanks for the reply. Its a medium sized room I'd say, but its an open floor plan. On the left side of the room its open to the dining room and the kitchen too.

 

[lovinthehd]

Carpets/rugs, furniture, wall hangings can all help. It can be interesting to setup the gear in a bare room (like I did when I last moved, suspended wood floor in main room and adjacent dining room) and then note differences as you fill in the room, hopefully won't be too reverberant/reflective by the time you're done. Open floor plan will more affect the sub performance than speakers...

Good luck in your new home!

 

[Bucknekked]

Carpets/rugs, furniture, wall hangings can all help. It can be interesting to setup the gear in a bare room (like I did when I last moved, suspended wood floor in main room and adjacent dining room) and then note differences as you fill in the room, hopefully won't be too reverberant/reflective by the time you're done. Open floor plan will more affect the sub performance than speakers...

Good luck in your new home!

This is a "whole life" change when you go from carpets to any of the traditional hard floors. I happen to like hard surfaced flooring and most of my current home is done in Italian tile. We kept some carpet in a few of the small rooms, including what's now my music room. All the comments so far are right on the money. It livens up the rooms from an audio perspective, but not obnoxiously so. Pretty much anything that bugs you about the sound can be remediated to a certain extent. I think its a great thing. I hope you enjoy your new place. Its always nice to have a new place.

 

[Dave Blount]

as the others have said, one step at a time, area rug between your speakers and listening position is a start. Keep in mind you need to take the whole room into account, walls, windows and doors....

 

[Hetfield]

Thanks for all the replies, appreciate it. Definitely will be putting a throw rug down, I'm sure we all will want that, not just for the HT. We'll see what house we end up with, she can have whatever features she wants, all I want is a place for my HT and to be able to crank my new SVS PB-1000. Want to crank that baby up!