Yea. It’ll be better with the rug. There is a big sofa where we sit in front of the speakers. Also, the slatted wall has tamed down the room a fair amount. :) I would also think a rug will help. My first throught when I saw the pictures was that there were a lot of hard surfaces and the room would be rather lively. Nice to hear that the slat wall has helped. Congrats on the speakers. Hopefully they live up to all your expectations of an end game purchase. Or at least I assume they are, given the price point on these! ;)